Dive Number: 71 26/07/2010 20.00 St LeonardsPier
Wind: 5 knot W – NW.
Tide: 2hr before 0.63 low tide at the Geelong
Conditions: Full moon, clear skies, glassy water, absolutely perfect.
Bottom Type: Pier Pylons on sandy bottom scattered with old timber and some misc junk.
Visibilty: 10m
Water Temp: 11c
Bottom Time: 60 minutes
Max Depth: 2.9m
Air usage: 105bar/1500psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: Conditions were absolutely perfect for a night dive at St Leonards. I’ve been wanting to night dive here ever since seeing the Pale Octopus in daylight hours, so i was hoping it would be a bit more active during the night. I was suprised to see another diver in the water just because it was mid-winter, but looking at the conditions it didn’t really suprise me. It was one of the most magical dives i’ve had. I switched off the torches and dived by moonlight with luminescent plankton swimming midwater all around me. Then dived under the pier to check out what other critters were about.
Camera Details: Sigma 17-70mm , single SS200 strobe
Dive Report: After experiencing the joys of diving by moonlight, i headed under the pier to check if the Pale Octopus was home. He sure was…same spot, different posture. It almost looked like it was wrapping itself in its tenticles to keep warm. Smart occy in 11degree water temps! I actually forgot my hood, and had to resort to wrapping a rash vest around my head..chilly but it better than nothing.
A little Bob-tailed Squid was keeping the occy company.
A nudi hung precariously onto the end of this bit of weed.
I saw a seaquirt-thing ove r in edithburgh that i’d never seen anything like before, funnily enough i saw the same thing at St Leonards on this dive.
A small Surf Crab:
Some type of goby..one i’ve never seen before:
Anenomes will grow on anything!
I saw my first ever snake eel. It moved around persistantly, eventually found its hole and buried itself in the sand.
Just before getting out, a pretty large dumpling squid was resting on the sand and shimmied itself deeper into the sand.
