Dive Number: 7 21/02/2010 10.30 Cottage by the Sea, Queenscliffe
Wind: 10-15knot south-westerlies after early morning 20-25knot northerlies
Tide: 1hr before a 0.21 low tide at heads
Conditions: A change from northerlies to southerlies, meant i caught the wind at a 10knot SW producing flat conditions. Little current or surge, and good vis.
Bottom Type: Sand and Rocky Reef
Visibilty: 8-9m
Water Temp: 19c
Bottom Time: 101 minutes
Max Depth: 7.7m
Air usage: 165bar/2400psi
SAC: 11.2 litres/min
Details: Went to the south section of the Cottage reef. 4 Blue Devils, 1 cuttlefish and a Weedy Seadragon. Also a couple of Roughies.
Camera Details: 10-17mm fisheye, single SS200 strobe.
Dive report: I always heard that Cottage by the Sea was good for Blue Devils, but i didn’ expect to see 4 of them! And to be so confiding for the camera. The only difficulty in photographying them was that they like to hang out under tight legdes, meaning it was hard to get the strobes up nice and high and avoid filling the working space with sediment.
I had to have another go at the Gorgonians, but still haven’t nailed the shot i’m after.
I stumbled onto these Old Wives hanging above a wrasse that was sand bathing itself. Unfortunately the wrasse didn’t stick around for the photo.
Heaps of moonlighters around. I’ll have to work a bit harder to get a nice image of these guys when i’m not so distracted about all the other cool critters.
I spoke to some exiting divers on the way out who said they saw one Weedy Seadragon, so that gave me some hope. Right towards the end of my dive i got lucky and saw one leaving a small cave and heading for the kelp. It would’ve been hard to spot otherwise.
