Dive report Magic Point 13 April 2025

Dive Stats:

• RUC Divers: Nat, Ken, Peter, Michael, Matt & Jordan – skippers Ken / Peter

• RUC Dive Support: Everyone

• Weather Conditions: Sunny, North Easterly swell

• Water Temp: 20-23 degrees

• Time in: 9.31am Time Out: 10.14am

• Dive time: 43 min

• Viz: 10-15m

• Average Depth:12.1m Max Depth: 16.5m

Dive Log:

It was predicted to be a beautiful day to be out in the boat and so Peter started the conversation followed by Ken. By Thursday night we had a full boat.

We all met at the ‘container’ ramp at Botany Bay and was greeted by the sounds of large aircraft cheering us on! The RUC boat got into the water without incident.

Once we got past Bare Island and out the heads, the seas started to get quite lumpy for the

North Easterly swell made driving a challenge. A mutual discussion was made amongst us all

and we still proceeded to Magic Point.

Upon arrival another dive boat was already there, Abyss, and had taken our spot, however, the skipper was friendly enough and gave us some information on where the divers were and so we anchored up approx. 50 metres to the side of Abyss.

It was decided that Ken, Nat & Peter would head in first so that we could check the anchor line at the bottom. Surprisingly, the visibility was great, and we could see all the divers down below and I just couldn’t wait to see the sharks.

On the bottom we found the anchor and Ken checked to see if it was secure. We gave the okay signals, followed the wall and found a nice-looking Port Jackson and some Wobbys enroute.

The cave entrance was quite murky possibly from the previous divers that had visited but sure enough we saw 2 elusive Grey Nurse sharks at the back of the cave. I couldn’t get too close for a large wobby had blocked my entrance and I didn’t dare touch its tail!

The current had started to turn quite strong and where we where, we hit a thermocline. I wanted to head towards the kelp beds to check for weedy sea dragons and signalled to Ken. As the current got stronger, Ken decided to head back towards the anchor and so we followed. Back past the cave and around the wall towards the anchor we found a long, thin, nylon, yellow rope heading from the shallows right to the sand. I signalled to Peter and Ken that I was going to cut it and before I could start a friendly Blue Grouper decided to entertain us for a while.

Peter decided to head back up to the boat to encourage Michael, Matt & Jordan to get ready whilst Ken & I decided to continue with the mission of cutting the thin rope. I signalled to Ken, and he decided to go towards the sand to collect the rope and I went the opposite direction. We collected a fair amount of rope (rather like a SMB reel rope type). Ken was down to 65 bar, and I still had 110 bar left, we came back up.

Michael, Matt & Jordan too found the cave afterwards and enjoyed a wider span of diving.

The seas weren’t too bad coming back but as we turned the corner to head towards Bare Island the boat engine started beeping and got louder when we picked up speed and so we had to slowly head back to the ramp.

Washed the boat down at the ramp and enjoyed coffee and biscuits watching the planes take off and land. It was an enjoyable day out.