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Diving

Dives

I've had 54 2-star dives so far:

Dive number	Date	Site	Location	Area	Country	Wreck	Freshwater	Depth (m)	Bottom time (min)	Total time (min)	Divers	Quality	Summary	Equipment
3	16 Mar 1980	Cuan Ferry	Seil Island	Oban	Scotland			8	20	20	Iain Hosking, Lizzie Daw		Boat dive again. Dived with Lizzie Daw. Strong current caused problems for the boat but we lost it underwater. Masses of kelp, some sea urchins & starfish. Couldn't find any place deeper than 8m so came up.	Aluminium 56 cu ft, own demand valve, ABLJ 6
7	21 Apr 1980	St Abbs Head	South side of the Firth of Forth	Forth	Scotland			10	25	25	Iain Hosking, Geoff Hide		Boat dive. Wind 3-5 and strong swell. Went down with Geoff. Vis low; 4-5 feet. Lots of kelp and sea urchins but not much else. Saw puffins.	Steel 60, own dv, ABLJ 6
8	23 Apr 1980	Dunbar	South side of the Firth of Forth	Forth	Scotland			7	25	25	Iain Hosking, Murray Grant		Shore dive. Went out with Murray and swam round a rock. Vis poor, 2-3m. Sea urchins, starfish, crabs etc. Went for a 15 min snorkel afterwards.	Steel 60, own dv, ABLJ 6
15	20 Jul 1980	Switha	Off Edinburgh	Forth	Scotland			6	40	40	Iain Hosking, Colwyn Jones		Dived with Colwyn Jones. Nature of bottom: steel plate with patches of brass & copper. Shoals of fish, giant lobster. Heavy swell. Seasick.	Steel 60, own dv, Fenzy 1
57	21 Jun 1981	May Island		Forth	Scotland			11	15	15	Iain Hosking, George Hay		Round to south end of May Island to look for wreck of small lobster boat. Searched up and down shore at various depths but found only a few broken pieces.	Steel 60
68	22 Sep 1981	Floristan	Kilchiaran Bay	Islay	Scotland			11	10	10	Iain Hosking, Eric Franz		Very rough. Down buoy line to steel plates and chain, and some copper pipe. Then we lost it, and covered vast areas of seabed before giving up. Vis 3m.	own
78	27 Mar 1982	Dunollie Castle	Oban Bay	Oban	Scotland			18	25	25	Iain Hosking, Ceri Reid		Fairly boring - cliffs to 10m then boulder slope leading to steeply-shelving sandy bottom. Life - starfish, with the occasional crab, sea urchin, tubeworm etc as we went deeper. Vis 4m. Saw an otter.	own
79	27 Mar 1982	Railway Quay	Oban Bay	Oban	Scotland			5	15	15	Iain Hosking, Susan Playfair		Little evidence of excess lobsters or congers. Best thing was light steaming past the pier - very dramatic. Grossly underweight.	own. 4lbs less weight.
