SUPERCAT – BRISBANE ’S NEW DIVE BOAT

It has been a few dramatic months for the Brisbane dive scene. First one of the best dive boats in Queensland , Nautilus, tragically sunk and then the beautiful coastline off Moreton Bay was hit by a massive oil spill. Fortunately the oil didn’t affect any of Brisbane ’s wonderful dive sites and has been mostly cleaned up, and Nautilus Scuba Centre has bounced back with a fantastic new dive boat.
    At the end of last year, while diving Flinders Reef in rough conditions, Nautilus got holed on the reef after a series of unfortunate incidents. Stuck on the reef and taking on water the crew radioed for help and safely got everyone off the stricken vessel.
    The accident brought out the best in human nature, the professional crew from Nautilus calm under pressure, the wonderful rescue services that aided the crew and even another dive operator, Ocean Cat, heading out the next day to assist the Nautilus crew salvage dive gear.
    It also brought out the worst too, with unscrupulous divers and fishermen looting gear off the stricken vessel. This was disgusting behaviour, and I am sure these same people would expect Nautilus to come to their aid if they were in trouble! As she had done in the past for many divers and fishermen in Moreton Bay .
    With Nautilus sadly a complete wreck, but with heavy bookings over summer, Nautilus Scuba Centre quickly organised a replacement dive boat, a very large whale watching boat. However, as the insurance was being sorted out they were also on the lookout for a new dive boat of their own. Well they have found one and at the end of March, Supercat went into operation in Moreton Bay .
    The new vessel is an aluminium hull catamaran, 22m long and with a huge 6.4m wide beam. Supercat was previously working in Cairns and is brilliantly setup for divers, having a wide dive deck, on board compressor and banks, a huge lounge room, two toilets, outdoor shower, a large upper deck and even a bar. She has a top speed of 22 knots and is a very stable boat to dive from with two ladders and a large duckboard. Onboard they also have a computerized seabed mapping system, so will be looking for more exciting dive sites in and around Moreton Bay .
    We headed out on Supercat in early April to dive Flinders Reef, which gave us a chance to checkout the new boat and also see if Flinders Reef was truly unaffected by oil.
    With Supercat departing at 8am we arrive early at the boat to setup gear and also look over the new dive boat. Our first impression was ‘HUGE’, and with a very big rear end, being so wide. Once onboard we found her to be very roomy, the lounge room looked like it could seat a hundred people. The dive deck is a little compact, but works efficiently considering an average of 30 divers can be onboard, the crew stagger people into the water to avoid over crowding.
    As we headed out across Moreton Bay, Jim Edwards, the owner and skipper, also informed us that they are planning to fit a TV and DVD player in the lounge room, an expresso coffee machine and also add an additional toilet on the dive deck, if it wasn’t already luxurious enough.
    Once outside Moreton Bay we found the swell to be 2m rolling in from the east, a small boat wouldn’t be heading out in these rough conditions to dive Flinders Reef, but Supercat easily cut through the swell. Conditions were a lot calmer once we arrived at Flinders Reef, and we were soon tied up to a mooring and ready to hit the clear blue water.
    Even though the conditions were rough, and there had been torrential rain all week, the visibility was still 25m and the water a wonderful 24C degrees. We explored the coral gardens in 5m to 15m and found the hard and soft corals to be as healthy as ever, with no sign of oil. The tropical fish were as abundant as ever, and we encountered the usual gang of turtles, gropers, barracuda, crayfish, wobbegongs, stingrays and quite a few octopus. We enjoyed two hour long dives and took plenty of photos of the assembled marine life.
    After the diving, Jim moved Supercat back into the calmer waters of Moreton Bay for a late lunch, provided as part of the charter. It was good to see things haven’t changed, with the crew serving out bread rolls with chicken, ham and a variety of salads to choose from. It was a wonderful day out in less than ideal conditions and great to see both Flinders Reef and Nautilus Scuba Centre bouncing back from their disasters.

Article appeared in Dive Log No.252 July 2009

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