Christmas and New Years Diving

Hello everyone in the SCUBA Diving Community,

Well, after eating far too much yesterday for Christmas Lunch, all the divemasters here are going to have a tough time fitting into our wetsuits for this weeks SCUBA Diving!!

The forecast is looking spectacular for the next week, with light southerly winds flattening our seas and cleaning up the water. We're diving every day on demand during the next month (weather permitting of course) and my oh my is it shaping up to be an absolute ripper of a season.

We headed out to the Pinnacle for some maintenance last week, with some much needed repairs being conducted on the mooring line. Of course, the Kingfish, Jewfish, Snapper, Rays and Sharks kept us entertained while we were hard at work, so it wasn't too bad a way to spend a few hours. The visibility on top was a bit murky, but at about 15 metres things cleared up to about 20m vis, water temp was around 22 degrees.

We were out diving on Christmas Eve, doing another dive at The Pinnacle, and then a dive each at Latitude and then Spot A. Two Grey Nurses were spotted at Latitude in the outer gutter, as well as a massive eagle ray and a couple of giant bait balls. Was a bit surgy in at Latitude close to the rock, so most of the dive was spent further out in the deeper water. Visibility was around 10m, water temp 23 degrees. Should see an increase in Shark Numbers with the flat seas and south-east/west winds.

Spot A gets more and more colourful each dive, with Moray Eels and Wobbegongs mixed in with every colour sponge you could think of. Too early for the Grey Nurses at Spot A, but we should see them head out there around March/April (Just in time for Easter!). Was a bit cooler at Spot A compared to Latitude, water temp dropped to around 20 degrees, vis was similar - around 10m.

Looking off the headland this morning we noticed the water looking a lot clearer - fingers crossed it continues to clear up over the next few days.

Its a overcast and raining at the moment, with a light breeze. Still a bit of residual swell around from yesterday, but its forecast to die down during the night.

Diving is on tomorrow (27th) 8.30 for 9am. Looking forward to getting in the water, thats for sure!!

Any of you travelling up to Forster, or travelling anywhere for your holidays, please drive safely and watch out for these wet roads - after a big dry spell like we've had they can be super slippery after rain and dangerous so knock a few kms off your speed!

Hope to see you diving soon,

Gabs,

for the Dive Forster at Fisherman's Wharf Team