Okiwi Bay
Saturday 18th October
Five keen Divers and Scallop fans had their names down for the Okiwi Bay
Dive on Saturday 18 October 2008. The initial meet up was at North St at
6.30am where we quickly hooked the boat onto Robs Prado, loaded the gear
and got comfortable for the drive over to Okiwi. On the way over Grant
mentioned that the new boys in the club normally have the honour to write the
dive report. Unfortunately I did not bring my camera to show you any pictures
of the huge catch we made so you will have to believe my words.
So off we went straight out to the Island where Grant picked our first dive spot
for Scallops. The call was made to get the young fellas wet first so Sean and
Michael got into the water followed by Mark. Getting into the water out of the
cold wind made the water temperature feel warmer than it might have been.
The visibility was reasonably good so we worked our way along the sandy
bottom finding some good patches of our target species. After about 30
minutes it felt like we hit the end of the Scallop bed in about 11m depth and
with the catch bags being pretty full we went back up to the surface. Mark was
still in the water when Sean and me got our bags pulled up and did the
measuring and counting assisted by Rob and supervised by Grant. Mark was
pleased with the Oyster and big flounder he found during his dive.
We still had a full tank each so instead of going straight back to the ramp we
stopped at a sheltered spot near Hippolite Point. Mark did the boat watch
while the rest of us went for our second swim. After about 20 minutes in the
water most of us were back on board with only one cray spotted by Sean.
Grant and Michael saw another school of Moki but this time they were left
alone.
On the way back it was Sean's turn to tell us the story about the big cray
nobody else saw and he nearly managed to get. Mark seemed very happy to
just concentrate on driving the boat, as he must have heard these stories too
many times before.
With the boat back on the trailer and the sun coming out we were all quite
pleased with what we made out of a typical spring day and happily headed
back towards Nelson. But before we left the car park Sean quickly entertained
us with his second attempt to break some bones while falling of the boat. We
all had a good laugh but little did Mark know that his turn would come as soon
as we were back in Nelson parking the boat.
Despite the windy and choppy conditions it has been a great day out and as
the new kid in the club a big thanks to Grant for organizing the trip and the
rest of the team for a warm welcome. Looking forward to the next dive.
Michel Stump