Aug
20
20/08/2011 11.15 Pt Lonsdale
Tide: low tide at heads
Wind: Southerly???
Conditions: ????
Bottom Type: rockpools
Bottom Time: 60 minutes
Details: Some under-overs down at Pt Lonsdale Lighthouse and a pycnogonid (seaspider) floating mid water.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , single SS200 strobe.
Photos:
Aug
16
Dive Number: 190 15/08/11 12.01, Wolf Rock, Rainbow Beach
Wind: 10 north-easterlies???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: 15m.
Water Temp: 18c
Bottom Time: 42minutes
Max Depth: 30.4m
Air usage: 200bar/3000psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: Dive Two at Wolf Rock after a 1hr surface interval…soup, sandwiches and humpback whale sightings.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , Inon 2000 + Sea and Sea Ys-120 Strobe (fired optically with difficulties)
Photos:
Aug
16
Dive Number: 189 15/08/11 10.35, Wolf Rock, Rainbow Beach
Wind: 10 north-easterlies???
Tide: ???
Conditions: Big seas with lots of chop.
Visibilty: 15m.
Water Temp: 18c
Bottom Time: 40minutes
Max Depth: 34.5m
Air usage: 200bar/3000psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: I hoped to get my AOW so i could dive wolf rock which i’d read good reviews about. I wasn’t disappointed. The word magical comes to mind..truly another world down there…domain of the Grey Nurse Shark.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , Inon 2000 + Sea and Sea Ys-120 Strobe (fired optically with difficulties)
Photos:
Aug
15
Dive Number: 188 15/08/11 12.08, Woody Island, Hervey Bay
Wind: 10 north-easterlies???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: 15m.
Water Temp: 18c
Bottom Time: 37minutes
Max Depth: 14m
Air usage: 200bar/3000psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: My last dive for my AOW – a Navigation dive. This just involved traversing a square and attempting to return to the starting point. A diagonal current made it a bit more difficult to calculate my kicks and distance, but i managed to adjust and got it spot on. Some nice coral in this shallow area, but not much fish life.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , Inon 2000 + Sea and Sea Ys-120 Strobe (fired optically with difficulties)
Photos:
Aug
15
Dive Number: 187 15/08/11 10.00, Kgari Wreck, Hervey Bay
Wind: 10 north-easterlies???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: 2m.
Water Temp: 18c
Bottom Time: 72minutes
Max Depth: 18.7m
Air usage: 200bar/3000psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: This was the multi-level dive for my AOW. Just when i thought vis couldn’t get any worse, this dive turned on 2m vis. Not very condusive to photography.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , Inon 2000 + Sea and Sea Ys-120 Strobe (fired optically with difficulties)
Photos:
Aug
15
Dive Number: 186 15/08/11 8.10, Snapper Ground, Hervey Bay
Wind: 10 north-easterlies???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: 3-5m.
Water Temp: 16c
Bottom Time: 33minutes
Max Depth: 30.2m
Air usage: 200bar/3000psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: This was my deep dive for the AOW course. We dropped into about 22 metres, and then over a shelf to sit at 30m. Here i performed a narc test using a kids toy – “put the right shape in the right hole”. I passed with flying colours…looks like all my training down the pub paid off. Not much around to photograph in the short time available. A seasnake and a bullray.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , Inon 2000 + Sea and Sea Ys-120 Strobe (fired optically with difficulties)
Photos:
Aug
14
Dive Number: 185 14/08/11 15.23, Three Ships, Hervey Bay
Wind: 10 north-easterlies???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: 2-3m.