84	10 Apr 1982	Salen Pier	Salen	Mull	Scotland			14	15	15	Iain Hosking, Susan Playfair		Plowter round pier with Susan to check out her new dry suit. OK apart from neck seal. Plenty of somersaults etc. Also plenty of scallops. Vis crap.	own
99	16 Apr 1982	Rondo	Eileanan Glasa, Sound of Mull	Mull	Scotland			30	11	13	Iain Hosking, Susan Playfair		Search for Ewan's tanks. Decent current at last...Wreck not buoyed, so had to find it again, by contouring at 15m. Down to 30m and back up slowly, very slowly, in fact all time slowest ascent. Curious wrasse.	own
102	18 May 1982	Seacliffs	North Berwick	Forth	Scotland			6	20	20	Iain Hosking, Ceri Reid		Second lobster hunt. Forgot weight belt (rats!) so borrowed Susan's and was somewhat buoyant. Let all air out of suit so water came in great quantities => cold. But! found huge lobster in cleft - trouble was, it was inextricable. Went for a snorkel beforehand. Vis fairly poor.	own, but Susan's weight belt (24lbs) and Ceri's Ocean Pro
126	29 Oct 1982	Golden Gift	Oban Bay	Oban	Scotland			15	10	10	Iain Hosking, Jenny Clough, Ross Butler		Usual crabs, fish and stuff, and good phosphorescence. Short dive because Jenny was too heavy.	own
127	30 Oct 1982	Golden Gift	Oban Bay	Oban	Scotland			10	10	10	Iain Hosking, Jane Martin		Jane's first dive with a dry suit. All went smoothly, except for my sinuses, which were hell.	own
151	10 Aug 1983	Switha	Off Edinburgh	Forth	Scotland			4	20	20	Iain Hosking, Heather Gates		Took Heather down near the 'Switha'. Long after sunset and getting dark. Heather had ear-clearing problems and when we did get down it was pretty uninspiring. Good boat trip, marred only by hitting LW Springs on return to Granton.	own
180	9 May 1984	Dun Domhnuill	Garvellachs (SW corner of the islan)	Oban	Scotland			8	15	15	Iain Hosking, John Hart		Training dive. Took John Hart (teacher at Merchiston) for his first dive. Sunny but vis crap: 2-3 feet. Crawford reported it was worse round behind the rock. How? No problems apart from his mask filling up and possibly 2-4 lbs overweighted.	own
184	20 May 1984	Urlana	Geo Mor, NW of Idrigill Point, near Harlosh	Skye	Scotland			13	45	45	Iain Hosking, June Ralston		Dived with June again. Relaxed, shallow plowter in excellent vis with substantial wave action. Bright colours abounded, as did bits of brass. Surface scenery very spectacular. Ventured into cave on return journey.	own
186	21 May 1984	Rhodesia	Duntulm Bay	Skye	Scotland			10	20	25	Iain Hosking, Eileen Hill, Mike Weitzner		Dived with Mike and Eileen in an ill-fated threesome. Round wreck twice, saw engine, boiler, prop (ferrous) and rudder. Left wreck to explore seabed - interesting tubeworm things.	own
232	7 Jul 1985	Meall Thailm	North-east of Tongue Bay	North-west Scotland	Scotland			10	10	10	Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken		GR's information on this dive is not too clear, so we mistook the site and ended up diving here. Bottom - kelp. Boring.	own
249	8 Sep 1985	St Abbs	South side of the Firth of Forth	Forth	Scotland			16	55	55	Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken		The Not the HF because Malc's landrover was MOTless. Weather - scotch mist. Sea conditions - swell (and I don't mean good). Vis not bad if you looked up. Life: lobsters, squatties, flatfish, shrimps, wellington boots, dead men's fingers.	own
255	21 Sep 1985	Little Cumbrae	West side	Clyde	Scotland			30	7	9	Iain Hosking, John Parkinson		Pete Bicheno's exercise - sampling of a water column 30m deep. John Parkinson and I made temperature measurements every 2m (12.4 - 12.9 degrees centigrade) and put the lids on the sampling jars. Pete and Chris made visibility measurements every 5m. Depth of water: 110m. Vis OK.	own. Boat: 5m Chinook with Yamaha 30.
257	22 Sep 1985	Largs		Clyde	Scotland			8	2	2	Iain Hosking, Pete Bicheno		First Class exercise. Laid a box of sand in 8m with a buoy 2m below the surface. Descended to check depths. Definitely as requested. Bottom - fine sand.	own
258	22 Sep 1985	Largs		Clyde	Scotland			8	4	4	Iain Hosking, Ken Farrow		Second part of the exercise. Used the other group's transits to find their box of sand. Transits poor, but found box anyway. Descended to measure the box:64cm x 44cm x 25cm. Ken attached a lifting bag and the box was raised.	own
273	8 Mar 1986	Belnahua Quarry	Belnahua	Oban	Scotland			10	20	20	Iain Hosking, Ian Harrington		Failed to dive the HF due to weather (Wind force 7, sea state 4) so 'Let's do 50m in the quarry!' Good idea, except the fantastic vis lasted till 8m, below which was a pit of a yellowish evil-smelling substance not at all conducive to diving in. So we stayed above it and raised a rusty bolt with a makeshift lifting bag. Haven't had so much fun since I crashed the car.	own, Rollo's twin 55s.
