Mikhail Lermontov / Port Gore
23rd July 2006
John, Nigel, Stew Thorp, Glen, Peter, Irish, Mary, Chay and I met at Big Blue at 5.45am, to be at Waikawa at 8am. After a short stop at the bakery for a pie and a cold cup of coffee, it was down to the boat, where Stu Pope and Pauline were not waiting as planned. We were met by Des & Beryl our hosts for the day, who gave us a briefing after we had loaded on our gear. Then it was off to Port Gore.
John, the dive master for the day, gave us a briefing on how the Lermontov was positioned and where points of interest could be found, then we set up dive buddies. On arrival we got kitted up and off we went. Nigel, Peter and I swam down to the swimming pool and then dropped down to the propellers which you couldn't miss very easily, because they are very big. Each blade must be well over 6 feet tall! We then swam up to the bridge. The viz was good and we had good light to see in. We saw a few blue cod around the wreck. Stew T went down into the engine room and was amazed by the size of it.
Then back on board we were greeted with hot soup and bread and more tea and coffee if you wanted, amazing. Then off for a scallop dive, which were easy to find and of very large size. (My 50 scallops opened, weighed in 1.5kg of meat! So that meant, they were dam good size.) Then back on board to be met with hot pizza. Very nice and amazing. Still hadn't eaten much of my own lunch yet.
We then headed off to another spot for a cray dive where we found some very good country but only six crays. We had good viz on all our dives. Then back on board again to be greeted with hot quiche, very nice and amazing. Our hosts, Des and Beryl were AMAZING. What a very nice couple and amazing hosts and "MV Playmate" is a very nice boat. A big thank you goes out to them for an enjoyable and special day.
Anyway back on land by 5.30pm. A long but great day had by all. To the first time divers on our club trip, Welcome and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Also thanks to John, Peter, Mary and Stu Pope for providing transport. And a big thank you to Stu Pope for a well organised trip.
Ross Carter