My diving experience part 2 of 3.

It was an hour drive to the jetty. We had to take a special ferry for vehicles. The boat trip to straddie (Stradbroke Island) was 45 minutes we were off to Manta lodge to get our accommodation then down to the beach to hang out in the sun and wait for the tide to slow. The tide was high and the currents were very strong. We planned to just walk along the beach. Waves and the water was so clear that Cameron and Susanna could not resist. They just got down to their undergarments and entered the water. Cameron then started teasing me if i was shy. How can i resist? I went in as well. The currents were so strong we were pushed around 30 away from where we started within seconds. We frolicked in the surf for a while and enjoyed the sun before heading down to Amity Point to start diving. Amity point was the abandoned jetty that we were going to start our dive.
Now was the time for us to meet our challenges and see their dreams by gliding weightless in the sea. So with everyone being geared up and buddy checked we waded into the beautiful, uncharacteristically clear water of Amity Point. I faced my first problem, i could not sink! We had weights attached to me to sink but it was not enough, matt kept adding more and finally with 27Kg attached to me I sank! We all cruised comfortably around the pylons enjoying the company of Wobbegong* sharks, a Moray Eel, Stonefish, puffer fish and many other fish. Under the watchful eye of Matt on the surface, we completed the first dive with ease and proceeded to do all our surface skills, 20 minutes later we were out of the water and thinking about the 2nd dive. With the tide turning and the current picking back up we needed to hurry back into the water so we didn’t have to battle too much. Unfortunately the tide caught us and we had a bit of a battle in the water for the 2nd dive. The visibility dropped and we had to hang onto whatever we could find to stay in one place. I found a rope sticking out from the bottom of the sea bed and i held on to it and signaled the rest to hold on to me. There was a chain of us all holding onto one another! When it was my turn to do the skill I had to let go of the rope the moment i lost my grip of the rope, all of us were swept away by a few meters! We battled the current together and got back to the rope. What fun! Next 3^rd and 4^th dive, to dismount from a boat and go up to 18meters deep!