Newsletter: Short and sweet

Hi divers

This will be a short and sweet newsletter. Sorry it’s late! A power failure last night that lasted until well after bedtime meant that our wireless was down, and since we live in a black hole for cellphone reception, the 3G modem wouldn’t co-operate either.

Last weekend

The Argus took place on Sunday and sent all of us to Gordon’s Bay for some diving. We dived with Indigo Scuba and dived a site called Steenbras Deep. It was a little green, no, a lot of green water until around 15-18 metres at which point it cleaned up a fair amount. The thermocline was also very noticeable on my dive computer and the temperature dropped a good 5 degrees. The eastern side of False Bay is also a spectacular piece of coastline to view from the ocean. Thank you everyone that got up early and took the trip out there so we could explore some new territory!

Congregation of frilled nudibranchs
Congregation of frilled nudibranchs

This week I have dived most days and have been very surprised by the number of huge schools of fish in the Bay. The water temperature is also still hovering at around 20-21 degrees celcius. The rays are also very keen to show off (some on youtube here and here) and I have had a few really amazing displays of their swimming, flying, and gliding techniques plus their ability to reduce the visibility to near zero when they take-off or hunt a snack buried in the sand.

Mozambique

We are all set for Mozambique, 7th – 12th May: good diving, clean warm water and lots  of beer and rum sorry, make that coffee and sunshine… You can still sign up, just tell me you’re interested. Those of you who have spoken to me about the trip will receive a separate mail.

This weekend

It is the Simon’s Town Navy festival which means a HUGE amount of traffic, very little parking and many delays as there are not too many ways into and out of Simon’s Town. There will also be really strong southeaster on Saturday with a hefty sized swell (not what False Bay needs to clean up the visibility) so I think our plan will be as follows:

  • Saturday – stay home and do what it is you do when you stay home doing stuff.
  • Sunday – we might be able to get in if we start very early and depending on how conditions look. Let me know if you want to be notified if we do make an attempt.

I do not feel it will be good conditions for any Open Water training dives so for those still on course, sorry but we will need to wait for next weekend!

Next week

Clare and I are off to Botswana to do some admin and see friends, and to Marico Oog for a day or two of freshwater diving. We’re leaving on Monday, back on Friday so we will miss the public holiday on Wednesday. However, next weekend we will be diving, conditions permitting. I’m not sure we’ll be able to get a newsletter out on Thursday as we’ll be in the middle of the North West Province with limited data coverage, but I’ll be in touch by text or email on Friday.

If you’re looking for something to do, you can visit the You Tell Me section of our blog, where there are various polls for you to answer. Click here. Also check out the Cape Town Dive Festival which is happening on 10-11 August 2012 from Miller’s Point, and start thinking about how many boat dives you can safely fit into a weekend!

You all have a super weekend and be safe.

regards

Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za
www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog/

Diving is addictive!