330	25 Mar 1987	Pettico Wick	South side of the Forth, west of St Abbs	Forth	Scotland			9	15	15	Iain Hosking, Craig McQueenie		Completely ridiculous. Jumped into huge swell with zero vis. Fought against waves all the way. One nudibranch.	Used Dougie's stab jacket. Not bad.
346	9 May 1987	North Connel		Oban	Scotland			7	10	10	Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken		Given tea and after eights for looking for an old couple's sewage outlet. Didn't find it, but saw old moorings, masses of weed and unpleasant fuzzy brown growth that thrives on human waste products. Not nice. Current.
348	16 May 1987	Raasay, south end		Skye	Scotland			26	25	25	Iain Hosking, Kevin McGuire		First dive of the most memorable Skye trip in the history of the world. The van disintegrated at the end of the drive up [gearbox], and we spent hours trying to sort out some transport. Since no time was left to launch elsewhere Geoff stuck a pin in the chart and settled on this site, with its attractive mud slope to x metres. Life - hermit crabs and Cerianthus lloydi, which is a type of anemone living in a disgusting rubbery tube in the seabed. Rain. Wind. Waves.
350	17 May 1987	Meanish Pier		Skye	Scotland			15	20	20	Iain Hosking, Cathy Humphries		The Not The Chadwick (engine failed) so we did a night dive to look for scallops. No scallops but squat lobsters, fish, a shrimp and phosphorescence. Cooking chickens failed so no tea. The Curse strikes again. Crawford had a custard shampoo, Snash a margarine one. Yuk.
352	19 May 1987	Port Napier	Kyle of Lochalsh	Skye	Scotland			20	35	35	Iain Hosking, Sarah Soffe		Today's disasters - flat on the van [and locking wheel nuts...], trailer lighting plug sanded flat. Despite this, got to the Port Napier - down at the bows and back to the midships hole in the deck, through this to the starboard upper mine tube and back to the stern (despite Sarah not having a torch). Forward again, saw both bow guns, round to the bows (found Admiralty anchor), back again (!) through the deck and up through the middle of the hull. A comprehensive exploration.
359	26 Jul 1987	Loch Long		Clyde	Scotland			20	20	20	Iain Hosking, Clive ?		Drove to St Abbs to find it was spectacularly too rough for diving, so turned round and drove to Loch Long. 270 miles altogether. Clive's first dive. Rather murky, and weather very wet.
385	15 Feb 1989	Hairy Wall	Bicheno	Tasmania	Australia			33	10	12	Iain Hosking, Cathy Humphries		Pissing with rain before, during and after dive. As usual in this country all jumped in and descended together. Not me, though - a last check revealed that my tank was empty. Back out, cursing. Saw a fairy penguin. Steve (not in our group) came up sick, so I relieved him of his tank and followed the bubbles to the others. Caught up with Mark and Cathy, but lost them again looking at seawhips covered in pretty pink anemones. Tony arrived and signalled that time was up, and that was it. Frustrating.
401	15 Oct 1989	Lion Island	Broken Bay	Sydney	Australia			6	15	15	Iain Hosking		Now on the 3rd dive from one fill of Cathy's tank. Looking for crayfish. None. The usual fish, plus nudibranchs. Buoyant because of the near-empty tank. Discovered once again that snorkelling is not possible with a drysuit.	Cathy's 88.
405	13 Jan 1990	Haven Sponge Gardens	Terrigal	Sydney	Australia			20	30	32	Iain Hosking, Cathy Humphries		Donned the wetsuit in an attempt to keep cool. BC inflation hose burst before the dive so reduced to mouth inflation. Had to dismantle and reassemble it on the dive before it would hold any air. Vis pretty poor. Saw boulders, sponges, scalyfin (many juveniles), wrasse, shrimp (cleaning station?) and a huge whelk-like thing.
406	3 Feb 1990	Guerrilla Bay	South of Bateman's Bay	Bateman's Bay	Australia			10	30	30	Iain Hosking, Cathy Humphries		[No date or time recorded - see Cathy's logbook? Obviously somewhere between 20th January and 14th April.] In Cathy's words 'more like a swim than a dive.' Unexciting terrain and sea life (bare grey rocks, sea urchins and scalyfin, with a few sea carp. Beautiful day, though.
