MV Esperance Star
Queensland
November 2005
A Classic Kiss Rebreather diver's travels.
Having been at home for five long long weeks without
getting wet, watching others jumping off my boat having fun,
was having a profoundly negative effect on me, until a late opportunity arose from a vacant spot becoming available
on a Brisbane liveaboard, the good ship Esperance Star.
It was a mid week trip, well organised by a usually mild mannered fellow named Bear, who convinced me that it would be a good
thing -- it was a Dive-Oz photographers gathering and I had lingering doubts about it
(not the usual crowd I kick around with) but I was so desperate I agreed, I'm in.
Virgin airline was my choice of travel and I was happy to fly up & back with the fifty two kilos of scuba gear, that
included two empty, three litre tanks and ten kilos of soda lime without any excess charges, thanks again Virgin.
They have my vote and the eye candy certainly helps time fly. In Brisbane I caught up to a few of the
lads, Bear, Des and Andrew sitting around a coffee table feeding their faces and fiddling with camera bits and pieces. We
were waiting on Rich, a Prism rebreather diver to turn up,
and he was lucky to arrive albeit late, (prism & late seem to go hand in hand)
having had the original flight cancelled out of Sydney. In the meantime Des and Andrew nicked off to
see if a ship chandler could supply some fittings not in the new kit that was spread out on the table.
When Rich arrived we three loaded up our gear in a mini bus to take us to the Scarborough marina, a forty minute drive away.
We were the last to arrive and promptly started storing our equipment to the jeering of the primed yobbo's onboard knocking
back more liquid amber.
F#%K
I thought, what have I let myself in for----------- I could fit right in here!
All this banter seemed to set the unflappable Bear off into a sudden tirad of expletives a Tourette's sufferer or skipper
would be proud of, which seemed to get the group focused and moving in the right direction down the street for more boxes
of beer--- and pizza for dinner. The light was
fading fast as we slipped the berth and headed out
onto the bay bound for Moreton Island, downing several stubbies along the way.
I had been assigned the forward quarters sharing it with two others, Nunzio and my old room mate from Bikini, Andrew
reputably two of the best wood cutters in the Rhino group. Now I had my sneaky suspicions that there was some sort of
collusion and the others had
caught wind of my exploits on other trips, for I had the upper bunk right under the hatch that allowed for plenty of
ventilation. Good for me and all others below, I guessed it was reconfirmed when I spotted this photo. Des, it wasn't that
loud & stop gagging Bear, sorry Andrew but beers and beans are a great combo when you let em rip!
In the early morn when my glazed eyes finally lifted, I noticed
five rebreathers, apart from my classic KISS, there was a
Prism, two Sport Kisses and an AP Inspiration assembled along with seven open circuit kits onboard. Chris of Byron was
without his Prism (away having the head checked) and had to make do with a sports Kiss.
First dive was a check
out twenty metres down on Curtain Artifical reef, made from the scuttling of old vessels. All was good and in working
order except for one of my new Kiss PO2 displays going on the blink below three metres, OK, unconcerned I still had the
other two tracking perfectly and with over twenty metres visibility it was all too easy. After the dive I would check
it's operation and it would be working fine. This was the pattern for that moniter over the next three days of diving.
The recreational dives on offer were a very good mixture of rusty wrecks and magnificent reefs, such as Flinders in the
shallow range and Gotham that
bottomed out at thirty four metres. First day was very relaxing, three dives with the group
was all very good, plenty of tucker washed down with a few ales in the evening made it very satisfying.
Trev, our charasmatic fish whispering skipper and
his crew of Cathy, Patrick and Tracy are excellent at positioning Esperance Star on site everytime, didn't miss once.
Day two for me was off to a bad start when I hit the water doing a giant stride from the vessel.
