Dive Number: 34 01/05/2010 13.25 Queenscliffe Marina
Wind: 15-20 knot north-westerlies
Tide: 1hr before 1.74 high tide at the Heads
Conditions: The water looked nice and clear from above and calm, but it was fairly mucky in. The tide was still running in strongly up the channel and i had to be careful not to get too close to the channel.
Bottom Type: Concrete marina pylons and steel walls developing sponge gradually. Muddy bottom.
Visibilty: 2-4m
Water Temp: 16c
Bottom Time: 39 minutes
Max Depth: 3.3m
Air usage: 50bar/700psi
SAC: 12.5 litres/min
Details: After a dissappointing dive at Portarlington, i headed back to queenscliffe and tried to decide whether a dive at high tide at Cottage was possible. I decided not to risk it..has anyone ever dived cottage on high tide? Anyway, i decided to head to the queenscliffe marina and see if the big smooth rays or spider crabs were about.
Camera Details: Canon 17-40mm , dual SS200 strobe.
Dive Report: I’ve never dived in here before, but i have snorkelled and theres been massive rays that are very territorial and come straight up to you to check you out. Unfortunatly i didn’t see any this time, and i only saw one spider crab (lots of dead shells though).
So i decided to just take some shots of the boats from beneath with some nice lighting streaming in from the surface. here’s a bit of an abstract composition:
And a shot of a prop draped in light:
As i swam under the concrete dividers between boat bays, my bubbles would get trapped among the sponge and weed formations creating some really interesting effects..almost like liquid mercury.
The bubbles produced reflections of the surrounding vegetation..not an effect you see naturally very often underwater.
