Day Trip
Image by Wayne Chandra
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The club boat, Chromodoris, heads out to Rottnest whenever there are divers wanting to go and a skipper ready to drive! The usual plan is to leave from Aquarama Marina, East Fremantle early in the morning. Do two great dives on the reefs around Rottnest Island and maybe even head into the island for lunch (depending on the skipper). The club has a large catalogue of great dive sites that we have collected over the years and most of our skippers will give a good site brief as they have many years of experience diving in our local waters. With a maximum of only 8 divers on board you are never going to be crowded under the water! The boat is equipped with all necessary safety gear and the club actively encourages safe diving practices.
So you feel like coming for a dive with us?
Here’s what you need to do…
Booking
- Sign up as a member and check the calendar to see if the boat is going out.
- If you’re keen to join one of the dives, make a booking and fill out the required details. Make sure that your nominated emergency contact is someone who’s not going out on the boat, and maybe let them know that you’ve put them down. If you do not include emergency contact details, there is a chance that your booking will be forfeited, especially when the boat is busy.
- You should receive an email telling you that your booking is PENDING until the dive is confirmed. This is so that people don’t need to pay for spots incase the weather lets us down.
Typical Costs for boat dives are as follows*:
| Boat Dives | Cost for the trip |
|---|---|
| Rotto Single Dive | $60 |
| Rotto Single Dive - Student | $50.00 |
| Rotto Double Dive | $85.00 |
| Rotto Double Dive - Student | $70.00 |
| Tech Dive | From $125.00 |
| Tech Dive - Student | From $100.00 |
*Note that these prices are only typical and individual trip pricing may vary.
Confirmation
- You’ll get a confirmation email in the days leading up to the dive where you’ll be notified if you’ve got a space on the boat by the dive co-ordinator. If the boat is overbooked or is not going out unfortunately you may not get contacted – if that happens there are lots of shore dives around Perth to satisfy the diving urge until the next boat trip!
- Please make sure you check your emails regularly or have email notifications set up on your smartphone. The confirmation email will give you a stripe/paypal link which you need to use to pay the dive fee AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
- If payment is not made within 24hrs, you will forfeit your spot to the next person on the list (there will always be someone who will want your spot).
- If you don’t have a car, try to get in touch with the dive co-ordinator or skipper as soon as possible and we will endeavour to help you make arrangements with somebody else on the dive.
Dive Gear
- You will need all the typical gear required for open water diving. If you need to hire gear the night before please click here.
- Payments at the shed are cash only or you if you have a smartphone you could do an electronic transfer via online banking and show the shed volunteer the transfer receipt as proof of payment. The skipper might be there to tell you when to meet the next morning. Make sure you check the time and make sure you’re there on time – if you’re late the boat will not wait for you and you will not receive a refund.
- Everyone MUST dive with a deployable safety sausage
Morning of the Dive
- On the morning of the dive meet the skipper and boat at Aquarama Marina, 110 Riverside Rd, East Fremantle. There is all day parking over the road on Riverside Rd. (Sorry, there is no open parking inside the marina.)
- If you are running late for any reason, please make sure you let the skipper or a dive coordinator know – they may wait for you if you ask them nicely!
- Once there, start getting your first tank set up. Look out for our bright yellow and black Chromodoris, but please don’t start loading your gear onto the boat until the skipper is there and has given the go-ahead.
- When the skipper has given the go-ahead to load, dry gear goes up the front of the boat, kitted up tanks get tied to the sides and all other gear is stowed under the seats. Weight belts go to the back of the boat. If you want you can put your wet suit on too and there’s some toilets nearby as well.
- If you get sea sick take some anti-sea sickness tablets as soon as you get there as they take about 30 minutes to kick in.
- Once all the gear is on board, the skipper will conduct a safety briefing and talk about the general proceedings of the day – please pay close attention particularly if you are new. Make sure you put on a hat, put on some sun screen and stay hydrated throughout the day – there will be some sunscreen provided on the boat and water for emergencies. An offer to help out with the ropes is always appreciated!
- Once the boat is under way, relax and enjoy the journey – keep an eye out for dolphins and whales!
Throughout the day
- When the boat’s anchored at the dive site the skipper will give a quick dive briefing for the site, and then they usually like to jump in first for their dive. If you don’t have a dive buddy let the skipper know and we can pair you up with somebody. Listen to the dive brief carefully and discuss your dive plan with your buddy. Gear up and do a backwards roll entry into the water. There has to be at least one person on the boat at all times.
- Descend down the anchor line and try to navigate back to the anchor line before ascending. The currents on some dive sites can be unpredictable.
- When getting back onto the boat, pass up your fins to somebody on deck before climbing up the ladder.
- All gear should be tied or stowed away at all times – wet gear under the seats and dry bags in the front cabin. Weight belts are placed at the back of the boat. Make sure that all tanks are secured as nobody wants one falling onto their toes!
- When you come up from your dive swap your kit to you other, full, tank. Stow all your gear, dry off and have a drink and a snack. Once the last divers are back the boat will head to the next dive site. In between dives the skipper may need a couple of helpers to pull up the anchor.
- Once at the next site the same thing will happen. Once you get back from your final dive take your kit off your tank and put it in your bag with all your other gear which you stow under the benches. Once the last divers are back the boat will head back to Aquarama, or sometimes the skipper may feel like going onto the island for some lunch or a beer at the Rottnest Hotel if time permits.
Upon return to Aquarama
- Once the boat is back to the marina, you can start unloading. Don’t forget to put something on your feet.
- There may even be time for a post-dive beer at 8 Sheets, the bar next door!