We couldn't believe the weather had turned calm this morning. For the last few days we've been unable to sail and its been blowing a gale and now we're finally set up and there isn't even a puff of wind! I can tell you that David is not happy. We decided to go shopping instead and found 2 dive shops and learned of a wreck trail shore dive just off the main beach.
We went back to the windsurfing beach at Safety Bay, only 5 minutes drive from the caravan park on the other side of the bay from Rockingham. There wasn't enough wind for us to sail but we watched 3 burly guys teaching themselves to windsurf on quite a small board with a poorly rigged sail. After they were exhausted from frustration, they came up the beach to ask us what they were doing wrong. We suggested that they could improve things by rigging the sail better and showed them how. We sold them an old mast extension we were not using and then looked at their board. It had a split from the tail to the fin box that was taking in water and after a bit of discussion we convinced the owner to take it back to the
shop where he'd bought it cheaply only yesterday and get another. Half an hour later he returned with a more suitable board and $230 credit in his pocket. We spent a few hours with them sorting things out and in return they bought us fish and chips and drinks for lunch which was greatly appreciated.
After lunch the wind still hadn't picked up so we did the shore dive, which was fairly easy, to 16m and found 5 small wrecks of various ages and constructions tied together along a chain. The vizibility was very low, around 5 metres but the dive was fun and we saw a few seahorses (my favourite!!).
When we got back to our
camp site we had to wash all our diving equipment (which always attracts a bit of attention). A couple, about our age, had set up their tiny tent in the site besides ours and came over for a chat. They were German and Dutch and travelling in a hire car in Australia for 5 weeks. They asked about the diving here and told us they had just learnt to dive at South Solitary Islands in
Coffs Harbour (one of our favourite diving locations in NSW).
We were so tired after our shore dive that we barely had time to finish our dinner of beef stroganoff before falling asleep without doing the dishes which was NOT a good plan because it created a swarm of ants that ate a hole through the floor of our tent!