Dive 150 – St Leonards Pier

By pfuller

Mar

31

Dive Number: 150 27/03/11  13.26,  St Leonards Pier

Wind:   10-15 knot SE’s

Tide:  2.5hrs before 0.15 low tide at Geelong.

Conditions:  Water was somehwta dirty, but not overly bad vis. 

Visibilty:   6m

Water Temp: 18c

Bottom Time: 65minutes

Max Depth: 3.7m

Air usage: 70bar/1000psi

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details:     Reports of spider crab aggregations and feeding penguins the day before lured me to St Leonards. Unfortutelythe spider crabs had moved on, but there was still about 10 around (down from 120+), and i didn’t spot the penguin. I got to try out my new stainless steel shears on a spider crab tangled in fishing line.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , dual SS200 strobes

Dive Report:

Dive 149 – Steeles Rocks

By pfuller

Mar

29

Dive Number: 149 19/03/11  14.02,  Steeles Rocks

Wind:   10-15 knot SE’s

Tide:  0.86 high tide at Geelong.

Conditions:   Water was calm despite easterlies, however the water was very dirty. Lots of boats out too which is always annoying at this site.

Visibilty:   4m

Water Temp: 19c

Bottom Time: 93minutes

Max Depth: 4.3m

Air usage: 130bar/1800psi

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details:     Just a dive to try some backlighting  with the slave strobe

Camera Details: Canon 17-40mm , dual SS200 strobes +ys-120 slave

Dive Report:

Dive 148 – The Springs

By pfuller

Mar

16

Dive Number: 148 13/03/11  13.27, The Springs

Wind:   15 knot S’s

Tide:  1.5hours after 0.24 low tide at the heads.

Conditions:   Again the winds had swung around from northerlies to southerlies, and storm clouds threatened.  The surface looked fine, but i could feel the southerlies kicking in and new that the swell would start picking up.  Vis started out ok, but continually degraded with the weather. It was pretty damn stormy at the end of the dive, with heavy rain and sweeping winds pushing me up the coast.

Visibilty: 7m down to 4m

Water Temp: 19c

Bottom Time: 88minutes

Max Depth: 6.0m

Air usage: 140bar/2000psi

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details:   I knew i was too late to get good conditions, but gave it a try anyway. I usually dont like diving lonsdale bight after the low tide, as vis and current seem to degrade. Anyway, headed out and just sat with some fish, as it stormed up the fish activity got greater and greater, and zebra fish seemed to be everywhere. Even spotted some silver drummers. I found some really nice overhang areas out the back, and sheltered in those as the sea started to get nasty. It was bucketing down by the end of the dive and it gave my gear a good wash ; )   

Camera Details: Canon 17-40mm , dual SS200 strobes

Dive Report:

Dive 147 – Marengo, Apollo Bay

By pfuller

Mar

16

Dive Number: 147 12/03/11  14.34, Marengo, Apollo Bay

Wind:   10 knot S’s

Tide:  3.5hours before 1.47 high tide at the heads.

Conditions:   The winds had swung around to a southerly and the swell was picking up. The tide was also coming in, so conditions were conspiring against me, but in comparison to usual conditions in this part of the world they were prtety good.  Slight surge, but the vis was fairly good.  Breakers on the outer reef, which moved to the inner reef as the tide came in.

Visibilty:8m

Water Temp: 18c

Bottom Time: 92minutes

Max Depth: 8.0m

Air usage: 140bar/2000psi

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details:   Marengo take two (after some camera housing adjustments).  I did the same entry as last dive, but surface swam out to about the centre of the channel and the made my way to the outer platform underwater. The force of the swell got pretty full on around where the water got shallower approaching the exposed reef.  There were loads of Herring Cale in the area,  plenty of leatherjackets and i stumbled onto a few cowfish too.  I saw a big ray in the distance, but nothing was particulary photogenic and as much as i tried, i couldn’t get close to anything for a decent pic. The underwater terrain was interesting with big fronds of bull kelp in the shallower reeds, and long flowing kelp over the rest of the reef.   I’d never seen weed civerage like it, and it almost seems to degrade  the diversity of marine plant life on the rocks.  In general it was an interesting dive, but didn’t blow me away like i was hoping…no seal encounters, and luckily no great whites either. ;) 

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , dual SS200 strobes

Dive Report:

Dive 146 – Marengo, Apollo Bay

By pfuller

Mar

16

Dive Number: 146 12/03/11  13.43, Marengo, Apollo Bay

Wind:   10 knot S’s

Tide:  3hours before 1.47 high tide at the heads.

Conditions:   The winds had swung around to a southerly and the swell was picking up. The tide was also coming in, so conditions were conspiring against me, but in comparison to usual conditions in this part of the world they were prtety good.  Slight surge, but the vis was fairly good.  Breakers on the outer reef, which moved to the inner reef as the tide came in.

