Divers: Paul, Steve, Mick & Mark
The weather could have gone either way today, with 15knot Notherly’s it is very hard to predict what the water will do. Fortunately for us the water just got better and better. The Alert is about 5nm off Cape Schank and is hard to find at the best of times, so good conditions are a must. As we dropped down the shot line the water is turquoise blue, until we get to about 40metres then the viz drops to about 3metres. This site is always dark, I don’t know why but it just is. Steve has made it his life’s work to sort it out. But this is still one of the best wreck dives in Melbourne, as soon as we get to the bottom of the shot line we see the compass binnacle, swimming towards the stern we come across plates, bottles, portholes and of course dozens of crayfish. As l swim past the crays I hear voices in my head telling me to get as many as I can, but I think to myself, ignore Karl & Fred and just enjoy your dive!! Our plan was for 22 minutes bottom time and to swim completely around the wreck, however with so much to see and the poor viz making buddy contact difficult we cover less than half the site. Leaving us plenty to do on our next dive. Of course once we ascend back to 40metres we get the turquoise blue water again to deco in.
Mark