Wreck diving in Bunbury

In 2002 a fishing boat called the Lana was apprehended by the Australian Navy whilst fishing illegally for Patagonian Toothfish in Australian waters. The fishermen were charged and the vessel scuttled off the coast of Bunbury for recreational diving. Its a great spot, just 3 nautical miles west from Bunbury Harbour in about 18m of water. Perfect for a long relaxed dive. Unfortunately today was overcast, but the water was as flat as glass.

I wore my Citizen BN0085 on OEM rubber. The case is large (47mm, 51 lug-to-lug, 14mm high) but extremely comfortable. It has a domed mineral crystal and a lumed "60" where the bezel lume pip should be. The dial is highly readable and the bezel action is really quite good. I do have a quibble though with the lack of a lume pip. When diving I glance at the bezel and can tell instantly what the elapsed time is from the distance between the lume pip and the minute hand. Without the pip I was having to read off the actual bezel indices. No problem, but just not as convenient as I am used to. In favour of the watch is its looks. It actually looks more like dive equipment than a dive watch. It is completely at home amongst the regulators and computers. Overall, I really enjoyed diving with the Citizen.

Some pics of the dive...














The Lana...









Looking from the bottom at the growth on the ship's side...




On the decks


















On the inside












Done for now until next time!

Nice pics! Looks like a pretty cool place to take a dip... And the watch looks like it had a nice time as well ;)

Did you see any sharks while you were down there?

No sharks today again. Eddie will be extremely disappointed!

bedlam wrote:No sharks today again. Eddie will be extremely disappointed!

Disappointed is an understatement, I'm going to start thinking ...all those stories in NatGeo about Great Whites and the Great Barrier Reef, the cool pics of surfers been chase by the big squales and even loosing a limb or two in the process etc, etc. are all bullshit...
That been said, great pics! great wreck to dive it seems! and it looks like the reports of the Citizen been one of the top 5 most desirable watches in the world , are actually spot on!
Cool report dude

Nic pics, nice dive, nice watch

Amazing images :) thank you for sharing them.

supernovae wrote:Amazing images :) thank you for sharing them.

Ditto!

Amazingly beautiful, hard to believe how clear some of those photos are especially the wrist shots.

Good stuff. The flashlight shot looks like some kinda sci-fi exhaust.

Great pics! Nice she's in only 18M of water.

3Flushes wrote:Great pics! Nice she's in only 18M of water.

Believe it or not...18 meters, altought may not look like much at first glance, is pretty damn deep, in a wreck dive ...make a mistake? and is deep enough to kill you.

eddiea wrote:

3Flushes wrote:Great pics! Nice she's in only 18M of water.

Believe it or not...18 meters, altought may not look like much at first glance, is pretty damn deep, in a wreck dive ...make a mistake? and is deep enough to kill you.

No doubt- there is a wreck here that has claimed 7 lives, however, she sank in a storm after being prepared to be scuttled and severely lists on the bottom. She's in about 42m of water; most of the wrecks around here are 30m+ making them pretty technical dives, too technical for me, when I could still dive.

Jeebus! Lots of inspiration for Invicter watch models in those pix - fearsome Sea Slugs, dangerous Tiger Sponges, deadly Piranha Polyps - not to mention a Serial Killer Starfish!

eddiea wrote:

bedlam wrote:No sharks today again. Eddie will be extremely disappointed!

Disappointed is an understatement, I'm going to start thinking ...all those stories in NatGeo about Great Whites and the Great Barrier Reef, the cool pics of surfers been chase by the big squales and even loosing a limb or two in the process etc, etc. are all bullshit...
That been said, great pics! great wreck to dive it seems! and it looks like the reports of the Citizen been one of the top 5 most desirable watches in the world , are actually spot on!
Cool report dude

Thanks Eddie. The Citizen really was a standout. If it had a lume pip I think I would use it as my default diver as it ticks all the other boxes, looks really good, really easy to wear, and is inexpensive if it gets banged up.

3Flushes wrote:

eddiea wrote:

3Flushes wrote:Great pics! Nice she's in only 18M of water.

Believe it or not...18 meters, altought may not look like much at first glance, is pretty damn deep, in a wreck dive ...make a mistake? and is deep enough to kill you.

No doubt- there is a wreck here that has claimed 7 lives, however, she sank in a storm after being prepared to be scuttled and severely lists on the bottom. She's in about 42m of water; most of the wrecks around here are 30m+ making them pretty technical dives, too technical for me, when I could still dive.

Agreed. Its enough water to get in trouble in but perfect for a wreck dive. I spent approx 120 mins under yesterday which is a problem at 30m+ unless you are happy to spend forever ascending.

Very cool Carl.........

Really like the watch. Thinking I may look at this instead of a Marathon. Great photos by the way. Nice to see someone using a dive for what it was meant to be used for and not desk diving or muff diving.

koimaster wrote:Really like the watch. Thinking I may look at this instead of a Marathon. Great photos by the way. Nice to see someone using a dive for what it was meant to be used for and not desk diving or muff diving.

The case is really nice. The only issue is the pins are set close to the watch head so its a little bit of work to get a heavy Zulu on. It looks good on them though.

Here is a pic of nylon on the chrono version (I prefer the 3-hander in the end)

Beautiful pictures bedlam.

Kahuna74 wrote:Beautiful pictures bedlam.

Cheers

Enjoyed the photos a lot.
Would've liked to see a pointer - but I'm glad you didn't

boscoe wrote:Enjoyed the photos a lot.
Would've liked to see a pointer - but I'm glad you didn't

Talked to a lady today who saw off a white pointer last year. She was swimming with a friend and it approached them. They saw its fin as it approached and kicked as hard as they could making as much noise and churn in the water as possible and it backed off, circled a bit and moved on. Pretty scary stuff. They were just swimming near the beach fairly close in to the shore.

koimaster wrote:Really like the watch. Thinking I may look at this instead of a Marathon. Great photos by the way. Nice to see someone using a dive for what it was meant to be used for and not desk diving or muff diving.

I have the same watch I recommend it. I don't dive but after seeing those pics, makes me want to wear it again. I wanted the GMT at first but after a few months of owing the one I have no complaints.

Very awesome pics and watch.