Despi
te the big swells and very strong North Westerly winds predicted for last week and much of the weekend, we paid a visit to Simon’s Town last Thursday to check out what was happening. The visibility good and the swells were not as big as predicted so we were hopeful for the weekend's dives.
te the big swells and very strong North Westerly winds predicted for last week and much of the weekend, we paid a visit to Simon’s Town last Thursday to check out what was happening. The visibility good and the swells were not as big as predicted so we were hopeful for the weekend's dives.We’d planned to do “first sea dives” with some of our students this past Saturday and qualifying dives with another group on Sunday (today).
Unfortunately some of our students were unable to dive due to blocked ears from colds and flu and last minute clashes in schedules so not everyone who was supposed to be there could make it (no names mentioned!). Saturday: Long Beach was calm and clear with visibility between 6 and 8 metres. The water temperature was 12˚C. We had two great dives, practised our skills, explored a small wreck, came across a beautiful puffadder shy shark, many Evileye Blaasops, klipvis, longsnout pipefish and octopi in their stony/shelly holes.
After that, we dive
d at A-Frame. There was quite a bit of swell, which caused poorer visibility (4-5m) and surge whilst diving. The getting in and out was a great experience for new divers and believe us guys, it DOES get easier the more you do it! As can be expected of this beautiful dive site, we had a great time although with the poorer visibility, we did not see as many of the fish we usually do.
We did find banded longsnout pipefish, blue Hottentot, gasflame Nudibranchs, Cape Sole hiding from the surge – and then, of course, the beautiful marine and plant life such as Cape sea urchins, brittlestars, sea anemones and feather stars.
Unfortunately, Sunday morning arrived with a huge storm, lashing rain and very strong North Westerlies and we decided to cancel the dives for the day. Conditions like this are fine for well-seasoned divers, but we really do not believe in putting our Scuba Diver students under unnecessary stress and making them dive in conditions that they are not ready for. To repeat what one of our students said “I want to enjoy – not endure – it’s about the journey!”
