ex-HMAS Brisbane
A group of UniDive club members brave the swell blown up by strong northerlies for a dive on the ex-HMAS Brisbane. Everyone had a great afternoon dive despite the choppy conditions and strong current. The low visibility created a really cool atmosphere on the wreck. Unfortunately we had to cancel our planned night dive due to the strong current. NEXT TIME!
USS Atlanta
An extended cut of the GUE exploration project on the USS Atlanta, in the Solomon Islands. This is what GUE is all about.
A big thanks to Elena Konstantinou for making these videos available.
Source: vimeo.com
Humpback Whale Not Pictured
On Saturday 13 October 2012, another small group of UniDivers visited the wreck of the SS St Paul. Beautiful weather and warm water made the diving easy and rewarding, but by far the highlight of the day was sharing part of our decompression with a Humpback whale (not on film! :). A truly breathtaking and amazing experience.
Once again we spent 30min on the bottom enjoying the sites, breathing 21/35 trimix, followed by 20min of decompression on 50% oxygen.
SS St Paul
On Saturday 8 September 2012, a small group of tech trained UniDivers spent the day out on Moreton Bay diving the wreck of the SS St Paul. The weather was beautiful, the seas mostly calm and we were treated to some close encounters with the local humpback whales—unfortunately only above water!
The St Paul, a steamer, sank in 1914 after hitting Smiths Rock off Cape Moreton, Moreton Island. She sank in around 40m of water and features two large boilers, engines and a large rudder. The wreckage is covered in life and often visited by large rays and groupers.
We spent 30min on the bottom enjoying the sites, breathing 21/35 trimix, followed by 20min of decompression on 50% oxygen.
The Discovery of the Mars
More than a dozen volunteer divers have spent the past two weeks diving the historic Mars wreck.
The Mars is a 16th century Swedish Navy Flagship, discovered in 2011 after she was lost in battle 447 years ago. This project is focusing on documenting and accurately measuring the wreck.
Follow Ocean Discovery’s blog for updates from the team.
Source: oceandiscovery.org
Maritime Archaeology
Trent and Ryan recently participated in an AIMA/NAS Maritime Archaeology course with several other members of Unidive (several GUE Fundamentals graduates!), Ben Beneke, Bride Moran, Douglas Stetner, Jeremy Ford, Justin Marriner and Mark Herbert. The course was presented by Paddy Waterson (Queensland Government) and Ed Slaughter (Queensland Museum) and held at Fort Lytton, Manly.
The theory component was on Saturday and we spent Sunday recording and mapping faux wreck sites on land, using compasses, tape and dumpy levels to take measurements.
More photos by Douglas Stetner: http://bit.ly/KLD6F8
A beautiful video of our dive on the Azumasan Maru in the Solomon Islands.
Shot by Liam Allen and edited by Huw Porter.
The Wreck of the St Paul
A small group of tech qualified Unidivers took the boat out for a great dive on the St Paul in February. Conditions were less than ideal with difficult chop—we almost called it on the way out—and quite a swell at the site. However persistence paid off and conditions underwater were perfect. Very little current and 20 metre visibility made for a brilliant dive.
The St Paul sank in March 1914, after hitting Smiths Rock off Moreton Island. It sank with a full load of chromium ore and 18 souls were lost.
We spent 30 minutes on the wreck with an average depth of 39 metres, checking out the now largely collapsed structure, the boilers, the engine and the myriad of fish. Then leisurely made our way back to the surface with 20 minutes of decompression on 50%.
The trip back was dead calm and pouring rain most of the way with the ghost of a container ship crossing the channel presenting an eerie backdrop.
After a rough start, it turned out to be a really relaxing and enjoyable day and we’re looking forward to running more decompression trips with Unidive.
Source: australia.greatestdivesites.com
The Hustler III & Flinders Reef
A while back we took a group of fellow Unidivers out to the wreck of The Hustler III, discovered by local divers Matt and Rachel Murphy (GUE Fundamentals graduates!), and Flinders Reef, off Moreton Island, for an open water trip.
It was a great day for inexperienced divers—beautiful weather, calm seas, no current and 20m visibility. We saw plenty of corals, fish life, nudibranchs and turtles and a great day was had by all.
Another great video of our dive on the USS John Penn.
Shot by Liam Allen and edited by Huw Porter.
