DSS #2: Simon’s Town - Long Beach
The cache, a small screw-capped, camo-taped plastic pot, is hidden at the south end of this popular long sandy beach.
*** Please watch out for the numerous muggles (who will always be present on the beach - but fewer early and late in the day) when undertaking your activities – and kindly carefully replace the cache correctly hidden . . . thanks! ***
See GC7K4YT DSS #1: Quarry for notes on the Dive Site Series (DSS) of caches to which this is an addition - rather than a replacement.
To Reach the Cache: follow the M4 (Main Rd) to the south end of Simon’s Town station and @ S 34 11.276 E 18 25.537 turn off onto the beach access road which leads to a substantial parking area.
Long Beach, behind Simon’s Town station, is an unassuming little beach with flat, calm waters even in the most unpleasant conditions. This, and the abundance of marine life and artifacts that can be seen beneath its waters, make it very suitable and popular for Open Water dive training.
There are public restrooms and a parking area, both in reasonably good condition. There is usually a car guard at the parking area. It’s a lovely place to spend a sunny day, and non-divers can play on the beach, snorkel or swim, and enjoy the view of False Bay, the navy harbour, and the mountains.
From time to time when conditions are ideal, trek fisherman haul their catch onto the beach and flapping fresh fish can be bought on the spot.
The Dive Site
At first glance the site seems bland, but careful investigation reveals interesting and varied life. A surprising variety of fish not commonly found in the region has been seen here and there are several small wrecks and old mooring tackle to liven up the scene and provide artificial reef. This is the place to go when conditions are bad elsewhere, a popular training site, and great for getting new equipment configurations sorted out.
There is an underwater trail for compass navigation training. The site may be closed for diving when foreign warships are visiting Simon's Town.
It is a shoreline sand-bottomed site with scattered wreckage and reef areas. Being very well sheltered from westerly winds and swell, and fairly well sheltered from south easterly wind and waves, it is almost always diveable, and so very popular as a training site and for night dives. This is the place to go ‘when everywhere else is a mess and you really want to dive’ but it is usually at its best in winter when the wind is seldom from the east.
Marine life
There can be quite a lot to see on the barge wreck, which provides a base for seaweeds and shelter for fish. Little clumps of sessile growth are based on the pipeline, red bait, other wreckage and debris, and loose rocks, mostly less than 0.5m diameter.
There are extensive areas of sand with weed in the deeper water, some of it attached to the bottom, but a lot apparently loose. In some places there are beds of strap caulerpa, and where red-bait has rooted itself in the sand, little clumps of other organisms gather, including large numbers of Common feather stars.
Large numbers of warty pleurobranch and sand slug wander around, and at times there are quite a lot of shaggy sea hares.
A wide variety of fish have been seen at this site, including several not normally found in the Western
Cape, which are carried down the east coast by the currents, and the eddies bring them into False Bay, and for some unknown reason, they often end up at Long Beach. Seals are fairly common, and Southern Right whales also occasionally come into the bay and have been seen during dives at Long Beach.
Stingrays are occasionally seen, some of them quite large, and the very shy and elusive White steenbras is caught nearby, but never seen by divers on open circuit Scuba
Assorted debris and detritus has accumulated over the centuries, including: wrecks of a small steel barge, ferroconcrete yacht, wooden yacht, wooden hulled twin-engine sportsfisherman and wooden twin-screw motor launch; long lengths of large link mooring chain, some with old engine blocks attached; concrete mooring blocks; a nearly cubic steel box structure, about 3m on the side, with a few access holes and a ladder inside, known as Jeff's Box; a large anchor, which has been found by several people, but no-one has recorded its position.
There are also a few purpose-made artificial reef structures made by local divers, both for entertainment and for experimental observation on the rate of colonisation by reef animals and seaweeds, including: Lady Long Beach - A retired garden statue, placed near the cusp of the chain; assorted concrete garden ornaments laid near the cusp of the chain as artificial reef; a small artificial reef of concrete building blocks, laid in the form of a small curved wall
See here for detailed information on diving at Long Beach
See here and here (night dive) for videos of diving at Long Beach – there are numerous others available online
This is one of 7 sub-species of a species of large sea slug or sea hare, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Aplysiidae, the sea hares, found in warm temperate and tropical coastal waters throughout the world, in the intertidal zone and down to at least 10m.
It is green to greenish brown and has a broad and short head. Its mantle is covered with papillae (finger-like outgrowths), which give it a thorny or shaggy aspect. The mantle has a network-like pattern with blue eyespots (ocelli) in black spots and green areas. It moves slowly on a broad foot and has a short, sharp tail. The short parapodia (fleshy, wing-like outgrowths) are fused on their rear end.
It is herbivorous, grows up to 120mm long and usually found singly or in dense concentrations in estuaries and tidal pools - more rarely on sandy bottoms. It lays egg ribbons in long green stringy tangles
See here for the Sea Slug Forum – a comprehensive web resource on these fascinating creatures and here for extensive information on this particular critter.