Diving at Billy's Reef

The dive site Billy's Reef is an offshore rocky reef in the Whittle Rock offshore area of False Bay, near Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa.

Understand

See also: Diving the Cape Peninsula and False Bay#Understand

Multibeam sonar map of Whittle Rock and surrounds, Billy's Reef is southeast of Whittle Rock, between Midway Ridge and Wreckless Reef.

3D multi-beam sonar image of Billy's Reef

A small high profile reef with fairly impressive topography of deep gullies and wall-sided granite outcrops. Found on multibean survey in 2022 by Wreckless Marine, and first dived in November 2022 by Wreckless Divers.

Position

1 Billy's Reef: S34°15.237' E18°34.126', South-east from Whittle Rock.

This site is not in a Marine Protected Area. A permit is not required.

Name

The name Billy's Reef commemorates the first known dive at the site, when one of the divers left some vital gear in his car and could not dive.

Depth

Maximum depth is about 46 m on the sand south of the reef and the top of the highest outcrop is about 31 m. Average depth of a dive is likely to be about 38 m.

Visibility

See also: Diving the Cape Peninsula and False Bay/Whittle Rock#Visibility

Visibility is likely to be similar to other sites of the Off-Whittle Southern Reefs area.

Topography

A moderate sized reef for the area, made up of a set of parallel ridges of varying depth, with the ridge axes roughly northwest-southeast, most of the high reef concentrated in the central to northern parts, with lower reef around it, surrounded by sand. Jointing is roughly aligned with the major and minor aces of the reef, with a deep and wide sand-bottommed gully running north south, and crossed by an east-west gully of the same depth and similar width roughly in the centre of the reef.

Geology: Pre-Cambrian granite of the Peninsula pluton.

Conditions

The site will usually be at it's best in winter but there will also be occasional opportunities during the rest of the year

Get in

See also: Diving the Cape Peninsula and False Bay#Boat dives

The site is only accessible by boat. It is about 8.5? km from the slipway at Miller's Point, but boats may also leave from Simon's Town jetty. On a good day in a fast boat it is a bit less than a half hour run from Simon's Town Jetty, a distance of about 14.5? km. Occasionally boats may leave from Gordon's Bay Old Harbour or Harbour Island marina, which are both about 29.5? km away..

Do

Dive at the reef starting near the mark and explore in whatever direction looks good.

Routes

No routes are known.

See

Marine life

• 
  Sponges
• 
  Strawberry anemones
• 
  Noble coral
• 
  Sponge
• 
  Mandela's nudibranch
• 
  Shell-mimic hydroid
• 
  Stylaster bithalamus

Features

The crossing gullies passing though the high reef area are a good landmark if the visibility is good.

• 
  Sand bottomed gully, looking northwest from near the crossing.
• 
  Ridge crest with white cauliflower soft corals on the south-east side of the cross gully.

Photography

The site is fairly deep, so it will usually be quite dark. Wide angle may give some good results if the visibility is good all the way down giving good natural light, but macro is a safer bet.

Stay safe

See also: Diving the Cape Peninsula and False Bay#Stay safe

Hazards

There are no known site-specific hazards other than the depth. Most of the site is below the depth range usually accepted as suitable for recreational diving, or for emergency swimming ascent. Surface currents due to wind are likely and may take the divers away from the descent area during an ascent with decompression stops.

Skills

The competence to follow suitable decompression procedures is strongly recommended. This includes carrying and using appropriate gases and deploying a decompression buoy to mark the position of the divers during ascent.

Equipment

See also: Diving the Cape Peninsula and False Bay#Equipment

Adequate and reliable alternative breathing gas supply, as the depth is beyond the range for which emergency swimming ascent is a reasonable response. A decompression buoy is strongly recommended, and may be required by the service provider. A fully redundant emergency gas supply is recommended. Use of breathing gas mixtures appropriate to the depth is recommended,

Nearby

Other offshore dive sites of False Bay:

• 1 SATS General Botha
• 2 Off-Whittle Ridge
• 3 Whittle Rock
• Western Deep
• 4 Bruce's Mark
• 5 Sandy-top Ridge
• 6 Southwood's Corner
• 7 Josh's Reef
• 8 Wreckless Ridge
• 9 Lonehill Reef
• 10 Deep South Whittle Reef

Back to the Alphabetical list of sites, or list of reef dive sites in the Whittle Rock and surrounds offshore area

Other regional dive sites:

• Dive sites of Table Bay and approaches,
• Dive sites of the Cape Peninsula west coast
• Dive sites of the Cape Peninsula east coast
• Dive sites of False Bay east coast
• Fresh water dive sites of the Cape Town Metropolitan Area

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