On Friday I seriously considered the wisdom of taking a group of divers over to Port Gore for a weekends diving. The rain was torrential from Thursday night to the time we left at 6.30pm Friday night, the guy’s traveling up from Christchurch had to endure rock falls, slips and flooding from Amberly right through to Blenheim, at Kaikoura the swell was up to 4 to 5 meters and the sea that dirty you could plant spuds in it.

All day Friday I looked at he weather maps and with the promise of a better day on Saturday decided to go ahead with the trip. After a slow three hour drive, avoiding rock falls and slips on the road over we arrived at the Lodge at 9.30am and settled in for the evening.

Saturday dawned with SE winds of 25 knots and cloudy skies, after a late start we headed out to the wreck for our first dive at 10.30am and were greeted by the best visibility I have had on the wreck since last Spring a real surprise given the rain and conditions down the east coast.

SEA PERCH ON A HAND RAIL OF THE MIKHAIL LERMONTOV

Sunday was even better weather wise with it being as flat as it can get, sunny and warm, the vis was still pretty good and everyone had a very enjoyable days diivng. Guy had his new video camera and spent some time getting footage of the wreck and divers, Hamish took his Harcourt’s flag down for a photo, with the hope of entering it into a Harcourt’s photo competition. Watch out for the product of both their efforts in the near future.

Overall it the weekend was very pleasant and proved to me the value of basing our Lermontov wreck dives from the Lermontov Dive Lodge in Port Gore.

Thanks to Awesome Scuba for diving again with Go Dive and to Guy for his efforts in the kitchen.

safe diving

Brent

Just for a change I have scheduled a weekends diving away from the Lermontov and Port Gore for August 7/8th.

Plan is to dive one day out at Long Island and Motuara Island with a stop off at East Bay for a kai dive for scollop’s and then a day locally or out side Tory Channel, depending on weather.

KOKOMOHUA ISLAND LOOKING TOWARDS LONG ISLAND MARLBOROUGH SOUNDS

The Marine Reserve has been established since April 1993 and covers 619 hectares, over the years fish life has re-populated the reserve, in some areas crayfish up to 5 kgs in weight are common and are very friendly.

For Dive Club members the weekends diving will cost only $170.00 to $190.00 depending on how far out we get on the second day, this includes cylinders, air and all kit if you don’t have any. If you aren’t a club member this is the ideal opportunity to join up and get a great weekends diving, meet other members and take home a feed of scallops. I had my first feed of Port Gore scallops last night, even though the row was a bit small the muscle was large and juicy as usual and melted in the mouth.

Check out the club page for more details on the club.

UPDATED 27 July: Only 2 spaces available

safe diving

Brent

Last weekend was one of the busiest we have had at the Lodge so far this year. We spent three days with a group of 14 students, introducing them to temperate water diving, the Mikhail Lermontov and the PADI Advanced course.

Friday and Saturday were perfect days weather wise, with it cutting up rough on Sunday we headed back to Picton to finish the course and dive the Koi wreck. The students who had learn’t to dive in Vietnam, found that diving in temperate water was a bit more of a challenge, with wetsuits being thicker and therefore more buoyant and the visibility not so good. However after a slow start with the orientation dive on Friday, skills slowly developed and by the time a few dives had been completed, including  a night dive and navigation dive in near zero vis back in Picton, confidence levels and skills had improved dramatically.

Congratulations to those who completed their Advanced Open water course and thanks for diving with Go Dive. Also thanks to Nine for his sterling job in transferring the group backwards and forwards to Picton, Nelson and dive sites, as well as supervising the underwater activities and to Tomo for keeping us all feed and watered.

Safe diving

Brent

With the Southerly weather bomb blasting Wellington and the East coast of the South Island on Friday, all the Christchurch based dive shops headed up to Marlborough to dive with their students. Testament to how protected the Sounds are from such weather events and that even in the most severe weather conditions diving is still good and safe.

