HMAS Swan Dive Video

Rupan's Trip Up North & Diving the Wreck of HMAS Swan

Friday 10th February
Had a delicious meal at the Great Millie restaurant in Fremantle, a Christmas gift from Irmeet, Kate & Alex. Many thanks.

Dinner at Great Mille

Saturday 11th February

We drove up to Hillarys Harbour - 20km north from Fremantle - with the bikes on our new bike rack. We took the cycle path along the coast through the dunes up to Ocean Reef Boat Harbour and then returned to Hillarys Harbour for a well deserved lunch. After lunch we rested our bellies on Sorrento Beach, before going for a refreshing snorkel.

 Pinnaroo point viewed from Mullaloo Beach

Sunday 12th February
Steve took Rupan to the airport for her week of rural work in the Kimberly Region with Matt Harper (anesthetist) and Sharon Weeks (audiologist). The first 2 days were spent doing clinic and operating in Broome. On our last night in Broome we had a spectacular seafood meal at 'The Wharf' and had a visit from a King Brown snake! On Valentine's day Steve had arranged for a bunch of flowers to be delivered to Rupan's room, but the florist was a bit late and Matt ended up having to drive them up to Derby whilst Sharon and Rupan were being flown to Fitzroy Crossing and Derby for extra clinics. It was a full on week but Rupan did manage to fit in a little bit of sightseeing - including catching the sunset at Cable Beach, having a beer at Matso's Brewery and visiting the 'Prison Boab' in Derby.

Matt Rupan and Gunesh at Matso's Brewery

Matso's Mango and Ginger Beer

Sunset at Cable Beach

A visit from a King Brown snake at 'The Wharf'

Rupan and Sharon with their ride for the day

Cable beach from the air

Clinic!

Derby Airport!

Rupan's very well travelled Valentines flowers

Tartan scrubs in Derby

The Prison Boab

Thursday 16th February
Steve got some bad news - he did not get the Bank West job.

Saturday 18th February
The alarm went off early, before sunrise - ouch! We loaded Bluey with our dive kit and set off on the 200km drive to Port Geographe Marina near Busselton were we were due to meet the dive club.

The dive boat was full. There were a lot of techie divers with twin tanks, sling tanks, hard hats, reels and scooters. After the dive briefing we kitted up, it was at this point that Steve discovered that Rupan had forgot to put batteries in the dive torch - it was the only thing she was responsible for - her excuse: "you told me to bring the torch, you did not mention the batteries" - fair point! We made our way to the dive deck, Steve looking at Rupan and shaking his head. (We did feel a little under-dressed with our single tanks though). We made our final okays before performing a giant stride into the ocean, then descended down the line to the wreck.

The HMAS Swan was scuttled in 1997 and sits in 35m at a slight list. It has a lot of coral growth already and can easily be penetrated. We made our way around the wreck, swimming up the walk ways to the stern and then back to the bow before doing our safety stop on the communications mast, home to a school batfish - you have got to love batfish they look so stupid. It was a great first dive, although the viz was not that good and there was a lot marine snow.

For the second dive Rupan wanted to see the propeller, she had indicated this in the first dive by spinning her finger and pointing to her bottom - but Steve failed to understand this very clear hand signal! After about 45mins surface interval we were back on the wreck and made our way to the stern - but there was no propeller but we did find a nudi. We made a couple of penetrations through the wreck before finishing the dive again on the communications mast with the ever present batfish. This felt like proper diving- none of this 6m shore diving malarkey!

Video to follow.......... watch this space!

Doing Time and Diving Bulk Jetty

Friday night we met up with Helga and Kat. We watched the sunset and had a few drinks at the Cottesloe Beach Hotel. Rupan worked with Kat at Heartlands Hospital, Birmingham, she has just started her fellowship at the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth. Steve has been detoxing since the beginning of January but feels the hot climate together with the constant socializing is having a detrimental effect!

Fremantle Prison is one of Freo's top attractions. We have been here for over two months and had not paid it a visit so we decided to book a couple of guided tours.

We started on the Doing Time Tour. This was very interesting. We were shocked to hear that the prison only closed in 1991, the conditions were very cramped and prisoners had to use a "poo bucket" up until its closure as there were no toilets in the cells. No wonder the prison was prone to rioting! It also has had a number of famous inmates: the lead singer of AC/DC - Bon Scott served time on three occasions!

After lunch we went on the Great Escapes Tour. We were met at the prison gate by an old chap, Steve did not think he would make it to the end of the tour! He regaled as with stories of escape attempts, famous inmates and how drugs were smuggled in, and it was obvious that he had once been a guard at the prison.

(Steve wondered if it was possible to reserve a cell for Rupan - for when she was naughty)

Steve outside the Fremantle Prison Gates

Steve in jail

Rupan in jail

The cells as they were in the 1880's

Rupan on the 'poo bucket'

Fremantle Prison

Sunday morning, we drove down to Dolphin Scuba in Welshpool and prepared for our first dive in WA. We were running out of excuses - too many sharks, water too cold, no transport and too hot! We picked up tanks & weights and listened to the dive briefing before heading down to Bulk Jetty at the Naval Base, South Fremantle.

We got ready and made a way to the waters edge. Rupan's pressure gauge was pissing air! A technical term that only experience divers will know. Should we abort the dive - as the divemaster recommended. We decided that Rupan did not really need a lot of air so we continued with the dive - hard core! We would not condone this course of action for novice divers as you would probably die ;)

It was an 'exhilarating' dive with a maximum depth of seven metres and the visibility was as much as two metres. Steve spotted four octopuses and two cuttlefish and Rupan spotted a couple of nudibranch.

Octopus

Cuttlefish

Nudibranch

After the dive we headed back to Dolphin Scuba for a sausage sizzle - yum yum! The skillful dive technicians at Dolphin Scuba were able to repair Rupan's air gauge using several spanners, a new o-ring and call to NASA. Altogether a very exciting dive full of high drama ;)

After a sausage we had time for a couple hours rest on the beach before we were due for birthday drinks and canapes at Helga's.