Three Sisters

The Three Sisters

Last Friday, together with three fellow divers and a warming mid-morning winter sun we motored out from Terrigal toward Norah Head. The plan, to dive an area in the vicinity (north-east) of the TUG 7 reef. The smooth seas made the 1/2 hour trip very pleasant.

As is usual with a Jeff Heathcote dive, we did not throw an anchor but positioned the boat on the GPS mark coinciding with a sounder acquired rocky drop-off and threw a weighted 40 metre line and positioning float over the side.

Mark and Sue elected to dive first. This was more than fine by Jeff and myself - nothing like having someone else test the water before entering yourself especially when the water has been quite dirty over the previous couple of weeks.

The slight westerly moved us away from the mark. When Mark and Sue were ready we repositioned the boat near the float and over they went. To our surprise they did not bounce back to the surface with the anticipated response ...the water is cold and dark - at least not straight away. They returned some 30 minutes later and yes we did hear those words... and some more.

Jeff and I were already in our dive gear ready to plunge over the side as Mark and Sue climbed onboard. Sue suggested that I forget the camera and Mark offered me his torch ‘You’ll be needing this’ and switched it on for me. Their message indicated the type of dive we should expect. Mark positioned the boat back to where they had ascended the weighted line.

Over we went. As every metre passed on our decent I thought more and more of the lovely hot soup and bread I knew Mark and Sue were now enjoying. At 22 metres we found the weighted line wedged in a rock and angled into an east facing canyon. The visibility seemed better than described by our now topside diving explorers. It was around 5 metres but that’s stretching the bowstring a little.

The terrain was remarkable, at least what we could see of it. A reef wall seemed to run east-west. Large areas on top of the wall were covered with metre long brown kelp, The leafy tops swayed toward the surface. Gorgonians covered much of the rock surface which lit-up as a rainbow of vibrant colours against our torch beams.

Still at 22 metre and looking east over the wall I had to rub my eyes to make sure of what I was seeing. For a brief moment, I could have been at the Blue Mountains looking out over The Three Sisters; glimpsing the rock formations appearing and disappearing in the cloudy fog. Not the Blue Mountains, but peaks of rock formation pointing up from the ocean bed that for all intense and purpose seemed like the famous NSW Blue Mountains feature.

Beneath the cloud, aka dark green/black water, could be anything, a real mystery. With agreement, Jeff and I dropped down the wall close to one of the features. Within a metre we could hardly see each other. Just eight metres further, now at 31 metres, we could go no further. We could feel but not see the ocean floor.

Its amazing how mesmerising your torch beam can be when it can penetrate only a few centimetres. Although with no eyes, so to speak, all our other senses were very active particularly our ears to the music coming our way. Whale song was everywhere, reverberating in the amphitheatre of the canyon. The whales could have been a long way off or very close. We had no way of knowing but enjoyed every minute of it.

Without too much delay we ascended, mostly by feel, a few metres and then veered left along the wall. At a depth of 26 metres and approximately 10 metres further along we came across a swim-through. We left the penetration to our next visit when hopefully the clear water will have returned.

Before long we found ourselves once again amongst the kelp on top of the reef. The visibility seemed to be better and at least now we could see the fish life - king fish, yellowtail and sweep in large numbers all around us. A large school of sweep followed us up the line and at times tried to nibble our fins and gloves.

On reaching the surface we were greeted by our crew and an albatross resting in the water at the stern. Within a few minutes we were enjoying a cup of soup and nibbling on freshly baked savoury bread. Just as we were discussing the whale song we had heard below an adult humpback passed the boat, just 30 metres off our port side. The powerful blow shot water several metres up into the air. It gave us a fantastic display of its huge glistening back and tail. The spectacular was repeated several times as it porpoised off on its north migration.

Thanks Jeff, Mark and Sue for a great day out.

A note to take note of:

Winter is here. The water temperature has dropped to 16 degrees. Two weeks ago the water temperature was still around the 19 to 20 degree mark. Ouch!

Photo:

Ivan Millington