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From: WADE DOAK
_: 5
Date: 06-03-10
Time: 09:46
POOR KNIGHTS PLACE NAMES -CONTINUED Yes, Phil: I am still in touch with Dr Sandy Bartle, a leading sea bird scientist recently retired from Te Papa Museum. Sandy did much work on the birds of Aorangi and many other offshore islands. We divers often shared a boat with him, as at the Three Kings and enjoyed his dry sense of humour. In landing or coming out of that deep rectangular gut poor Sandy suffered the ignominy of bilging legendary charter boat skipper Fred Cotterill's dinghy on a rock. Fred moaned like hell and we thought it funny to enshrine the episode with that name.
Fred hated having his name attached to nearby Fred’s Pinnacle. The tradition is to name new reefs after the person who hits them. "I never hit the barr-stard," Fred gruffly complained. Of course the crest is much too deep.
Diadema Reef is between Serpent Rock and the adjacent promontory. I would find it on clear days by descending the promontory to the sand and then heading west until I saw it loom up out on the sand: Diadema urchins side by side in a row under the ledge at sand level. I have never seen so many in one place. Long-finned boarfish in schools.
After exploring the reef, its long axis at right angle to the promontory, I would head over to Serpent Rock, just visible, and ascend there. A very nice dive with a good cliff wall to decoke on, rather than ascend directly from the reef in open water. That way I could be taking pix at all stages of the dive. Wade
Last changed: 23-Jul-2011