Both Saturday and Sunday were sunny and clear with water visibility in the Inner Sounds hovering around 6 to 8 metres. However that is nothing to the 30 metre plus visibility we encountered in the Riwaka Caves yesterday. The Riwaka resurgence would have been the lowest I have seen it for quite some time, leading to very clear water existing cave, if I had a straight view and a super powerful light I reckon I would have been able to see 50 plus metres.

LIMESTONE POOLS INSIDE THE RIWAKA CAVES

Interestingly, in the back chamber there seems to have been a large rock fall brining down part of the roof, along with some rather large boulders. The main limestone formations though remain untouched thankfully.

Next weeks Lermontov Lodge trip still has two places on it if your keen, some of the team are planning some deep penetration so should be a good weekend. I can be contacted on 0800 GODIVE if your keen on coming along.

Have a good week.

cheers

Brent

Last weekend charter to the Lermontov was a cracker with the weather playing it’s for part most of the time and vis although average on the outside, being excellent on the inside.

A combination of big tides, after surge from last weeks tsunami and a plankton bloom has brought the vis throughout the sounds down to, at its best a few metres, but inside the wreck where the water is still and not affected by current and the light level is low, the vis is as good as your torch.

Aaron and Hamish finally found the Sadko bar after a few attempts and were able to sign off their Great Russian Pub Crawl T-shirts specially printed for the trip. Kirsty, Coxy and Karl done the shop run with Hamish as guide and through the engine room guided by myself.

Phillip and Antonio also visited the engine room, guided by myself and accompanied by Andrea who guided them around the wreck for other dives. The restaurant was visited a number of times by Aaron and Hamish and some nice pieces recovered, which I am sure will be displayed with pride in the Dive Shack Sterling, Auckland. All up 9 dives over 3 days, good food prepared by Andrea and good company, what more could you ask for in a dive trip.

Last weekends group

Dive Shack have re-booked for September 16/17/18/19 if you live up north and want to join a group coming down, alternatively Go Dive have scheduled dates posted on our web site www.godive.co.nz and if you want to learn Advanced wreck diving techniques our next TDI course is on April 23/24/24 staying out at the Lodge.

A warning though, Wreck diving can be addictive and a hazard to your marriage.

safe diving

Brent

Last weekends group to visit Port Gore had the bonus of being accompanied by Melville, a juvenile Bottle Nose dolphin. The dolphin seems to be quite young and quite possibly the calf of Maui a Bottle Nose dolphin that has been a regular in the Kaikoura and Marlborough Sounds region for over 15 years now.

From early Friday to Sunday, Melville spent all his/her time cruising around the cove, swimming into water as shallow as 1 metre and rubbing on our stern rope. Some of the group who took the time to jump in for a swim had a number of close encounters although Melville was generally quite shy when approached.  When I returned back to the Lermontov on Monday on a day trip, Melville was still their, maybe he/she will become a permanent resident.

MELVILLE THE DOLPHIN, PHOTO BY CLAIRE MURPHY

The visibility on the wreck seems to holding up still, but we were subjected to a bit of a weather bomb Saturday morning so decided to dive on the mussel farm rather than be subjected to the sever weather conditions further out in the Bay. The mussel farm dive proved interesting with sightings of seahorses and many other smaller critters.

By the afternoon the sun was shining again and we managed another Lermontov dive, followed by a dolphin swim and then a night dive in the Cove.

On Sunday we dived the Lermontov in the morning, and after lunch headed out for a last dive on the Rangitoto, a steel streamer that hit the same reef as the Lermontov and sunk in 1873. This wreck although broken up is a very nice dive, alive with reef fish.

Thanks to the group from Dive HQ for diving with Go Dive, we look forward to diving again with you in the near future.

 Up-coming Lermontov Lodge Port Gore events:

4/5/6th March 3 day trip to the Lodge 3 spaces

19/20/21 March 3 day club trip to the Lodge

23/24/25th April TDI Adv Nitrox and Deco Procedures course at the Lodge

1/2/3/4/5th may KISS rebreather course at the lodge

Safe diving

Brent

Go Dive

The weather turned it on for last weekends group of Lermontov divers, both Saturday and Sunday were  and nearly windless. However the weekend was a good example of even if the surface conditions are good the underwater visibility can be unpredictable and change in as little as one tide. Saturday’s vis was as low as 2 metres on the out side, with Sunday being up to 10 metres plus in some areas of the wreck.

The vis didn’t matter to much to those of us that ventured into the bowls of the wreck, I introduced KISS diver and NZ distributor Paul Trainor to the Leningrad restaurant, this is a fantastic dive with vis as good as your light source. Over the weekend we visited the Leningrad and kitchen on a number of dives and found some interesting little cubby holes worth a return visit.

Congratulations to Jasper and Tim who completed their Advanced Openwater Plus course with Go Dive over the weekend and Marek who finished off his Wreck Specialty.

Weekend dive group

Warren and Steve dived with slings for the first time along with Guy as their trusted leader, over the period of the weekend they visited areas of the wreck previously unaccessible to those on single cylinders and really enjoyed the extra security of having a  redundant system inside the wreck and extra gas at the end of the dive to extend their run time while exploring the shallower parts on the out side.

Thanks to everyone for diving with Go Dive and I look forward to having a blast again on next weekends trip which is now full.

Safe Diving

Brent

Last weekends Lodge trip was a combination of the best it gets and the worst it gets.

Saturday was unbelievable and the group from Awesome Scuba managed 4 superb dives, the vis on the Lerm was still holding and water temp right up. But as expected it was the calm before the storm with a 50 knot + Southerly blowing us out on the Sunday. Thanks Dom and the crew for diving with Go Dive

The southerly has been slowly dying out over the week and we enjoyed a nice day at Long Island Marine Reserve yesterday, we have also been pretty busy with Open water and Specialty training.

Tonite we are off again to the Lodge with a full crew, again expecting great conditions tomorrow with another southerly on Sunday. Hopefully not as blowy as last Sunday’s. I have 2 spaces on a 3 day trip to the Lodge next Friday, Saturday, Sunday if your keen to come out and see what it is all about.

Also watch this space for details on a KISS rebreather course coming up early May, this will be run entirely out at the Lermontov Lodge over 5 days.

Shaun from Melbourne on his Optima

Have a good weekend and hope you get wet.

Safe Diving

Brent

After a pretty ordinary start to summer the weather has finaly settled and we are enjoying a settled period of weather. Over the last few weeks we have been as busy as a "lizard drinking", with another 4 day trip to the Lerm Lodge with a big group from Aussie, plus full local tours and the next three weekends booked solid out at the Lodge.

LATEST GROUP TO EXPERIENCE  THE LERMONTOV ONE OF THE WORLDS BEST WRECK DIVES

The conditions at the Lermontov have been fantastic for this time of year, with vis up to 15 metres and mill pond conditions on the surface, welcome relief from the early summer windy conditions. Our latest group of rebreather, twin and rec divers come away with some of the best memorabilia I have seen come off the wreck, all of it from areas not visited normally by recreational divers. The most interesting being a coin collection consisting of Russian coins;. plus a few more peices to add to our Lodge Morflot dinner set.

Other than the wreck we have been more than busy with local dives and courses, with local conditions matching that off the Lermontov.

Congratulation’s to the following on completion of our courses.

Douglas Blood: PADI Nitrox

Karen Hopkinson: PADI Openwater

TOMO:PADI Advanced

Paula: PADI PPB

Theres still plenty of summer left and heaps of forward bookings for day trips to the Lermontov, with a few spaces on scheduled live-a-ashore charters. 

If your in Picton drop into our shop in High Street Picton for a chat, we are right next door to the Shell Service Station with heap’s of off street parking.

safe diving

Brent