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We dived at Rapid Bay jetty (for the third time in five weeks) in early December. Our dives all comprised a mixture of Society members and one or two ‘ring ins’. Each dive was completely different to the other two.

This latest dive, on 5th December, consisted of some five ‘divers’. I say ‘divers’ because Tony, the overseas visitor whom we were hosting the dive for, was unable to descend and resorted to a bit of snorkelling.

David Muirhead started his dive, like many of his previous dives, by spending most of his time photographing within a small area. I, myself, led the two female divers towards the outer-end of the old jetty. We didn’t quite make it out there though, as the two ladies had other ideas.

Despite a few ‘hiccups‘ during our dive, our team of three returned to the platform at the new jetty. Tony had already exited the water ahead of us, but David stayed in for much longer.

I had been kept so busy during my dive that I failed to take any photographs with my camera. I had attempted to take some photos a couple of times but the subjects quickly disappeared. It was fortunate for me that my buddy Haixia Wen used her GoPro camera during the dive and took lots of shots of me, including this one with Trish Watson: –

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Trish Watson following me underwater

(Taken by Haixia Wen)

Haixia also took this shot of me recovering Trish’s mask, snorkel and fins from the bottom at the end of the dive: –

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Steve recovering one of Trish’s fins from the bottom

(Taken by Haixia Wen)

David took plenty of underwater photos on the day, such as this one of a Pretty Polly wrasse on a jetty pile at the old jetty: –

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Pretty Polly wrasse

(Taken by David Muirhead)

 After our dive, I drove Tony, Trish and Haixia over to the picnic tables at the nearby camping ground for lunch. Haixia continued to take a few photographs, such as this one of us talking over our lunch: –

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Trish, Steve & Tony talking over lunch

(Taken by Haixia Wen)

That large ute behind me had been loaned to us for the day by my employer to assist us with the trip. Its size really helped us to cope well with all of our gear. Haixia also took this photo of the ute (with Trish & myself in the picture): –

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Our transport for the trip

(Taken by Haixia Wen)

We drove along the ‘scenic route’ back to Adelaide so that I could show my passengers sights such as the Myponga Reservoir. I dropped my passengers off in reverse order to that of the pick-ups in the morning. Everybody said that they had retrieved all of their gear when I dropped them off at their homes, but when I cleared the ute out, I found an unknown jacket and dive hood. Subsequent enquiries revealed that the Jacket was Tony’s and the hood was Trish’s.

One other topic of concern was whether or not David still had the black strap that he uses for his dive trolley, but he confirmed that he had not lost it on the jetty at all.

Many thanks go to our divers and supporters of the trip, including my employer for the loan of the ute for the day. Thanks also go to Society member Cher McGrath for setting up the dive for Tony who was visiting from Canada. Many thanks also go to Thor Andrew for the loan of the size 12 boots and fins for Tony to use during his stay here. Thanks also go to Peter Gower for loaning his 7-pocket Velcro weightbelt to Tony. Thanks also to both Haixia & David for their photographs used to illustrate this report.

By Steve Reynolds

Steve Reynolds is the current President of MLSSA and is a long-standing member of the Society. Steve is a keen diver, underwater explorer, photographer and is chief author of the Society's extensive back catalogue of newsletters and journals.

One thought on “Rapid Bay Dive 5/12/15”
  1. […] The dive was held on 5th December 2015. It wasn’t a great dive for me, but that’s another story. I can only say that my dive time was less than an hour, my dive buddies were disappointing (uncooperative?) and I didn’t have time to enjoy myself. (My report on the dive can be found at Rapid Bay Dive 5/12/15 – Marine Life Society of South Australia Inc. (mlssa.org.au).) […]

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