Procedure is once in the water, make your way forward to bow and descend down beside the chain.This time they paid out
extra chain due to a strong current running with a moderate swell over the Cemento wreck and it was hard work just
getting to the bow. Finning hard to keep near the chain at about twenty metres I was tiring rapidly. I grabbed at the
chain so I could pull my way down hand over
hand. Having latched on I now found myself going up and down like a proverbial
yo-yo and my work of breathing was strained. I was tossing up whether to abort at this stage but pride stood in my way,
shit I can't do that, so, silly me pushed on. Reaching the bottom I rested a couple of minutes before moving up to
the wreck feeling not too flash. I had flushed the rebreather quite a lot on the way down due my mask leaking because of
my full beard and the ADV would supply only a trickle when demanded. I stayed out of the current as much as possible making
my way around the wreck slowly, stopping at the stern and still feeling uneasy I switched to open circuit and drew a few breaths
before switching back to the loop, I then entered the wreck where all the others were hovering taking photos in semi
darkness with shafts of light penetrating the rusty innards. I stayed only a short time inside before deciding to make my way
back to the anchor chain to ascend. It was a
very uncomfortable dive that I never settled into and promptly stripped down the
breather totally, back onboard. Every one raved about a great dive on this interesting upsidedown wreck that moves in the
current, wearing grooves into the rocks it's resting on.
Checks on my breather found very little except the velco that holds the counterlung down had lost its grip, allowing
the bag to fold upon itself when I jumped in, is my best guess. The ADV valve stem/seal looked in good condition and
with a bit of spit wiped over it,I reassembled all it's components.
I repacked my scrubber and reassembled the unit for the positive and negative tests and calibration while the others had a
dive at Flinders reef. After the lunch time banquet we headed for the exposed Gotham site where a fair swell was still
running.
Only three of us geared up initially, Dave on his Sport Kiss was first in and a report of slack water
was heard, Richard on his Prism was next, followed by me. Dropping like a stone the breather performed perfectly onto this
reefy pinnacle surrounded by sand. Catching up with Dave at the bottom taking some shots, we started to head off
swimming slowly anti clockwise around the base, I was leading and had rounded the corner ninty degrees, headed into a tiny
current, looking back to see (where the hell are they as you do with photographers) if they had followed, I spotted the
two sharks beside me almost, two metre grey Whalers, instead of Dave and Rich. I stopped dead in my tracks and watched them
in awe, slowly moving off, doing circles when the others turned up and spotted them.
I looked up and saw the third bigger shark directly above us moving away only after two noisy open circuit guys Aengus and
Anthony turned up.
Eventually we made our way back to the top of the rock pinnacle and watched many different species finning around there.
I had spent a lot of
time at depth clocking up some deco obligations and was the last to surface, not before getting the
"hurry up" boat signal from Trev. It seems there were quite a few sickies onboard going very green in the deterioating sea
conditions only to go greener with envy when told how good it was below.
Third dive of the day was back in the sheltered waters of Moreton Island, on a burnt out yacht, digging for buried
treasure, ahh me hearties! Trev's booty is an old penny now adorning the cabin wall.
Day three started with a drift dive that I found a bit ho hum after the previous day, just cruising along over some very
ordinary reef with the odd wobbygong. When we hit sand I was ready to ascend but stuck with the group and was rewarded
with the biggest Manta ray (2.5m wide)
I have ever spotted (only two) underwater thanks to Des pounding his fists so
hard it drew all our attention, bar poor Aengus who was too far ahead to hear. The Manta ray was right on top of one diver,
I believe it may have been Karen before it reeled off into the wild blue yonder. Totally awesome!
I did one more cruisy dive on the wrecks of Curtain to finish up. Starboard side of the Melbourne wreck is the wheel house
lying on the sand, it was here I was up close and personal with a Queensland Groper and didn't know it until I turned
around, he scared the living daylights out of me, he was that big. Got Nunzio's attention far too late for he couldn't
catch up to take the shot.
Think I need eyes in the back of my head and may have to invest in a rear vision mirror because this is where they come to
check you out a lot of the time!
Many thanks to SA Dave for saving me a good seat at Brisbane airport, and again when an annoucement came over the terminals
PA system
"Could MR.Jeffrey Giddins return to the check-in counter" . The Gestapo disapproved of me for having my scissors in
my carry on and now I was getting nervous going back again. It was all about my empty tanks and ensuring the valves were open.
My first trip on a liveaboard and with photographers was two things I thought would never suit me, how wrong was I.
Now I know better, and as Arnie once said " I'll Be Back" mid week to dive some of the deeper wrecks I didn't do.
Just give me a call.
Much credit to all the guys for allowing me use of their photos. I couldn't fit them all in this report so I have provided
links to their websites where you will see some mighty fine galleries by clicking on the different thumbnails below.
Photo Galleries
Enjoy
Jeff Giddins
