So it was a foggy morning at the beach over the last few days. It’s interesting when you look out over the beach and see only a few meters ahead. Sometimes the morning starts bright and sunny, but because the air temperature drops much faster then the water temperature you can actually start to see the water rising from the surface as vapour.

As your swimming, you can actually see the water rising. It almost makes you feel like you are in a hot bath however the water is far from being a hot bat ! This simply happens because the air is so cold compared to the water (which in its self is really cold). If you look at the image on the left you can actually see the fog on the horizon making its way closer to the shore

I have actually wanted to go diving along the edge of the rocks with the fog but the swell has been very high so it hasn’t been the right conditions to go diving. With the fog it can be dangerous with boats but (assuming that the waters are calm and there is no swell) aslong as you stay close to the edge of the rocks and just explore this area it should be fine as boats never come that close to shore.

Anyway, this is just a quick blog post, check out the images above … one minute everything is fine then a few minutes later the fog starts to set in and the sun disappears from sight !

So today I took 2hrs of to go and drop Damir’s wetsuit to his new work place. Just so you know his new work place is on an old boat built in the 1940’s. It looks like an old school ship that captain cook came in when he found Australia.

Had a nice tour of the ship and said hi to the crew. Even had a chance to meet the captain “Marty”. It was good timing to as when we arrived Marty was trying to access the internet to check some important email when all his IT started to fail 😛 To cut a long story short, we did a bit of fiddle diddle and got the net working so he could check his email.

After the tour I had a chance to climb the mast which I think is about 19 meters tall. Before I climbed the mast I had to sign the usual disclaimer form (which is understandable). When I reached the top I took a few pictures and a video. It was a great climb and really exciting to see the harbour from so far up.

Hopefully I get a chance to do it when the ship is sailing. This way I can feel the boat rock as I am high up on the mast. That should be fun I think 😛

Anyway, some pictures and video of the tour ….

So in between super rainy weekdays the weekend exposed a lot of sunlight and great weather to be in the great outdoors. One of the issues is because of recent rain the waters were very murky and the swell was pretty high so not really ideal diving conditions, however this didn’t stop me and I still went diving and really glad that I did.

I did a few quick dives when I arrived just to get wet then exited and took a break while I just sat on some of the rocks to relax. After sitting for a while a guy came down with fins, the exact same wetsuit that I had, mask and the usual free diving equipment. I asked him if he was alone and he said yes so I asked if he wanted to join us. He agreed and connected one GoPro to his head mount, one GoPro to his chest and made his way to the water.

The minute he stepped into the water a massive wave smashed into him and when he recovered the GoPro mounted to his head was gone. The GoPro went missing right on the shore line where the waves were breaking against the rocks so it wasn’t exactly safe to be staying in that area looking for the missing camera. Irrespective of that, I helped him look for the GoPro (which was a black edition BTW) but still nothing. After about 10 minutes of looking and getting battered against the rocks we gave up and thought our lives were more important then a $500 dollar camera.

After sometime I went towards the rocks around the shallow part of the dive site. Its pretty boring for dive practice but much of the sea life resides within this area. It’s usually pretty nice when the waters are clear but there was so much dirt it was hard to see anything today. To my surprise as I was getting ready to go down and explore this area below the surface of the water, I saw a Wobbegong shark just hanging around at the bottom. It was about 1 meter long (maybe just a bit more then that) and was just sitting there probably waiting to jump on some prey.

I wasn’t aware of the behaviour of Wobbegong’s so I didn’t want to get to close. I knew it was a Wobbegong because I could recognise its shape and could see the beard along its mouth. I didn’t know at the time of the dive, if Wobbegong’s attack or what they ate, were they carnivores or herbivores, I remember reading it but had forgotten.  After some research on Wikipedia, it seems Wobbegong’s eat fish and have been known to attack snorkelers and scuba divers who annoy or try to block the Wobbegong’s path. They are also considered very flexible and can turn around and bite if you try to touch its tail. The grip of the Wobbegong shark is also thought to be very strong and once they bite, can hold on and can be very difficult to remove.

I stayed a safe distance from the Shark but was happy to see a Wobbegong in real life and to also be able to catch it on camera 🙂 At least next time, if I see a Wobbegong I will know what to expect. I didn’t spend to long at the dive site because it was my old man’s birthday and had to go home and cook the birthday dinner as I had promised 🙂

Ok so let me quickly clear up the term “Dr Shelly”. Many of the long time swimmers at shelly beach refer to the shelly pools as “Dr Shelly”. The reason being is that it keeps the older folk healthy, fit, active and provides a social environment that is nice to be around. What does a doctor do ? Keeps you well and healthy. Whether its mentally or physically the doctor helps with all those things. Since the pools at shelly does both for the longtime swimmers, its referred to as “Dr Shelly” 🙂

So today I arrived at the crack of dawn, said hi to the usual suspects and looked out over the water and realised that it was not the kind of conditions that would be good for freediving training (or swimming for that matter), specially if you are after some nice dynamics back and forth through the pool. I got in the water and began the session with some warmups followed by the swim. Started on the far right corner of the north end of the pool and after the laps due to the washing machine effect caused by the currents, most of us ended up at the bottom left corner of the south end of the pool. Visibility was also crap so it was hard to know whether you had reached the other side or not. Pretty much everyone ended on the bottom left of the south end of the pool so even the swimmers would get clumped together in one end of the pool.

Today was a pretty crappy day to train but watching the waves crash and the height of the water coming in over the rocks, along with feeling the pull and the strength of the current just makes you realise the awesome power of the ocean. It can be calm and peaceful one day and on the next its completely rough and unforgiving.

Anyway, to close of the morning pool session, I simply took my fins off, took my mask off and just floated on my back with my face to the sky. It started raining and feeling the rain on my face, the bobbing up and down of the waves on my back and the sound of the waves crashing was very relaxing. Had my wetsuit on too so it was nice and warm.

Photos and video attached… 🙂