Diving Report - Summer 2010

Summer diving in Cape Town waters this year has been extremely disappointing. What promised to be a great season just didn't happen.

We started off with some absolutely fantastic dives in Rooi Els from early to mid-December and although the South Easterly wind that usually brings clear water to the Western side of the Cape Peninsula and the Eastern side of False Bay blew for days on end, these more often than not coincided with huge swells (sometimes as high as 5m) coming in from the South and churning up the water. So, any good that the South Easter could have done was cancelled out by the big swells.

There was the odd day of exceptional diving when we had flat seas and visibility of up to 12 metres, but these did not occur as often as we are used to during summer. We even dived in Simon's Town (usually a winter diving spot!) in February. However, despite the somewhat poor visibility of around 5 – 8 metres on some dives, we had lots of fun, met loads of new divers and had some memorable moments.


Kate has made a few videos of some of our dives and you can watch all of them on YouTube. They'll give you an idea of what to expect whilst diving in Cape Town waters and who knows – you could be starring in one of our videos in the not too-distant future!

April is “change over” month when the South Easterly winds are replaced with North Westerlies. The diving moves to the Western side (Simon's Town) of False Bay and we have the opportunity to dive the exciting wrecks of Smitswinkel Bay, explore dive sites such as Batsata Maze, Outer Castle, Partridge Point by boat and experience the beautiful shore entry dives of Simon's Town, including our favourites A-Frame, Castle Rock and Quarry.

For those of you who have been following us out of interest but not yet learnt to scuba dive – we are running full time and part time Scuba Diver courses – starting every Monday. We also offer refresher courses for those of you who have not taken the plunge in a while and all the other NAUI courses from Advanced to Instructor. Our smaller groups mean that you will receive our undivided attention and care at all times.

So, if you haven't come diving with us yet – or have not yet done a scuba course, contact us today and Dive into Adventure with Indigo Scuba!

The Low Down on Cape Town Diving

The waters of Cape Town are rich in marine life and offer year round diving for scuba divers of every level and preference – from haunting wrecks steeped in cultural history to glittering kelp forests that play host to a myriad colourful creatures.

Cape Town diving takes place along the Western coast of the Cape Peninsula, referred to by the locals as “The Atlantic Side”; the Western side of False Bay (Simon’s Town area) and the Eastern side of False Bay (Gordon’s Bay to Rooi Els).

Although it is believed that the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet at Cape Point (they actually meet further East at Cape Aghulus), there is a distinct difference in temperature between the waters of the Western coast of the Peninsula and those of False Bay. This is due to the cold Benguela current which makes its way north from the Antarctic, up the West coast of Africa. The result is that the waters along the Western coast of the Peninsula have an average temperature of between 8 °C and 12 °C. False Bay is protected from the Benguela current and temperatures here range from 12 °C in winter to 19 °C in summer.

As the ocean temperatures influence the diving, so do the seasons and the winds that accompany them. In summer, the South Easterly winds bring clear waters to the Eastern side of False Bay and the Western coast of the Peninsula; and in winter it is typical for the North Easterly wind to blow, clearing up the waters on the Western side of False Bay.

Summer diving in the colder waters of the “Atlantic Side” is exhilarating and fascinating. There are a number of beautiful shore-entry dives as well as deeper reefs and historical wrecks that can be reached by dive boat leaving from Hout Bay harbour. The underwater topography is characterised by huge, rounded granite and sandstone boulders, often covered with kelp. These underwater wonderlands play host to prolific marine life, including colourful fields of purple, pink, orange and green sea urchins; brightly coloured sponges and soft corals. Fish such as Hottentot, Galjoen, Shy Sharks and Red Roman are plentiful on most dives, as is the opportunity to be accompanied by playful and inquisitive seals.

The Eastern side of False Bay offers fantastic boat and shore entry dives in summer. Dive sites along the craggy cliffs between Gordon’s Bay and Rooi Els reach a maximum depth of about 20 metres and a number are accessible from the shore. Deeper dives such as the magnificent Steenbras Deep, which reaches a depth of 30 metres, are located further from the shore and can be reached by boat. The reefs along this side of the bay are covered with kelp; red bait; colourful soft sponges; feather stars; orange, pink and purple noble coral; orange sea fans and many types of beautiful nudibranch. Fish life includes Twotone Fingerfin, Galjoen, Jutjaw, Puffadder Shy Shark and Klipvis. Gully Sharks and baby Ragged Tooth Sharks have also been spotted on dives at Rooi Els.

Winter diving in Cape Town takes place along the Western side of False Bay, from Glencairn, past Simon’s Town to the point of the Cape of Good Hope. Underwater topography comprises of huge rounded granite boulders and smaller sandstone boulders. Here we have the world-famous Smitswinkel Bay wrecks which lie at an average depth of 35 metres and are a collection of 5 ships that were scuttled by the Navy in the early 1970s to form an artificial reef. All wrecks can be reached by boat launching from Miller’s Point Slipway just South of Simon’s Town.

There are also a number of beautiful reefs which can be reached from the shore and boat. The reefs are adorned with colourful sponges; sea anemones; green, purple and orange short spine urchins; sea fans; fields of small orange sea cucumbers and brightly coloured nudibranch. Another dive site that is extremely exciting along this side of the coast is Pyramid Rock where divers have frequent sightings of Seven Gill cowsharks.

For comfortable diving, it is advisable to wear a 7mm wetsuit with a hoodie, booties and gloves.

The Cape Peninsula is a marine reserve and divers wishing to dive he Western Coast of the Cape Peninsula or the Western side of False Bay are required to obtain a diving permit before entering the water. Year-long permits can be purchased from local post offices and shorter-term permits are available from many of the dive operators.

To Dive with a Dive Knife... or Not?

There’s been quite a bit of discussion recently on whether it is necessary to dive with a dive knife. Personal experience shows that taking a dive knife with you on every dive is not such a bad thing after all…

In Cape Town waters, we often dive on reefs where there is fishing activity. Hooks get caught on rocks, breaking the fishermen’s lines and leaving the lines strung from rock… to rock… to kelp … and across the path of the unassuming diver.

Fortunately, some of these lines – usually the thicker or luminous green ones - are reasonably easy to spot and avoid, but it does sometimes happen that a diver can become unexpectedly entangled. This is where you and your buddy will find your dive knives pretty useful!

Whilst checking out a dive site a few years ago, we noticed there were a number of people fishing from the rocks close to where we were going to be diving, so we knew we had to be on the look-out for fishing lines. As luck would have it one of our divers Graham, happened to swim across the path of a just-cast hook and sinker without noticing. We watched in disbelief as the float bobbed above his head and the hook lodged itself in the rubber mouthpiece of his regulator. Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I grabbed Graham’s arm and told him to stop and Deon, having anticipated what would happen next whipped out his dive knife, grabbed the line and cut it before Graham’s regulator could be yanked out of his mouth. At one point, the line was being pulled quite tight, so the poor fisherman must have thought he had the catch of his life at the end of his line!

We were just thankful that the hook found Graham’s regulator and had not landed in flesh! Ouch!! From that day forward, Graham has been known as “Graham Galjoen” (Galjoen being a type of fish!).

About 9 years ago, whilst kitting up for our first boat dive in Mozambique, we strapped our dive knives onto our calves as we always do. Once on board, there was much sniggering and the words “Rambo” floated down the boat towards us. Our fellow divers were nudging each other and everyone was looking pointedly at our knives and I soon realised that nobody else was wearing a dive knife. I wasn’t sure whether to feel embarrassed or surprised.

This was a double-tank dive so during our surface interval, I chatted to the DM about this and he said that nobody needed to dive with knives in Mozambique. We kept ours on for fear of losing them on the boat and were glad we did when, during the safety stop on the second dive, we had to free the DM’s cylinder net from a rather large hook and line - belonging to the boat’s skipper who had been catching fish whilst we were diving!

So, regardless of where we are diving, I always take a dive knife with me. To avoid the sarcastic “Rambo” comments in Mozambique however, I prefer to use a small dive knife attached to my BC… just in case! You never know when your knife will come in handy!

First of this season's summer dives - Coral Gardens at Rooi Els!

With the South Easter having blown strongly this past week, we decided to dive Rooi Els this morning. The South Easterly wind blows during summer in the Cape, bringing clear water and great dives to the Eastern side of False Bay.

One of our favourite shore entry dives here is Coral Gardens. The entry is in a narrow channel which can sometimes cause a bit of a swell, so getting in and out of the water needs to be timed quite well.

After a short climb over the rocks, made easier by a special clip (new to our dive shop!) that enables you to attach your fins, mask and gloves to a D-ring on your BC (freeing up your hands to steady yourself on the rocks), we kitted up and entered the water.

We had a fantastic dive, exploring gullies and cracks in the reef running close to shore. Visibility was about 8 metres and water temperature was 15˚C.

This is the first time we’ve dived Rooi Els this season and it was great to see new corals and sea fans taking root on the sides of the gullies and many varied eggs waiting to hatch. There was so much to see – forests of feather stars with their waving arms adorning entire walls, pale orange lacy false corals delicately covering huge boulders; overhanging walls covered in sinuous and flagellate sea fans and stubby pink and purple noble corals growing in sheltered parts of the reef.

We were followed on our dive by smaller hottentot and, for quite a while, we were accompanied by a small shoal of yellow strepies. We came across a “baby’s toes” snail which is rarely seen, and spotted numerous orange and blue gas flame nudibranchs. There were also many crabs and crayfish of different sizes hiding in holes amongst the rocks. The marine and plant life here is colourful, diverse and prolific with colours ranging from bright blue, bright pink, purple, orange and red.

Hopefully this is the start of summer diving and many more visits to this top dive site!

PS - Don’t forget to subscribe to our mailing list so that you can be kept up to date with our forthcoming dives!