Al Wells <al.wells@gmail.com> pounded away at his keyboard resulting
in:

excellent idea.

Dan Bracuk
Never use a big word when a diminutive one will do.

More power to ya!   If I can handle Dutch Springs upon it's general opening
in mid April (41-42°F, 10-20viz), that will be saying something!!!

I trust you have your appropriate "ovehead" certs/gear for ice diving etc. etc.

What drysuit and thickness?

____________________________________________
Regards,

Arnold

Last time (and I mean the last time) I did that my neck seal leaked
and all Star* cared about was getting to the warm food.

She's harsh. One can only hope she mellows before the grandchildren
arrive on the scene. She'll probably expect 'em to change their own
diapers at chow time.

JF

Definitely a little late -- I'd have got in ahead of you as well,
given the time differential...

In Melbourne, we had a high of 106F, and the water was a comfortable
68F, with viz approaching 30 Metres (100'). We dived the J5 submarine
at 37 Metres and were starting to see the wreck almost from the time
we hit the water.

We followed up with a shallow wall dive in around 26 metres -- there's
a big underwater "canyon" with depths of up to 100+ metres at the
entrance to Port Phillip Bay -- the Yarra River ran there during the
Ice Age. Because of the tidal volume of the bay, a *lot* of water
runs through the relatively narrow channel. Definitely a slack-water
dive and subject to shipping as well. The walls are brilliant diving,
though with lots of sponges in a variety of colours, gorgonians,
a few corals, and plants. The rock is relatively soft so there are
lots of little pockets for fish to live in when the tide is running.

Yesterday, I saw something new - a spider at about 26 metres - about
3/4" across the legs and nearly fleuro yellow coloured -- I thought
it might have been a juvenile starfish, but when I got back on the
boat and described it, someone else said they'd previously seen one
and looked it up. I'd easily have around 30-40 dives logged on the
walls in the area, and this is the first time I'd seen one. One of
the things I like about diving -- you can dive the same site again
and again and still keep seeing new stuff.

It is really too bad that our state government is hell-bent on
destroying the area. Seems that the "latest and greatest" container
ships (the ones that won't fit through the Panama Canal) cannot
get through the heads an into the Port of Melbourne -- so they're
planning to blast and dredge to "sort things out" :-(

Ah well, all I can do is enjoy it while it is still there.

Hope everyone else is doing whatever is necessary to keep the
"gills" wet.

-Don

[itinerary for Arnold's dive trip that started thread snipped]

No issues here. I'm more than happy to arrange a detour. The diving we can do
in the summer when it's warm enough for ya.    

I'll shoot an e-mail shortly.

____________________________________________
Regards,

Arnold

The water's cold for my taste as well.

I could participate in something on the 12th or 13th, but I've got conflicts
on the 14th and 15th.

Rum and food are standards at the Island Girl Bar.

Lee

El Stroko Guapo <omgray@earthlink.net> pounded away at his keyboard
resulting in:

What if I do it?

Dan Bracuk
Never use a big word when a diminutive one will do.