Water Temp: 18c
Bottom Time: 57minutes
Max Depth: 16.3m
Air usage: 200bar/3000psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: This was my wreck dive for my AOW. Vis was still atrocious as a wobbegong found out when he found my elbow on his head. Large cod hung out under the bow of the ship, and schools swum above the decrepit hull. After spooking a large flathead, he posed for a photo. Interesting dive, but damn dirty.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , Inon 2000 + Sea and Sea Ys-120 Strobe (fired optically with difficulties)
Photos:
Aug
14
Dive Number: 184 14/08/11 12.53, Moon Ledge Hervey Bay
Wind: 10 north-easterlies???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: 3m.
Water Temp: 18c
Bottom Time: 52minutes
Max Depth: 18.3m
Air usage: 200bar/3000psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: This was the first dive of my AOW course. It was suppose to be a drift dive, but there was no current! This was probably the most bizaar dive i’d ever done..the 3m vis made it very eerie, but the wall was made of a material called coffee rock which crumbles when you touch it. It formed a long wall with lots of overhangs and big boulders sitting on the slope. There were some good critters around, but the vis really didn’t make it very inspirational.
Camera Details: First dive ever without a camera
Aug
12
Dive Number: 183 12/08/11 10.49, Double Rock, Bargara – Bundaberg
Wind: 10 north-easterlies???
Tide: ???
Conditions: Winds slightly onshore and choppy, but bearable.
Visibilty: 10m.
Water Temp: 18c
Bottom Time: 76minutes
Max Depth: 6.4m
Air usage: 140bar/2000psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: I thought i’d try one of the lesser visited dive sites aorund the bargara regiom – Double Rock. After a bit of research on the net i found out its location and it was easily locatable. This turned out to be the best marine life dive of the 3 shories i did. Schools of large fish (mackrel??), wobbegongs, seasnakes etc. Its not the easiest entry and exit, but a nice shallow dive.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , Inon 2000 + Sea and Sea Ys-120 Strobe (fired optically with difficulties)
Photos:
Aug
10
Dive Number: 182 10/08/11 16.47, Barolins Rocks, Bargara
Wind: 10 north-easterlies???
Tide: ???
Conditions: Nasty, bad vis, surgey, dark.
Visibilty: 6-8m.
Water Temp: 18c
Bottom Time: 42minutes
Max Depth: 7.9m
Air usage: 70bar/1000psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: This was a bit of a write-off of a dive. I had fogging and leaking of my replacement mask, and the strobes weren’t firing optically, so i tried a couple of ambien light shots and gave up.
Camera Details: Macro 100mm with no strobes. (nightmare)
Photos:
Aug
10
Dive Number: 181 10/08/11 12.36, Hoffmans Rocks, Bargara
Wind: 10 north-easterlies???
Tide: ???
Conditions: Fairly choppy with strong surge towards the end.
Visibilty: 10m.
Water Temp: 18c
Bottom Time: 100minutes
Max Depth: 8.5m
Air usage: 200bar/3000psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: I snorkelled a couple of years ago at Hoffmans (before i had my scuba licence) and saw turtles, olive seasnakes mating, and eagle rays, but this time didn’t have the same luck. Still a nice shore dive, and i just enjoyed the nice soft corals. The dive ended badly though when i tried a new mask, and managed to loose my old one in the process. If anyone finds a black Oceanic Shadow, send it my way. I loved that mask…waaaaa.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , Inon 2000 + Sea and Sea Ys-120 Strobe (fired optically with difficulties)
Photos:
Aug
9
Dive Number: 180 09/08/11 14.35, Inner Lagoon, Lady Musgrave Island
Wind: 10 north-easterlies???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: 10-12m.
Water Temp: 18c
Bottom Time: 45minutes
Max Depth: 7m
Air usage: 50bar/750psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: After a quick bite to eat on the platform, it was back into the water for our second dive in the lagoon. Some other introductory divers joined us on this dive, and off we went. The vis was pretty bad with a lot of bottom being stirred up, but the coral and colours were much better on this dive, with more reef fish too. We circled around some coral bommies close to the platform, and when we arrived back, i took some photos under the platform which had plenty of larger fish hanging out under it. Not a bad dive, but i still would have loved to have spent more time here, unrushed..with time to appreciate the tre beauty of the place.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , Inon 2000 + Sea and Sea Ys-120 Strobe (fired optically with difficulties)
Photos:
Aug
9
Dive Number: 179 09/08/11 12.35, Outer Wall, Lady Musgrave Island
Wind: 10 north-easterlies???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: 15m.
