Well it had been about six weeks since the last dive so cold or no cold enough was enough it was time to get wet again!

With the last dive in the warm blue waters off tantabiddi six weeks ago and the boat waiting patiently in the driveway for the last 2 months i'd really been waiting for some decent weather to align with a day off for quite some time. Having to satisfy the diving itch through the bad weather by parting with some hard earned for a new bcd, 1st and 2nd stage regs and just getting the boat back from the yard for its yearly service sunday was to be the day to get back out there and put the new gear to the test! seabreeze was looking good, 9am 1knt NnE winds... sweet! 17 degrees... bareable, fine and sunny and a 1.5m swell.

We hit the boat ramp about 9am, hmmm atleast a 5-10knt westerly and not really any sun out as grey clouds had blanketed the ocean, oh well. Our target for the day was out in 15m off scarborough but with a later than planned start and time not on our side we turned south from hillarys and decided to locate/dive the centaur wreck for the the first time. We motored around behind the breaks and found our mark for the wreck. looking down into 8 meters of water all we could see was... poo brown! stuff that we figured. We'll do somethin easy. I figured we'd go dive an old site of mine an easy 6m dive, easy to anchor and some cool caves not far from the entry point.

We cruised on north behind the breaks and chased a pod of dolphins for a bit. Most of the time i was staring into the water, man it looked cold this wasn't the beautiful blue water like the last dive off tanta's with bright sunbeams penetrating thru the inviting water. What i was staring into was menacing black water not inviting at all, with no sun out to lighten its mood it looked deadly and icy cold... but today was the day i figured.

We got to the mark in 8m of water, looked down and through the black water suprisingly we could see the bottom clear as day, looking back at the sounder reading 16.9 degrees"ahh thats easy" if i can dive in the river in winter this'll be a walk in the park. i turned around to see nathan my buddy half kitted  with his leg hanging over the side "hey man stick ya foot in! the water actually doesn't feel that bad", so i stick my leg over and the water actually did feel really nice. So we kitted up with our new found enthusiasm and logged our dive with sea rescue for an hour and fifteen minute dive.

I slid over the side first, I should probably mention that i'm most comfortable diving year round in a pair of 5mm overalls and a rashie and that was my choice for today as i'm not someone who feels the cold... much and it keeps my lead down to 6 pounds. Thinking back now when i used to dive in the river that was wen i dived with a cumbersome 5mm two piece and i still froze my goolies off. Anywho being the first in the water and the polite person i am i stiffled my screams until my dive buddy entered the water not wanting to discourage him and leaving me alone, the only dumbass in the freezing water. After a brief and descriptive conversation on how god damn freezing it was we decided for a quick air dump to get our heads under and get it over with.

As we got to the bottom I arranged the anchor and chain better over the sand and off the reef. We moved away onto the reef and into the ledges with my head feeling like it was ready to implode. I got in a few good happy snaps. Throughout the whole dive in a spot thats always reliable for crays during the season all we saw was one cray. We also saw cuttlefish and all the usual suspects, bullseyes, blue devils,wrasse, king wrasse and red lipped morwong. had a quick look at the computer maaaaan! 15 degrees! next winter i'll quit it with all the penis head jokes and buy a hood.

Things were starting to look up now as the head was starting to go numb and the pain became unnoticeable, we did a lap of the ledges and headed west for the caves. We came across one of the entrances through the top of the reef, a quick wait for the surge to blow out the top then dive in as the surge does the work and sucks u down into this small underwater ampitheatre. Rocketing into the hole was pretty cool until just as i flew in the resident school of buff were rocketing out the same hole with them all collectively crapping themselves as buff do as i took them by suprise. well they kept coming and going as we floated around in a cloud of fish poo, then we moved on for some more snaps and eventually we came out of the south entrance, strangely coming out the entrance we found a few bait bags floating around the small vicinity so a quick clean up was in order, i thought it strange as its not really an area where u'd pick to wet a line. Either that or a group of bags floated in together who knows.

With nathan grabbing his shoulders in the underwater sign for "man i'm freezing my balls off" a quick nod and we were off to get back on the boat. All up i think we managed about 40 minutes of our winter underwater extravaganza! we surfaced to have another descriptive conversation on the water temperature and couldn't get out quick enough, yesterday was the first day in years i've taken a towel out with me and it was definately the right choice to make. So anyway back on the boat we logged to sea rescue "two divers safely back on board" and got the polite response "oh we weren't expecting to hear from you for a while" i refrained from cluttering up the radio with yet another descriptive conversation about the weather with the sea rescue lady as i'd had enough of those conversations for the day.

Not long after we were back safely at hillarys well inside our 1 o'clock dead line. Man was it cold but it was well worth it and it was great to get out and test the new gear, the itch has been scratched now lets hope for some warmer water next weekend but we'll prob be out there anyway:)