Today’s dive was, simply, great. It was the first dive I’ve done of this safari due to mainly being ‘compressor bitch’ for the rest of the time and trying to organize things a bit – much busier than it sounds, by the way.
It made all of that worthwhile.

The dive itself was onto a wreck called the /Maiden/ out at Rocky Island. It’s a difficult place to get to and is deep, so it’s not really an everyday occurence. She lies on the bottom at around 100 metres, with the bow section hanging over a drop-off, the deepest point of the bow section being at 120m.
I don’t know the full history of the wreck as of yet but I believe she was a cargo ship of some kind dating back to the 1920s. I intend to find out more of that information soon.

We hit the wreck after a little while searching at a depth of 95m and were at the stern section, props still in place. She was an awesome sight, much larger than I expected. This dive we (or certainly I) were basically just surface skimming to see what she looked like, our searching before hand limited this slightly, although we had scooters which helped. We scootered along the hull (she’s lying on her port side) until reaching the break before the bow section, at which point we came up more or les onto the starboard side on scootered back up surveying the deck area. Before we turned we were able to see where the bow juts out over the blue of the drop-off, something for a later dive perhaps?
Scootering back showed a few potential gaps for penetration inside the ship – again, something to consider for future dives.
By the time we arrived back at the stern our 15minutes of planned bottom time and my team mates bottom gas stage were up and finished, so it was time to leave and start the deco. The nice part of this was that although we had over an hour to go before we would be back on the boat, it is all on a fantastic stretch of reef – I could have happily stayed 3 hours if gas allowed!

Back on the boat was great excitement on my part. Firstly it was my deepest dive (100m max depth) and despite my best intentions to avoid ‘macho-depth-junkie’ bullshit, it does feel something of an achievement. Also the sheer size and age of the wreck make it appealing. Next time I manage to get the net I really need to start some research into it. Due to its depth and location its not very often dived and must be packed full of interesting things. It’s just a case of getting there and doing it.

I did for a little while after getting back on the boat worry that I’d bent myself as I felt a slight niggle in my left elbow. I had knocked it before getting in the water, but anywya I went on Oxygen for half an hour or so to double check it and with no change in symptoms decided just to rest it and keep an eye on it. The pain subsided on its own about an hour after finishing to use the Oxygen and hasn’t reoccured. Must have just picked something up awkwardly. The deco was plenty clean enough.

And I guess that, really was all I really wanted to write about. I could / should probably do more detail but hopefully I can give some more detailed info the next time we’re able to dive it. Looking forward to that.
Been listenign to a variation of albums recently: some Marilyn Manson, some Slipknot, Jet, King Prawn, the Datsuns, One Minute Silence, and Coal Chamber.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go knock one off. Sweet dreams.

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*From the Fish’s Mouth!*

In a display of perverse brilliance, Carl the repairman mistakes a room
humidifier for a mid-range computer but manages to tie it into the network
anyway.
– The 5th Wave

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