Water Temp: 18c
Bottom Time: 45minutes
Max Depth: 18m
Air usage: 200bar/3000psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: My lack of planning and Queensland’s winter dive hybernation struck again and had me digging to find options to dive. We headed to 1770, a lovely little fishing inlet. The only dive operation in the region was Dive 1770, but the owner was up in Gladstone doing mining surveys or something for a couple of weeks. My only option was to get a ‘cattle’ boat out to Lady Musgrave Island which cost a fortune and charged extra for diving. All up $250 for a double dive…steep. Against my better judgement i decided just to do it…i really didn’t have any other options. After an hours ride out, we arrived at Lady Musgrave, a beautiful coral cay in the coral sea and unboarded to the platform moored in the cay. Only one other spanish girl was diving, and the dive master, Gus, had to stay on the surface, so he had a friend dive with us as dive leader. We geared up, boarded a smaller dive boat and headed back out of the cay to the outer wall. We dropped into about 18m, and saw a turtle dissappear into the blue. That was possibly the most interesting sighting, and again the diving was underwhelming. Little colour (except the shallows) and a lack of marine life. I’d heard so much about these cays and islands in the southern GBR, but it left me very dissappointed. One of the tour operators told me back at 1770 that you see more snorkelling in the lagoon, and i think i should have taken his advice. The second dive was going to be in the lagoon, so i hoped it would show the true glory of these coral cays.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , Inon 2000 + Sea and Sea Ys-120 Strobe (fired optically with difficulties)
Photos:
Aug
7
Dive Number: 178 07/08/11 14.35, Old Keppel Underwater Observatory
Wind: 10 north-easterlies???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: 15m.
Water Temp: 18c
Bottom Time: 50minutes
Max Depth: 7m
Air usage: 200bar/3000psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: On the way back to the mainland, we stopped off at an old decomissoned underwater observatory. It had resident large rock cod that use to be fed and have subsequently stuck around. It was fairly shallow dive, and a lot of sediment in the water being close to a sand island, so vis wasn’t the best, but it had good fish life, with a lots of larger fish. I didn’t nail any shots of the rock cod though, they just weren’t cooperative, similar to these two strobes i was using that i’d borrowed for travel, and rigged up to fire optically (fairly unsuccessfully). It was a nice dive for photography though, like a shallow water wreck with some good subjects.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , Inon 2000 + Sea and Sea Ys-120 Strobe (fired optically with difficulties)
Photos:
Aug
7
Dive Number: 176 07/08/11 12.35, Child Island
Wind: 10 north-easterlies???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: 15m.
Water Temp: 18c
Bottom Time: 40minutes
Max Depth: 23m
Air usage: 140bar/2000psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: After the first dive, we swum over a waterproof case to Barren Island and scrambled into a small little grotto known as “One Bum Beach”. Dave had a small little cooker and snags that he cooked up for lunch, with tim tams for sweets. The other guys had a catnap on the beach and Dave took me over the ridge to show me a little spot where you could jump off the cliffs into an ocean gully, and then swim up into the island. Great fun. Getting back out was the tricky bit, requiring good timing between swell, and then scrambling over the oyster covered rocks. After we got back to the boat, we headed off to the second dive site, Child Island, which was a small island just off Barren Island, so not far to travel. This was a deeper dive and much more interesting, with whip coral, a lemon shark, some big rock cods and sea trout. A bit of a suprise when we surfaced to find the boat wasn’t there! The anchor had come loose, but luckily some fisherman where nearby to give dave a lift to go get it. We waiting, bobbing up and down with the story of the local 5m Tiger Shark fresh in our minds ;)
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , Inon 2000 + Sea and Sea Ys-120 Strobe (fired optically with difficulties)
Photos:
Aug
7
Dive Number: 176 07/08/11 10.35, Barren Island
Wind: 10 north-easterlies???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: 15m.