Visibilty:8m

Water Temp: 18c

Bottom Time: 20minutes

Max Depth: 7.5m

Air usage: 35bar/500psi

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details:   After a failed dive at Torquay, i didn’t want to waste the day and decided the next available airfill option to replace my dirty air was Apollo Bay, which has just had a shop open that does fills. It was a risk..i didn’t even know if it was open, but i assumed it was, so headed on down the coast admiring all the potential dive sites along the way that looked diveable if i had air.  I got to Apollo Bay and found the fishing shop which had a sign saying they did fills. They only have a small generator, so i dropped it off, had some lunch and headed back in 30mins when it was ready. After getting down to Marengo,  i geared up and headed out along the rocks to find a suitable entry point.  After a fairly dicey entry, i dropped down into about 7m, with large scatter bommies covered in kelp. I went to take a photo, and… nothing….my card was full (must have reemed off 300 shots accidently of the car boot). No probs..i’ll just format the card. Nope..if the camera is slightly misaligned in the housing the housing button doesn’t quiet hit the “set’ button on the camera.  Usually i can hold the housing upside down and give it a little bang into position, but it just wasn’t going to happen. I had to abort the dive, head back to the car and reposition the camera in the housing.  Two continuous dive blogs without photos….a first!  

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , dual SS200 strobes

Dive Report:

No Photos : (  …again.

Dive 145 – Pt Danger

By pfuller

Mar

16

Dive Number: 145 12/03/11  9.16, Point Danger, Torquay

Wind:   10 knot N’s

Tide:  2hours before 0.23 low tide at the heads.

Conditions:  It was close to low tide and waves were breaking over the point. They were only small, but enough to churn up the sandy bottom and make surge annoying, and also made it difficult to get out.  It was generally a fine day, but perhaps the northerlies weren’t strong enough to totally flatten  out the water. The evening before were southerlies too, so the northerlies impact were broken up.

Visibilty:4-5m

Water Temp: 18c

Bottom Time: 22minutes

Max Depth: 6.3m

Air usage: 35bar/500psi

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details:    Another bad air day god dammit. I’ve been assured by the owner it should be sorted out now. I intended to dive with Phil, Sandy, Hui and Trev for a dive here…it ended up me just flapping around on the surface  concerned about my air again. The conditions weren’t great so i didn’t miss a whole lot, but still would have loved to  explore more of this site.   Seom of Trev’s photos can be seen here:  http://trevmcmurrich.com/blog/?p=270             

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , dual SS200 strobes

Dive Report:

No Photos : (

Dive 144 – Pt Henry Pier

By pfuller

Mar

16

Dive Number: 144 11/03/11  18.37,  Point Henry Pier

Wind:   5 knot E’s

Tide:  2.5hours before 0.97 high tide at Geelong.

Conditions:  Despite Easterlies, Corio bay was like glass on the surface.  Unfortunately the water was sediment rich, so visibility suffered.

Visibilty:4-5m

Water Temp: 21c

Bottom Time: 61minutes

Max Depth: 2.4m

Air usage: 70bar/1000psi

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details:    I’d just bought a Ys-120 strobe off ebay, which has a slave sensor built in, so i was hoping to do a couple of back lit off camera strobe shots. It proved difficult to get the strobe to trigger, and i hadn’t worked out mounting opetions for it yet, so very few shots were takedn with it. Instead i focussed on some baitfish balls.            

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , dual SS200 strobes +ys-120 slave

Dive Report:

Dive 143 – Point Danger, Torquay

By pfuller

Mar

10

Dive Number: 143 08/03/11  15.20,  Point Danger, Torquay

Wind:   10knot N’s

Tide:  20mins before 1.45 high tide at the heads.

Conditions:  The day was overcast and humid, with gentle northerlies, but the prior 3 days had been blowing strong northerlies and flattened out the seas. The water didn’t look overly clean, but was near dead flat. A touch of surge but nothing too dramatic.