430	14 Oct 1990	Shiprock	Port Hacking	Sydney	Australia			13	29	29	Iain Hosking, Martin Zolfel		The curse strikes again, as 4-5m seas batter the NSW coast. This time Sarah decided to get wet anyway, but I'm afraid it wasn't the best conditions for a trainee. Zilch vis, waterborne hoons and a bit of current to make things interesting. Well, we survived, but a boat dive would certainly be nice.
433	11 Nov 1990	East Shark Island		Sydney	Australia			12	37	37	Iain Hosking, Graham Russell		Out on the 'Cape Bailey' again, with Sarah and Steve. Too rough to dive off the National Park, so we chose this site. A single gully, kelp either side, strong wave action, poor vis. Saw morwong, blue groper, bullseyes etc. Graham's first Australian dive.
443	21 Dec 1990	Seal Rocks		Forster	Australia			24	24	24	Iain Hosking, Iain Fairbrother, Malcolm Gauld		Began the dive attached to Ian Fairbrother and Malcom, but lost them. Persisted in my vain search for sharks. None. Swam back above an atmospheric gully. Heaps of blue groper. Surfaced to a long snorkel in worryingly rough seas.	Drysuit, twin set etc as in this morning's abortive dive on the 'Satara'.
457	26 Jul 1991	Inscription Point	Kurnell	Sydney	Australia			7	14	14	Iain Hosking, Martin Zolfel		Took Martin in to try out a prospective dry suit (Avon with zip). Inconclusive due to lack of weight, but he's buying it anyway ($600). Strong swell - boulder bottom with one or two scalyfin and morwong and a heap of abalone.
486	27 Jan 1996	The Balcony	off Royal National Park	Sydney	Australia			21	40	43	Iain Hosking, Cathy Humphries		First dive of 1996; first with Cathy since April 94; first boat dive with Cathy since Jervis Bay, November 91. Left at 8am and got to Shiprock Dive at 9.15, where we learned that although the seas were calm a huge patch of murky water had come down from the north and the vis was poor. And so it was, but we enjoyed it anyway, looking at nudibranchs, shrimps, sponges, cup coral and fish (stripeys, wrasse, leatherjackets, yellowtail, mado and a Port Jackson shark). Huge feed afterwards because the 12 o'clock mob had cancelled. Back home by 2.30pm.	Wet suit since both dry suits were perished. Other gear as usual. Comfortable at start; getting cold by the end.
498	14 Sep 1997	Darts Point	N. side of the Bay	Jervis Bay	Australia			25	30	31	Iain Hosking, Andrew Kennedy		Descended and followed a course of 210 degrees from 25m up to 5m. Masses of sponges, umpteen different kinds of sea star, a couple of morays, some nudibranchs, and plenty of scalyfins etc. COLD.
502	6 Nov 1999	Fish Reef	off Port Hacking	Sydney	Australia			27	25	30	Iain Hosking, Andrew Kennedy		Dived with Max Western again (cost now $35). Left Faulconbridge 8am; arrived Dolan's Bay 9.20am. Wind from NE & stronger than ideal. Very pronounced swell even at 27m, enough to stir up the sand, and to make it difficult to examine objects close-up. Limited life - nudibranchs, scalyfin, morwong, groper, cup coral and an unidentified fish in a shoal of about 10, 2' long, silver underneath and green on top, with long dorsal & ventral fins towards the back and a lobed tail with black edges. I can't find it in the fish book.	Dry suit, my 82 cu ft tank.
517	22 Sep 2002	Julie-Ann		Jervis Bay	Australia			9	23	25	Iain Hosking, Andrew Kennedy, Charlie Oldfield, Martin Zolfel		The "Julie-Ann" is a fishing boat which sank last week. Apparently the vis was good a couple of weeks ago in the area, but not now. Charlie reckons someone's tipped a bucket of pot noodle over it. Andrew when Adrian came up: "Did you place the charges?"	Wet suit, Arctic
522	12 Jan 2008	Shiprock	Port Hacking	Sydney	Australia			14	24	24	Iain Hosking, Brendan Hosking		Left home around 8.15am aiming at high tide (Fort Denison) 10:35am. Took longer than expected at the shop, then misnavigated so arrived at the site at 10:44. Turned out to be bang on local high tide. We were joined by a fellow called Brendan who'd missed his group so he buddied up with Cameron. Poor vis meant we lost sight of them, and Brendan [our Brendan] was underweight with 18lbs, hence the short time (Cameron and Brendan #2 had more like 45 mins). But we did see leatherjacket, porcupinefish, old wives and two cute little cuttlefish.	Wet suit, Arctic, 82, ~18lbs lead. Hood, gloves were probably unnecessary - water warm. Boys hired wetsuits, tanks, BCs and weightbelts from Frogdive: ~$65 each.
