In November 2009 I flew to Sydney from the UK for what I hoped would at least be a long stay in Australia. I so enjoyed renewing my friendship with Jon Shaw and Nicci Johnson who I had first met in December 2006 and they introduced me to Mick Todd. I had a great time diving with all three of them. They are all fabulous company but Monday nights at my apartment were not so great! Mick had been cursed by a strange and sadly incurable allegiance to Manchester United and Mick and I regularly stayed up late on Monday nights watching the latest English Premier League games on my television. To my constant disbelief, Manchester United fared better than my team, Arsenal. After living briefly with my daughter Jennifer in Newtown I rented a small apartment in Manly and began enjoying life so much downunder that later I applied to live permanently in Australia.
Some of the Sydney diving highlights in my first year in Australia included celebrating my 56th birthday in December diving Blue Fish Point and Blue Fish Wall with Jon and in the evening with Jennifer and her boyfriend Gaz at a Mexican restaurant. The alcohol went straight to my head. I blamed dehydration from diving earlier in the day.
Three days later, Mick and I dived Shiprock near Port Hacking. This dive site is located at the bottom of a challenging steep pathway and during the dive Mick removed a lure snagged in a Numbray by holding the ray down with one of his fins to avoid receiving any shocks.
Another unforgettable dive was diving Magic Point from the Maroubra shore with Nicci. This is normally a boat dive and the sea was far from calm but I persuaded a reluctant Nicci to give it a go. It reminded me of some UK shore dives that I have done. Magic Point is a long fin out from the shore. The weather conditions deteriorated, the see became rough and Nicci lost one of her integrated weights on her return exit! Afterwards a less than impressed Nicci said she would never do Magic Point as a shore dive again. Oh dear.
In late January I dived Manly Cove with Mary Royal, who I was later to marry! And a month later I did a solo dive there which produced a new personal best dive time of 265 minutes.
In April I dived Clifton Gardens in Chowder Bay with Mary’s daughter Hannah and the same month had a highly unconventional dive with Simon and Harry Crane, energetically finning out from the South Coogee shore to Wedding Cake Island.
In May I dived Shelly Beach near Manly with Mary’s son Aaron and repeated the dive there with Aaron in September, this time with my son David joining us.
I also dived Long Reef Apartments off Collaroy, Freshwater Bay north of Manly, The Cascades, Old Mans Hat and Flagstaff which are spread along North Head. Other dive sites were Fairlight in North Harbour and South Head and The Gap on the southern side of the harbour entrance, North Bondi, Gordons Bay near Coogee and Bare Island near La Perouse.