SS Catterthun's gold and the Seal Rocks. NSW Australia.

Описание: I dived the “Catt” for the first time in 1988 and became fascinated by her story and the challenge of the early divers to recover her gold. This documentary took seven years to finish and could only be described as a pure labor of love. So many trips for footage were wasted by dirty water. And if the water was clear there were times when we couldn't dive because of the huge currents. These same issues were experienced by the salvage divers in 1896, and it was the same for our group. The main subject is the wreck of the Catterthun, but the presentation also covers the Satara wreck and the Grey Nurse shark colonies in the area. Originally released as a DVD in 2013, most of the land scenes have been replaced with drone footage.The underwater footage was shot between 2005 to 2012. The Catterthun was a wreck that I always felt a certain apprehension about diving. Largely caused by the Sharks we saw while decomposing under the boat. At no time did it ever stop me visiting her, but after each visit it was alway a pleasant feeling stepping back into the boat.
It was on this wreck in 2002 that I experienced my most challenging when diving in near zero visibility The anchor pulled out of my hand and as I was unable to find it I was forced to do a “ blue water access “ from 60 metres. Upon reaching the surface the current had swept me 200 metres from the boat and no chance of getting back to it. I spent the next three hour drifting down the coast before being sighted by the rescue helicopter and my buddy at the same time. Sitting on the surface in dirty water in a Sharky area like Seal Rocks is not a pleasant experience. At one stage of the drift I heard a noise over my left shoulder. I quickly turned expecting to see a fin on the surface, but it turned out to be the air escaping from the dump valve in my dry suit.
The experience gave me in a very small way what many shipwreck survivors must have experienced and I wrote about it in more detail in the foreword of my last book in the series of the NSW. “Destination Never Reached “