OKIWI BAY (nee Cape Jackson)
10th February 2007
It was the usual bright and early start for the Nelson Bays Dive Club, however, the weather was not good over at Port Jackson so it was off to Okiwi Bay to hunt Scallops (being as it was nearly the end of the season) and crayfish. On the way over we passed Angus with his boat in tow on his way to the original Duncan bay launch site and headed him back to Okiwi Bay. Unfortunately lack of phone coverage meant that Peter, who was supplying a boat, and Grant both of whom had spent the night in Duncan Bay were unable to join us, so after a rather long wait we packed 6 people into the dive club boat and 7 people in to Angus's boat and we were away! We headed out to try and get our quota in the scallop spots in Okiwi Bay. Boat 1(Paul, Stu, Mark, Claire, Bryan and myself) did very well, all getting their quota very easily. Boat 2 however, (John, Angus, Bevan, Ange, Irish, Mary and Joe) didn't quite manage it but threatened to get all the crayfish, hmmm, one will see.
It was then out to the crayfish spots further out in the bay and around the corner a bit. Boat 1 didn't have the best start and managed to find a couple of spots that were a bit barren when it came to the crayfish. A couple of crays were seen but that was at the end of tanks and time to surface. One last ditch attempt was made by the last two on Boat 1 and thanks to Paul (probably saved us a down trou) who came up with a great looking cray. Boat 2 on the other hand, had much better luck than us and Irish, who I might add was very proud of his catch, came up with two crayfish, one of which was a healthy size. John, with the help off Ange's hunting and sighting skills and 40 bar of gas, managed to bring boat 2's total to 3 crayfish, not bad! Anyway, back to the scallop spot for Boat 2 where they completed their quota of scallops, while we tried for the crays again, no luck however. It was then off to the Rai Valley Tavern for the post dive beer. All in all, even due to the bad start, it was a very good day and we will all be eating scallops for a few nights to come, and some even a bit of crayfish!
Sarah the Seadragon
