Pirates Picnic - Okiwi Bay
14th February 2009 - The Safe Journey!
Everyone was up early and packed ready to set off to the annual Pirates Picnic, this year to be held at Okiwi Bay. The club had rented a batch and we were keen to get going. I decided to take my jet-skis and set off to pick them up whilst Pauline got all the stuff ready to take.
I got the jet skis attached and packed up the car. We all set off and coming down the hill into Rai Valley, the car started swaying badly. We stopped and yes, a flattie on the rear of the car. We then had to unpack the car to get at the spare. After a 30 minute stop we were off again. We arrived at Okiwi Bay just as the other three families were setting off for the island and quickly transferred our picnic stuff and dive gear into Angus’s boat. Pauline, Hanna and I mounted the jet-skis and set off. On the way over, we had trouble with one of the jet skis losing power as the reverse chute was dropping down – bugger. Later on the exhaust pipe split too!!! Pirate vessels arrived at Moukirikiri Island late morning to begin festivities. This years booty was duly dug up and enjoyed by
PIRATES featured in pictures below! After conducting the Pirates Picnic activities, Grant, Angus and myself decided to go for a scallop dive as it was the last day of the season and wouldn’t they be great on the BBQ for tea that night! Grant rigged up a long line for some fishing and we set off.
We dropped the long line and looked for a good scallop spot. The wind had come up so we went to a calm spot that we had dived before which was about 6m deep. We decided that if we hadn’t come across good numbers of scallops after five minutes we would surface and go to another location. After about nineteen minutes I surfaced with a mere twenty scallops to find I had been separated from my buddies and the boat. As my air whistle and safety sausage did not attract their attention I swam across to one of the other small islands to await pick up.
This is a timely reminder to keep your kit up to date with various surface safety equipment and take good note of currents, tidal changes, wind direction when making your dive plan with your buddy and team.
Grant pulled up his long line to find a more than descent sized Snapper as his Booty for a days work. Back at the batch we had a good de-briefing and a few beers and BBQ. Stu Pope