Visibilty: 5-6m

Water Temp: 18c

Bottom Time: 59minutes

Max Depth: 6.4m

Air usage: 105bar/1500psi

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details:    Last weekend was blowing  strong easterlies, and by sunday/monday it had swung around to Northerlies, pushing down the swell along the coast to negligable levels….perfect conditions to check out some new spots on the coast that are swell affected.  Some surfing websites said that point danger was registering zero foot swells, so i thought i’d check it out…a place i’ve been tempted to dive but never hit the right conditions.  Pt Danger is not usually a spot with the biggest swell, but there is always some small breakers. Today was flat, with some small bumps approaching the shoreline. I couldn’t resist and headed down the stairs and straight out.  The water looked pretty dirty and vis wasn’t the best, but i felt priveledged just to get out in this area. It was on high tide, which i didn’t plan, but this was to my benefit, since it enabled me to swim out to deeper water and not risk my ankles navigating the rocks. As i got deeper (3m+) the fishlife started to pickup, and a varied catshark squirmed its way through the weed. The reef started turning into scattered bommies with lots of shelter and unique formations.  I gathered an entourage of sea sweep, and continued out, stumbling onto a boarfish that was also inquisitive.  I’d heard Pt Danger drops off to 10m+ so i was keen to head out deeper. When i got into about 6m, i spotted a HUGE Banded Wobbegong. I’ve seen Ornate Wobbegongs up at Byron and the GBR, but they were babies compared to this guy… 3m+ !!!  I was feeling a bit tentative about my approach, coz this guy was big enough to take off a hand, but since i had my fisheye on i  had to get in nice and close. It didn’t seem to mind, but i still kept a comfortable distance(and the pics suffered because of it). I  decided to go behind it and get some different angles. I was wary of it feeling vunerable so i approached slowly..then..spook! it 180’d on itself and rose up in a threatening gesture. I obviously didn’t get the message strong enough and took photos at arms length and it pounced again. I got out of there quick smart, keeping my eye on it and it departed into the murky vis in the opposite direction. The heart was beating,  and i started heading back in, damn happy with such an encounter with a magnificent creature. Spotted a couple of biiig crays on the way in, and a stingaree that looked paler to the other species i’ve seen in the bay.  Apart form the usual reef species, there were silver drummers, and some other small school fish that aren’t common in the bay. I didn’t manage any pics though.  A short but very sweet dive thats whet my appetite for more coastal diving.           

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , dual SS200 strobes.

Dive Report:

Dive 142 – Cottage by the Sea

By pfuller

Mar

10

Dive Number: 142 06/03/11  17.48,  Cottage  by the Sea

Wind:   20knot NE’s

Tide:  2hrs before 0.45 low tide at the heads.

Conditions:  Seemed like a day that would produce good conditions, but they were very ordinary. Surgey, high current and dark and murky vis.

Visibilty: 4-5m

Water Temp: 18c

Bottom Time: 102minutes

Max Depth: 7.9m

Air usage: 170bar/2500psi

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details:    The conditions were very ordinary, and it wasn’t a very inspiring dive. I actually got cold a lot earlier than usual. Still lots of good critters around a few blue devils, a couple of small crays, a cuttle (the usual cottage suspects). I took some photos of  a strange orange  cigar shaped pod, i think its some type of  algae float.  There were plenty of squid egg clusters around in the weeds as well.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , dual SS200 strobes.

Dive Report:

Dive 141 – Cottage by the Sea

By pfuller

Mar

1

Dive Number: 141 26/02/11  15.47,  Cottage  by the Sea

Wind:   5-10knot NE’s

Tide:  2hrs before 1.46 high tide at the heads.(slack at 15.24)

Conditions:  Couldn’t be more different to my dive earlier in the day. Big flooding current and dark and dirty water. 

Visibilty: 4m

Water Temp: 20c

Bottom Time: 73minutes

Max Depth: 7.9m

Air usage: 140bar/2000psi

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details:    I’d just missed slack but decided i see what it was like anway…dark and dirty with strong current as the flood had kicked it. I spent most of my time under the ledges to keep out of the current, and played with a couple of Blue Devils. Suprisingly saw a small cray on this dive too…not a common sight at overdived cottage.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , single SS200 strobes.

Dive Report:

Dive 140 – Cottage by the Sea

By pfuller

Mar

1

Dive Number: 140 26/02/11  12.03,  Cottage  by the Sea

Wind:   5-10knot NE’s

Tide:  0.5hrs before 0.10 low tide at the heads.

Conditions:  Perfect conditions..you could see the bottom all the way out, even in the 10m water, the reef below was clearly visible. Calm surface, not chop, current or surge. 

Visibilty: 12m+

Water Temp: 19c

Bottom Time: 133minutes

Max Depth: 9.0m

Air usage: 140bar/2500psi

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details:    What a day… sunny, calm conditions, great vis…and BAD AIR!!! ARHH!!! Anyway, i dont want to go into the gory details..but eventually had a cracker of a dive.  After finding an anchor and making a fisherman very happy after i dished it off to him, i spotted a Smooth Ray from the surface.   I descended into about 9 m of water. I lay flat on the bottom, and it charged straight for me. I stayed motionless, holding my ground and trying not to move a muscle. It was a game of chicken, (but with a ray) and no one was backing down. I thought it would approach closely, and then veer away at the last moment , but no…it went straight over the top of me….a 2 metre wide mass ‘breathing’ down on me as it passed over me lying on the ground. One hell of an encounter! We became quiet good friends over the next 20-30 minutes as he continued to do close inspections…none as close as this first one though.   Then a cuttlefish popped out from under the ledge to check out all the comotion.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , dual SS200 strobes.

Dive Report: