Terrigal Cave Boat Dive
- Location: Swansea, New South Wales
- Product code: Terrigal Cave Boat Dive
To dive this site, its easiest by boat trip as per strong surging currents and waves breaking over rock ledges it is highly advised to do via a boat entry and exit unless have done many times and very experienced. The Skillion cave is just a 3 min ride from the boat ramp in the Haven.
Once geared up, you will be breifed and do a backward roll entry .
Once you are all in the water, swim to the front of vessell and go down the anchor line and follow your dive guide.
Once on the bottom, you will find that the depth is probably about 8 metres or so. If you are at this depth, head to the east and drop over the wall. You will soon find yourself at about 15 metres. Follow this wall to the north and in a short time the direction will change to north-west and then west. This is the entrance to the cave.
Skillion Cave is not really a cave, but a crack that extends back into the reef. Depending on visibility, you may already be able to see the other side of the crack that forms the cave. As you get further along, you will see the walls get closer together and then it will get darker. Look up and you can see a huge boulder that is lodged in the top of the crack. This forms the roof of the cave. The depth is now almost 20 metres and the bottom drops a little as you enter the cave.
Inside the cave there are small overhangs to both your left and right. There are normally a couple of blue gropers in here, one a large blue male the rest brown females. There are also normally lots of fish, things like ladder-finned pomfret and yellowtails. After you have gone about 15 metres from the entrance, the floor of the cave slopes up. It can be surgy here so you may need to turn around at this spot.
Its a great dive site so bring a camera if you have one...