Water Temp: 18c
Bottom Time: 60minutes
Max Depth: 14m
Air usage: 200bar/3000psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: After flying into Rockhampton and making absolutely no plans about where i was going to dive, i spent most of the day calling around to find some dive charters that were running trips the following day. Keppel Island was the obvious dive destination, however i could only track down two dive charters that ran dives in the area. The first (Keppel Dive) ran from Keppel Island itself, but after a phone call, it seemed the industry in central queensland goes into virtual hibernation during the winter months. (The 18c water temps is just too cold for queenslanders! Ha! Suck it up…that’s what we get in summer in Vic!) Anyway, with some apprehension he suggested trying a relatively new operation called Manta Ray dive. So i gave them a call, and luckily the owner, Dave, said he was running a trip with a few mates, and i was welcome to come along. Apparently he doesn’t run charters as such, but runs a private boat and has guests chip in for petrol etc. *nudge**wink* sort of stuff. Suited me fine, so i met up at the boat ramp the next morning and we headed out to the islands. Firt dive site was off the edge of Barren Island. We descended into about 14m and vis was nice but not spectacular. Large expanses of stag coral covered the area, with little diversity and it look fairly unhealthy. A small Wobby sat atop the coral which provided my first photographic subect. I quickly realised my autofocus wasn’t working and that i’d obviously left the lens on manual focus. God damn..i swear i checked it. Oh well..i pushed on and made do with the focus set were it was. The marine life was fairly underwhelming, as was the coral in its structure, diversity and colour. Nearer the surface in about 6m+ was much prettier. Overall a nice dive but nothing spectacular.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , Inon 2000 + Sea and Sea Ys-120 Strobe (fired optically with difficulties)
Photos:
Aug
3
Dive Number: 175 31/07/11 15.35, Pt Lonsdale Outer Reef
Wind: 10-15knot north/north-easterlies
Tide: Slack Water at the Heads
Conditions: Still a lovely day, but cloud increasing. Swell still low, with low surge against the platform. Aquarium like visibility.
Visibilty: 15m.
Water Temp: 12c
Bottom Time: 37minutes
Max Depth: 5.5m
Air usage: 70bar/1000psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: Just when i thought diving couldn’t get any better, i hit the outer ledges on slack water. It was liking diving in an aquarium, with immaculate vis, and fish life everywhere. The sun was low in th sky and the ambient light underwater was ethereal. Unforunately i ran out of strobe batteries and memory from the previous dive, so not much to show..but it was just great to sit back and take in the views. At the end of the dive, a bottom dwelling fish (maybe a flounder or sole) swam past me in midwater…very strange to see..almost like a minature ray.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS400 Strobe
Dive Report:
Aug
3
Dive Number: 174 31/07/11 10.01, Barwon Bluff, Barwon Heads
Wind: 10-15knot north/north-easterlies
Tide: 2.5hr before 1.48 high tide at the Heads
Conditions: Absolutley perfect conditions. Sun shining, gentle northerlies, flat seas and crystal clear waters.
Visibilty: 15-20m.