526	17 Aug 2008	Shiprock	Port Hacking	Sydney	Australia			16		41	Iain Hosking, Laurie Collier, Sebastian Bachler		Planned Oak Park at Cronulla, but we got there to find ideal conditions - for surfing. So it was back to the old, reliable Shiprock, as uninspiring as ever, but colder than I remember (14°C according to those who knew). Vis - not great. Current. Small cuttlefish, 2 nudibranchs (mottled black and white), catfish, morwong, yellowtail, stripey, leatherjacket.	wet suit with NO HOOD (brrr...), 82 cu ft, Buddy Arctic, new Ikelite torch ($149(. Thinking about a dry suit...
531	13 Sep 2009	Balmoral Beach		Sydney	Australia			5	23	23	Iain Hosking, Robb Whitewood		Underwater treasure hunt organised by Frog Dive. Like the previous one I participated in (at Panthers Aqua Golf in 1992 and not even logged), with one important difference. The idea was to search for tokens (in this case, potatoes) and exchange them for raffle tickets. Unlike that event, here each diver was only allowed one ticket. There goes the plan. I met and buddied up with Robb Whitewood (whose partner Allison wasn't diving) and out we went with about 200 others. Robb found a potato straight away but we had to do a line search to find mine (memo: a length of cord is a handy addition to the kit). Didn't win anything in the raffle, though. Weather: clear and sunny. Allison sent pictures from her iPhone.
532	28 Mar 2010	Cape Solander	Round from Inscription Point, Kurnell	Sydney	Australia			12	47	47	Iain Hosking, Brendan Hosking, Cameron Hosking		Some wave action. Poor vis at the surface; better below. Didn't find any weedy sea dragons, but Brendan found an octopus and Cameron a cuttlefish. Shoal of large, sleek fish with a yellow stripe along the sides. Took some photos demonstrating how green and murky it was. Must find some new sites.	Dry-type suit, 82 cu ft, Arctic, 2 weight belts. Hired BCs and weights from Abyss. Cameron wore my wetsuit and Brendan Andrew's.
537	10 Apr 2011	North Bondi		Sydney	Australia			9	21	21	Iain Hosking, Deborah Jamison		Chapter of accidents. Tanks out of test and empty. Triathlon so Harbour Bridge closed and city gridlocked. Frog Dive and Scuba Warehouse both closed on Sunday. Other shops had nitrox only. Eventually hired tanks from Pro-Dive Coogee and met Deborah at North Bondi. Even parking was a drama. Kitted up to find...no fins. So had to split the dive into two, one with each buddy. Eventually entered the water off rocks with Deborah and she took off like a ferret up a drainpipe. I was watching air consumption so had to call a halt after 20 minutes to preserve air for 2nd dive with Cameron. Saw boulders, sea urchins and various fish, being mercilessly hunted down by spearfishermen. Highlight was one small but scared coral trout.	Dryish suit. New TUSA Element II dive computer, 21 lbs, hired 88 cu ft tank (own out of test). Borrowed Cameron's fins.
