Dive Number: 173 30/07/11 10.09, Barwon Bluff, Barwon Heads
Wind: 15knot north/north-easterlies
Tide: 1.5hr before 1.42 high tide at the Heads
Conditions: Very dark cloudy morning…Cold with drizzle..uninspiring..but flat!
Visibilty: 8m.
Water Temp: 11c
Bottom Time: 108minutes
Max Depth: 8.5m
Air usage: 210bar/3000psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: Geez it was hard to get inspired for this dive. A very cold winters morning, with light drizzle and very dark. But Swellnet promised flat seas and Barwon Bluff’s lure was irresistable. I had my heart set on trying to find the wreck of the Charlemont, and i knew i had a good chance with the big 50 year swells a few weeks earlier. So i manned up, geared up and headed down the stairs and towards the point of the bluff. I went out south for a while and through the bull kelp and brown algae forests. Out the back the limestone started flattening out with little growth on it, and just a few small crevices. I spotted a small cuttlefish doing a pretty good job trying to blend into its surroundings. I then started swimming west and crossed a multitude of different terrains. Back through the kelp forests, exploring the crevices and gullies that lay beneath, and then through vast areas of sculpted limestone that didn’t have a ounce of vegetation on it. I spotted a pipe formation beneath a rock which got me a little bit excited but turned out to be just a peice of PVC. I continued westerly and the vegetation started to increase slightly, and the formations became more dramatic with some amazing contours and lines carving the rocks and gullies. I was nearly two hours into my dive and nearing the end of my tank, when i spotted my first peice of wreck… large iron gurder that sat on the bottom of a rocky gully, right on the egde of the sand line which had shifted to reveal it. I sensed i was onto an area that held more goodies, so i tried to remain calm to conserve air and explore the surrounding gullies. An old peice of timber was the next to shows itself, further along the same gully. I doubled back and over a ridge into the next parallel gully, and came across a large cable..possibly some part of the rigging. It was fused into the rock and calcified, so could possibly have been rope, but i’m not sure it rope would last the 160 years (if it is remanents of the Earl of Charlemont). The stylings of the rigging definently had an 1800’s feel to it though. It was an exciting find, but unfortunately i was out of air. So i surfaced and did my best to burn the location into my brain, taking in the distance out from shore, landmark spotting and using my compass on the way in to determine the way back out. Tommorrow promised more flat seas, so it gave me hope to get back down and reexplore the area for more artefacts.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 strobe + SS400 Strobe
Dive Report:
