Pinnacles Reef – Sodwana Bay

The post appeared first on: Visit Adventure Mania Amanda PINNACLES BRIEFINGGood Morning/Afternoon everyone, my name is Muneera Sallies and I will be your dive masterfor this dive. Today we are going to dive on 2-mile reef. It is approximately 2 Km in length and 1Km wide and consists of many different dive sites. I would like to inform everyone that we are inthe Isimangaliso Wetland Park. This is a world heritage site and marine protected area,meaning we do not touch the reef or any fish underwater. We do not take anything out of theocean, besides our memories and pictures, nor do we leave anything behind. Please keepyourself in a neutral buoyancy to avoid kicking or damaging the reef at all.On this dive we will be going to Pinnacles.Situated on the northern in shore edge of 2 mile reef. It’s a beautiful shallow and colorful dive –swimming between all the pinnacles and most notably the Old Woman pinnacle that rises to justa couple of metres below the surface. An exciting thing to look out for is that there are 2 residentwhitetip sharks that are frequently found in the cave not far from the main sand patchHere we have a maximum depth of 12m and an average depth of about 10m throughout thedive. We will be doing a drift dive, which basically means that we will be following the current ata nice and steady pace which goes from North to South, which is why we will be doing a driftdive from the North to South. The water temperature is normally at 25 degrees but with thecolder seasons we could expect around 23 degrees with low wind and swell possible slightswell, but the bottom conditions should be very calm.We will be doing a 55 min dive or 50 bar low on air. So, once you reach 50 bar which is the littlered section on your gauge, show me and your buddy that you are low on air and you are goingup. You can decide between your buddy team if you are going up alone or with your buddy, theninform me so that I know who is going up and staying down.Some interesting things to keep an eye out for –Humbugs, Mantis shrimp, paperfish, juvenilepalette surgeon, flamed goat fish,white king fish and also if we’re lucky there are some octopus often hiding in holes and thenof course the White Tip Shark if we’re extra lucky.I am now going to divide everyone into buddy teams….Lost buddy procedures:If you find that your buddy is missing, come to me and show me “my buddy is missing”. I willhand the buoy line over to an experienced diver, go up to the boat and see if I can find yourbuddy. If he/she is not there I will come back down, terminate the dive and we will startsearching for your buddy. If you find that you are the lost buddy – simply go up 1 meter, do a360-degree turn looking for any fin flashes or bubbles going to the surface. If you can’t seeanything then do a slow, controlled ascend, skip your safety stop and surface. Call the skipperto come pick you up. If you have more than 100 bar of air, you may ask the skipper to drop youon the Buoy and you may rejoin the group and continue the dive. If you have less than 100 barplease stay on the boat and wait for the dive to end.Boat procedures: From here we will go down to the boat and stand opposite our BCD’s. We willlevel-out the boat and the tractor will push it in while we keep it level. Once the boat is floating Iwill ask the ladies to jump on first. the skipper will then drop the motors and ask for the guys tojump on as well. Once on the boat we will put on our life jackets, slide our feet into the footstraps and continue to launch through the surf. We will then stop and take off our life jacketsand make our way to the dive site. Once there we will help you with your weight belts, fins andmasks. Then we will help you with your gear. Once everyone is ready, the skipper will give us acount of 1, 2, 3, GO. On the word GO, all fall backwards into the water. You may decide if you’regoing to do a positive or negative descend. I will be doing a negative and will watch as the lastdiver ascends. If you happen to descend faster, please keep an eye on me and do not swimaway. Once everyone has descended, I will ask if everyone is OK and when we are ready, wewill begin our dive together making sure that no one drifts away on their ownThroughout the dive I will ask everyone to check their gauges and if you have 100 or moreplease indicate that you are okay and if you have reached 50 bar it means that you are low onair and will need to do a slow ascend making your safety stop at 5 meters for 3 minutes. If youdon’t have a dive computer, along the buoy line there is a black painted section at 5 meters.Stop at that mark and sing happy birthday to yourself 3 times, using your full name, which willcover the 3 minutes at your safety stop. Then surface and inflate your BCD and indicate for theskipper to come and pick you up.Emergency Procedures- In the unlikely event of an emergency there are emergencyprocedures, an oxygen kit, a radio and a first aid kit in the console of the boat as well as on thebeach. However we are all professionals and will treat the dive as suchHand signals: I’m now going to run through the different hand signals – Question and answerare you OK? Yes, I am OK or no something is wrong, point to the problem and we will sort it outunder the water. Once the problem is sorted just show me that you are OK. This is the signal…

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