Water Temp: 11c
Bottom Time: 113minutes
Max Depth: 6.8m
Air usage: 210bar/3000psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: Conditions were absolutely ideal for diving today. Clear blue skies, flat seas, and crystal clear water. Phil was going to meet me down at Barwon Bluff and he brought a couple of buddies with him. I also persuaded Chris (with some crap about flying kites), that he shouldn’t miss this opportunity to dive Barwon Bluff while the going was good, so Chris and Harry also came along. All up i think we had seven divers in the water to experience the goodness that is Barwon Bluff and the wreck of the Earl of Charlemont. Phil and crew had to get in the water early, since they had a boat dive later in the day, so Owen joined me, Chris and Harry on the dive. We trudged down the stairs and along the beach to the rough entry point which i tried to memorise from yesterday. We swum out about 100m and descended, spreading out and searching the gullies trying to spot some of the wreck remanants with not much success. The vis was spectacular and the terrain matched it. My over -eagerness to re-find the wreck, mixed with the great vis, saw me getting seperated twice from the others. On the second occassion however, i refound the wreck area from yesterday, and started taking photos. Excited with the find, and wanting to share, i looked up to see Chris hovering above me, right in my face trying to scare the beegebus of me. It didn’t work.. ;P too much adrenaline from the find, so i motioned to go over to the ridge where the deadeye rigging lay. We checked that out and surfaced to discuss the approach from here on. We decided to swim further out and see if more of the wreck was visible further out. No doubt there was more under there, but covered in the endless sand, which made us turn back to the exposed area. We came across some type of basket net…possibly a modern day cray net, but beneath it was some gnarled iron that was definently wreck material. We tried to clear the sand to uncover more of it, but it was fairly uneventful. It was nearly 2 hours into the dive, and air was running low, so we headed back into shore. An unforgettable dive..
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 strobe + SS400 Strobe
Dive Report:
Aug
1
Dive Number: 173 30/07/11 10.09, Barwon Bluff, Barwon Heads
Wind: 15knot north/north-easterlies
Tide: 1.5hr before 1.42 high tide at the Heads
Conditions: Very dark cloudy morning…Cold with drizzle..uninspiring..but flat!
Visibilty: 8m.
Water Temp: 11c
Bottom Time: 108minutes
Max Depth: 8.5m
Air usage: 210bar/3000psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: Geez it was hard to get inspired for this dive. A very cold winters morning, with light drizzle and very dark. But Swellnet promised flat seas and Barwon Bluff’s lure was irresistable. I had my heart set on trying to find the wreck of the Charlemont, and i knew i had a good chance with the big 50 year swells a few weeks earlier. So i manned up, geared up and headed down the stairs and towards the point of the bluff. I went out south for a while and through the bull kelp and brown algae forests. Out the back the limestone started flattening out with little growth on it, and just a few small crevices. I spotted a small cuttlefish doing a pretty good job trying to blend into its surroundings. I then started swimming west and crossed a multitude of different terrains. Back through the kelp forests, exploring the crevices and gullies that lay beneath, and then through vast areas of sculpted limestone that didn’t have a ounce of vegetation on it. I spotted a pipe formation beneath a rock which got me a little bit excited but turned out to be just a peice of PVC. I continued westerly and the vegetation started to increase slightly, and the formations became more dramatic with some amazing contours and lines carving the rocks and gullies. I was nearly two hours into my dive and nearing the end of my tank, when i spotted my first peice of wreck… large iron gurder that sat on the bottom of a rocky gully, right on the egde of the sand line which had shifted to reveal it. I sensed i was onto an area that held more goodies, so i tried to remain calm to conserve air and explore the surrounding gullies. An old peice of timber was the next to shows itself, further along the same gully. I doubled back and over a ridge into the next parallel gully, and came across a large cable..possibly some part of the rigging. It was fused into the rock and calcified, so could possibly have been rope, but i’m not sure it rope would last the 160 years (if it is remanents of the Earl of Charlemont). The stylings of the rigging definently had an 1800’s feel to it though. It was an exciting find, but unfortunately i was out of air. So i surfaced and did my best to burn the location into my brain, taking in the distance out from shore, landmark spotting and using my compass on the way in to determine the way back out. Tommorrow promised more flat seas, so it gave me hope to get back down and reexplore the area for more artefacts.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 strobe + SS400 Strobe
Dive Report:
