Hi Divers,

Tonight we are saying farewell to a great instructor and friend of Pisces Divers – Willem Wessels! Willem has over the last couple of years moved from being a regular on the boat to instructing for us full time (while also installing our EVE software and fielding useless technical questions with good humour!) Willem and Jax are moving up to Tofo in Mozambique where they are building a beautiful house on the beach. Willem always brought a great energy and sense of fun to his diving courses that he ran for us and he will be missed. I am sure he will miss us too and be down to visit Cape Town at least a coupe of times a year!

Last weekend’s dives all went out well, with launches on Friday, Saturday and Sunday all having decent conditions. Our shore dive group did a Lady Long Beach workshop and laid down an array of amphorae which will provide some homes for octopuses and other critters in the very near future, I’m sure. When we got to LLB we found she was completely covered in ulva (sea lettuce) and almost unrecognisable – see below.

There is unfortunately some remnants of the plankton bloom lurking in the Bay and the weather report indicates quite a bit of swell and Westerley wind for the weekend. We are going to be doing some close inshore launches tomorrow and then have a break on Saturday while we see how things are looking for Sunday. It definitely feels as though the Cape Doctor is waking up after a long winter and I think the SE cycles are going to be starting soon.

  Hi Divers,

This last weekend produced some truly excellent viz, although it was foul-weather gear + beanies for the skippers out there topside! We planned to launch on both days but ended up just going out on Saturday, as it seemed most divers wanted to watch the RWC final on Sunday! In fact, that final was quite a game with the Kiwi’s nearly imploding to the dominant French side. All we really know now is that the Kiwi’s can only win a WC at home, and even then it was a damn close thing. No bitterness here, can you tell?

Anyway, Saturday was good, but Sunday looked BE-A-U-tiful and the Bay had that rare and special turquoise glow about it and the water was so clear you could see the pimples on a nudibranch’s arse from the deck at Dixies…almost.

With the light South Westerlies and very Westerly swell for the middle part of the week, the viz should stay brilliant, so we plan to make up for being dry on Sunday by doing a night dive on the PMB tomorrow night and a couple of launches on Wednesday too. Who knows what the weekend will bring, but we will advertise our Sat and Sun launches on the web calendar and Facebook, so stay posted!

Colleen Bernard from Amanzi started her first Cape Town IDC with us on Sunday and has the lads well under the whip already. As everyone introduced themselves, Colleen wanted to know how each of the candidates got into scuba diving and one of the guys from Hermanus had a jaw dropping story to tell. When he was surfing at the age of sixteen, he encountered the recently deceased corpse of a scuba diver in the water. Upon closer inspection he noticed a large bag of abalone attached to the corpse. “Well, that’s alrighty then”, he thought, as he prised the regulator from the mouth of the diver and unstrapped the BCD. Later that afternoon, dad returns home from work to find son in pool on scuba. “Hey, dad, look what I found down at the beach today!”



Peet van Eeden snapped this great shot of a Compass Sea Jelly on Friday last week.

Training:

 

Our main focus is the Instructor Development Course which is underway.

Shore Dive:

Yes, it’s happening as usual! We have been having some great fun with our Saturday shore dives and we usually have between 5 and 12 divers joining in. Come down to the shop at 0900 and join the group!

Launches:

Tuesday 25th October:

 

Night dive to the PMB (max depth 22m) Meet at Cape Boat and Ski Clubhouse at 1800.

 

Wednesday 26th October:

 

1000:  Partridge Point (max depth 22m)

1200: Caravan Reef (max depth 20m)

 

Friday 28th October:

1000: SAS Good Hope wreck 9max depth 33m)

1200: Pyramid Rock (max depth 14m)

 

Weekend Launches to be Announced

Wednesday 26th October:

 

1000: to be decided – please check website and FB for update on Tuesday

1200: to be decided