543	21 Dec 2013	Cape Solander	Round from Inscription Point, Kurnell	Sydney	Australia			13	49	49	Iain Hosking, Brendan Hosking, Cameron Hosking		Relatively little life. Looked for weedy sea dragons but didn't find any. The boys found a squid, though.	Dry suit, hired aluminium tank
551	16 Oct 2016	Long Bay	Fisherman's Road, Malabar	Sydney	Australia			6	34	34	Iain Hosking, Kevin Doherty		Organised by Ed from Scuba Warehouse; two tanks and barbecue for $60. This dive guided by Terry. Beautiful weather above the surface belied the murky desert beneath. High point was a car wreck. Dive was cut short by the high air consumption of one of the dives; I finished with 120 bar (the nominated return threshold). Insufficient weight for the dry suit; I pocketed a couple of rocks to little effect. Good barbecue afterwards, and a friendly crowd	Fourth Element dry suit, steel tank, Arctic, 21 lbs
552	16 Oct 2016	Long Bay	Fisherman's Road, Malabar	Sydney	Australia			10	53	53	Iain Hosking, Kevin Doherty		Second dive of the day. Kevin agreed we should dive as a pair, and we headed east towards a fisherman on a rocky point. We had a lengthy snorkel before we hit a diveable depth, and then there was a long spell at 3m, over a depressing amount of rubbish and little life other than stripey and goatfish, but we eventually saw a ray, and the return trip was much better, amongst sandstone boulders and overhangs. I even caught a glimpse of an octopus; an orange leg in a crevice with shells stuck to his suckers. He retreated fast, though. It was hard to escape the impression that the sea life was either fished out or scared.	Fourth Element dry suit, steel tank, Arctic, 27 lbs
555	8 Jan 2017	Oak Park	Oak Park	Sydney	Australia			10	55	55	Iain Hosking, Cameron Hosking		First dive with Cameron since April 2015. Warm, sunny day but white horses and an onshore wind made entry interesting and exit alarming. Poor vis as it was well stirred up. Plenty of smaller fish such as mado, bullseyes, scalyfin, wrasse, blennies, leatherjacket, blue-tailed devilfish. Extensive sponge gardens in bright shades of purple, orange and yellow. Highlight was a small cuttlefish which effortlessly ran through a full set of colour changes. We were assisted on our exit by a couple of off-duty divers - thanks!	Fourth Element dry suit, steel tank, Arctic, 27 lbs. First dive with Shearwater Petrel 2 dive computer
569	6 Nov 2021	Looking Glass	Broughton Island	Nelson Bay	Australia			20	36	35			Not the best dive at this site. Heavy swell, GoPro battery flat, dive computer battery low, no sharks and safety sausage accedentally deployed. But no-one died. Charlie was the dive leader, and I buddied up with Jordan from the ANZ (and his friends Christian and Megan)	Fourth Element dry suit, Oceanic Chute 2, 12 litre tank. 29lbs
573	2 Jan 2023	The Pinnacles, Forster		Forster	Australia			32	24	30	Iain Hosking, James Hagarty		Sorry to say this was not a particularly enjoyable dive. We had high hopes given good conditions and clear blue water on the surface, but This changed to a soupy green at depth. Also, there was a noticeable current so most of the time was spent hanging onto rocks. Saw one wobbegong.	Fourth Element dry suit, Oceanic Chute 2, 10 litre tank. 29lbs
577	24 Sep 2023	Magic Point	Cronulla	Sydney	Australia			19	22	27			Met at Abyss in Ramsgate at 11am. Boarded the boat at Sans Souci at 12 noon. 30 minute boat ride round to the north. Buddied up with Nathan who was easy to spot by his dayglo fins. No shark in the cave, but a large ray instead. Didn't see much else as my mask fogged up.	Fourth Element dry suit, Oceanic Chute 2, 12 litre tank. 13 kg (29lbs) weight. Go Pro 5. Green C-cell torch. Max (Abyss dive leader) reckons I carry too much lead.
581	21 Jan 2024	Fairlight	Manly	Sydney	Australia			9	46	46	Alexander Hosking		Warm, sunny day. Fairlight recommended by Dive Centre Manly as Shelly Beach was exposed to the NE wind. Scored a good parking spot and lugged all the gear down to the beach to change there. Very shallow at first, and poor vis. I was underweight, wihch looked like a showstopper until I figured out that the BC had to be vented repeatedly. The inlet valve may have been jammed partially open. Alexander was OK with my wet suit and 18 lbs of weight. Life: eastern blue devil, wobbegong under a ledge, wrasse, sponges.	Fourth Element dry suit, Oceanic Chute 2, 10 litre tank. 10 kg (21lbs) weight + whatever is in the BC. Go Pro 5. Green C-cell torch.