This weekend I traveled up to the Poor Knights to spend another weekend on board Pacific Hideaway.
Anna and I had 7 people to take through their PADI Advanced Open Water so we split them up between us into Team Anna and Team Tara. We each had a Divemaster working with us so it was shaping up to be a well run weekend.
It rained a little on the drive up to Tutukaka on Friday night however the weather report was looking good. This was especially important for 3 or 4 of the students as this would be the third time they had tried to get out to the Knights to complete their Advanced Open Water. Saturday morning responded with a crisp but sunny start. We got all the gear on board and completed the practice navigation on land and headed out to the islands. The 13 nautical miles passed quickly and some common dolphins trailed us for a while but they were more interested in breakfast.
When we reached the Knights we were beaten to Cave Bay by Calypso so we headed up to Barren Arch but it was more conducive to washing your clothes than it was to diving. We headed back down to Blue Mao Mao Arch where we jumped in to complete Peak Performance Buoyancy. Whilst pointing out a variable nudibranch at the entrance to the Arch, I nearly stood on a short tail stingray but it didnt even care that we were there so we backed off a little and continued on our way.
The wind was starting to get up a little so Mark headed us down to South Harbour which is usually a good bet.
We completed Underwater Navigation outside of Blue Mao Mao Arch but saved the best til last - going into the Arch that is.
There was a bit of a current pulling us into Labrid Channel but the team did really well and we managed to complete everything before heading back up the line. Our day was running a little short so we swapped our gear over and filled our tanks, completed the Knowledge Reviews and started handing out torches.
We did our Night Dive in Blue Mao Mao Arch and it was absolutely fabulous!
Anna and I staggered our teams a bit more. We gave them a 15 minute headstart which meant just as we were cruising into the middle of the arch, they were coming down the middle on their way out. We could complete the navigation exercise in the shallower end of the arch with plenty for the others to see. There was a lovely big mottled moray on the floor of the arch who was very bemused at all the divers completing laps over its head.
As it was Andrews birthday on the Sunday, we cracked out some bubbly wine and took a few silly pictures. Skip bought some amazing chocolate nut crunch made by Sally which was devoured quickly.
Early Sunday morning, we completed the paperwork for the Deep Dive and then all jumped over board.
I have done something crazy to my left shoulder so needed a little Nurofen and some babying to get myself going - including getting Pete and Leigh to help dress me in my drysuit, weights and pony bottle! How useless did I feel!?!?!?*^$! However once I was overboard and in the water, I felt right as rain.
We descended down the anchor line to 16m and did a team check to make sure we were okay and then headed over the boulders and down to 27m where Pete promised us a nice sandy patch perfect for our gauge and colour comparisons.
The sandy patch was right where he said it was, we completed our tasks and then headed up towards the arch.
The team really wanted to dive the arch in the day time so we had made this part of our dive plan and after spending no more than 11 mins at depth we were rewarded with an arch full of blue mao mao and …. Andrew!!
There are more of Andrews photos from the weekend on the Global Dive Facebook page as he had a problem with his rebreather and spent his birthday diving retro styles. And by retro I mean poodle jacket BCD, no octi, inflation via oral and his drysuit. Nice!!
During our Deep Dive debrief, the team asked about this - especially as Anna and I had spent so long talking about equipment preparation and selection - so we talked about training and experience as well. He was in a dive site he knew almost as well as the back of his hand, it had a bottom so he was not more than 10m down + he knew that there were 2 x 5 people groups in there keeping an eye on him.
I skipped the next dive but everyone headed off for a pleasure dive around Ngaio Rock.
I was saving myself for the wreck dive on the Waikato.
And I am glad I did. We had a great explore around the outside of the ship. Stuck our faces into the bridge and got to watch big schools of kingfish streaking in and out of the wreck herding baitfish all over the show. Hell of a weekend!!!
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Dive Data
Mao Mao Arch : Depth 19m | Time 42mins | Visibility 20m | Temperature 18°C
Blue Mao Mao Arch : Depth 15.4m | Time 35mins | Visibility 15m | Temperature 28°C
Blue Mao Mao Arch : Depth 12.5m | Time 41mins | Visibility Night | Temperature 18°C
Blue Mao Mao Arch : Depth 27.5m | Time 40mins | Visibility 20m | Temperature 18°C
HMNZS Waikato : Depth 26.2m | Time 32mins | Visibility 8m | Temperature 16°C
