[Previous entry: "YONGALA .......sleeping giant black stingrays"] [Next entry: "WHITE POINTER SHARK FILE"]

25/07/2005: "YONGALA BLUE WATER CURRENT"

Dianne Widdowson at the heavily-weighted 3 meter deco stop above SS Yongala, in beautiful clear water - but with a strong current.

Estimate the current speed by noting her exhaled bubbles trailing behind her.

What appears to be about three knots is in reality about ONE KNOT. Almost too strong for a diver to swim against.

Our Captain had just completed a charter to measure ocean current flows - he knew currents well and claimed we were diving with about one knot. Most aboard found the going too difficult.

This Yongala dive was documented in my 2nd video Reef Safari. Also shown is a dive in a current about three times more powerful at the Quetta wreck a few weeks later.

So powerful was that current, your face mask would be washed away if you turned your face sideways while groping hand-over-hand down a rope to the wreck below. More about that dive eventually......