The later on in the day, with rather fuzzy heads it was of for a long walk along the beach, and with the brisk wind the cob webs were soon blown away, later on we visited a site with dinosaur fossilized foot prints, one of our members knew of from her childhood. By now we were anxious to find out if diving was on for tomorrow, after a quick chat to the skipper things were looking good for Sunday, so a more sedate night was had in anticipation of a good days diving.
With a good bit clearer heads, flat calm seas and a clear sunny sky we headed out to the wreck of the San Taburcio, a 6000 tonne tanker that sank in two peices after hitting a mine in 1940 she now lies upright on a silt seabed and is largely intact, her giant port anchor swings in the currents and like the rest of the wreck is covered in soft corals, dead mans fingers and plumose anemones. The dive plan was to do the stern on the first dive and the bow on the second.
As we kitted up a minkie whale broke the surface, the skipper informed us that the last group he had out, it came up quite close to them on the shot line, I've never seen kit put on and buddy checks done so quickly, unfortunately no sign under the surface, but loads of shoaling fish and fantastic colours from the soft corals & Anemones made this a great dive with most of the time spent on the deck and accommodation area at 27mtrs. After a surface break it was back down onto the bow of the wreck, probably the better of the two dives being able to orientate yourself from the bow, back along the central walkway to the superstructure and bridge section, looking down into the cargo holds covered with DMF's, again a good array of life from congers, wrasse, schools of pollock and a good sized octopus, fantastic dive.
With us not getting a dive on the Saturday, the skipper kindly offered to take us out on the Monday, unfortunately for some of the party, who had decided to return home on the Sunday night, and so they missed a couple of great dives, the first on the wreck of the Unity, a small but very colourful wreck in 26 mtrs of water with loads of life and good vis, the second dive was on a shallow reef called Queenstreet, again good life around from congers, lobsters, large crabs and wrasse etc.
This completed a great weekend despite the poor start on Saturday thanks goes to the Skipper and crew of the Top Cat for their professionalism, and enthusiasm over the weekend, and also to Sandy for organizing the trip and for ever being optimistic.
