Diving

Dives

I've dived with Steve Harris 3 times:

Dive number Date Site Location Area Country Wreck Freshwater Depth (m) Bottom time (min) Total time (min) Divers Quality Summary Equipment
471
Previous dive Next dive
First dive Last dive
2 Nov 1991 The Tubes Jervis Bay Australia 24 30 36 Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken, Steve Harris Four stars Knocked this morning's dive into a cocked hat. Only three divers in the boat, in fact in the whole of Jervis Bay. Much sunnier out at Point Perpendicular. Dolphins rode the bow wave on the way out. That was the first surprise - then we saw a scalyfin chasing a stingray, a weedy sea dragon (spotted by Steve), a garden of sea-tulips, big sea-scorpions, a cuttlefish, a blue devil fish and a moray eel. Our navigation was perfect - down a sandy slope, then left through the tulip garden, up to an area of huge jumbled boulders, then back at 5m through all these house-sized boulders, with sunlight streaming past us. Sarah and I are now level pegging in dives - 471 each. Valve dismantled and lubricated - now fixed.
474
Previous dive Next dive
First dive Last dive
3 Nov 1991 Point Perpendicular Jervis Bay Australia 16 45 45 Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken, Steve Harris Three stars Dived with Sarah and Steve again as the Cathys took it easy. Again more spectacular than the first dive of the day (sorry lads) with extremely large boulders especially towards the end of the dive. Swam back at a shallow depth (5m) with sun slanting through clear water and navigated our way straight to the boat.
485
Previous dive Next dive
First dive Last dive
3 Dec 1995 Barron's Hut off Port Hacking Sydney Australia 26 32 35 Iain Hosking, Martin Zolfel, Sarah McCracken, Steve Harris Four stars Beautiful morning - warm and sunny. Left Dolan's Bay Wharf at 10am and it was a short, comfortable trip on Max's boat Sea Tamer II to the site. Kitted up quickly and dropped in. My buddy was Martin but we dived in a loose foursome with Sarah and Steve (Sarah on her first dive since June, Steve on his first since February). Reasonable vis, 30 feet or more, and warm until we hit a distinct thermocline at 22m. There was a real gin & tonic effect where the warm current from the north hit the cool southern water. Martin led us straight to the cave & chimney, where we entered in the cool water and emerged a few metres up in the warm layer. We then covered the whole site, including several swim-throughs. One contained a moray eel under a rock, which appeared to be moving in on my finger. Sarah also saw what might have been a baby wobbegong in this area. There were plenty of fish, including several varieties of leatherjacket (including one with a big yellow spot on its side), scalyfin (frequently in energetic combat), old wives, yellowtail, blue groper and an eastern blue devil with vivid blue markings. We had time to see several nudibranchs too, including the common Bennets Hypselodoris (wine-red dots), Red-lined Flabellina (purple fronds) and Variable Aphelodoris (bird poo). The cup coral were also very pretty. After a precautionary stop (because we were on the limit of decompression according to Mr Aladin) we surfaced to sun, soup, salami and cheese & bacon rolls. Delicious. Still $30, plus a $10 contribution to Martin for petrol. Home by 2pm. Dry suit, 87, Arctic etc. Found the leak as soon as I put my head under the water - a 1-inch tear in my neck seal which meant that the dry suit functioned more as a wet suit. I followed the progress of the water throughout the dive - down my neck, then down my chest, then arms and finally, on the ascent, into my boots.