Mar
31
Dive Number: 285 31/03/12 20.00, Lake Eildon – Alliance Boat Ramp(Night)
Wind: ???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: -m
Water Temp: 19.2c
Bottom Time: 47minutes
Max Depth: 12.2m
Air usage: 170bar/2500psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: This dive was to the left of the boat ramp along the rock wall. A fair few fish around, including redfin and gudgeon. Some of the other guys saw Murray cod too. Really tranquil night diving.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes
Photos:
Mar
31
Dive Number: 285 31/03/12 16.20, Lake Eildon – Alliance Boat Ramp
Wind: ???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: 6m
Water Temp: 19.2c
Bottom Time: 57minutes
Max Depth: 12.9m
Air usage: 170bar/2500psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: Phil and some of the BSAC crew were going up to Lake Eildon for a bit of fresh water diving and i was kindly invited to join them. After an interesting tour of the fish farm by Hui we went to the boat ramp and kitted up. The dive was to take place just off the boat ramp, and towards the dam wall. It was characterised by a flooded valley wall with scatterings of old flooded pine trees that grew out of the bank. The vis was much better than i expected and the eriee green glow mixed with the dead calm water made it a really different dive. Not much fishlife, but the night dive planned for latter in the evening was promised to deliver more of the native and stocked fish that occupied the lake.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes
Photos:
Mar
29
Dive Number: 284 29/03/12 9.17, Chimney Rock
Wind: ???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: 10m
Water Temp: 17.6c
Bottom Time: 48minutes
Max Depth: 21.7m
Air usage: 170bar/2500psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: Another nice dive at Chimney Rock. Some great fish life around today.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes
Photos:
Mar
25
Dive Number: 283 25/03/12 13.30, Popes Eye
Wind: ???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: 8m
Water Temp: 17c
Bottom Time: 53minutes
Max Depth: 11.3m
Air usage: 170bar/2500psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: We headed to Popes Eye for the second dive, and Harry came for a dive after skippering the Kelp Beds Reef dive. We found an old bottle which was pretty interesting..must be from the William Salthouse.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes
Photos:
Mar
25
Dive Number: 282 – 25/03/12 11.30, Kelp Beds Reef
Wind: ???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: 10m
Water Temp: 16c
Bottom Time: 51minutes
Max Depth: 20.3m
Air usage: 170bar/2500psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: This dive started off with adventure and generally felt a bit dicey. The swell was up and the boat felt small sitting in the middle of the heads, but there were a flurry of dive charters turning up to the same area, so we felt assured of a rescue if anything went wrong. ;) My dive started with a backroll from the boat (usually its an in water gear up). Before i hit the water i realised Harry’s regs were coming for a dive with me, as they hitched a lift on my flippers and sunk into about 18m of water. Chris was already in the water so was straight off after them. I followed shortly but could find neither Chris or the regs, despite a 20 minute search of the area. Luckily Chris spotted them on the way down and managed to bring them back up to the surface. The dive turned out to be ok, but the current was ripping at the end, and it felt pretty hairy on ascent getting swept into the bay. Luckily it was in and not out.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes
Photos:
Mar
20
Dive Number: 281 20/03/12 17.07, Orungal Wreck
Wind: ???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: 6m
Water Temp: 19.2c
Bottom Time: 28minutes
Max Depth: 4.9m
Air usage: 170bar/2500psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: A second dive at the Orungal just to wear off the excitement of seeing the seven gill at Chimney
Rock. Very surgey.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes
Photos:
Mar
20
Dive Number: 280 20/03/12 15.35, Chimney Rock
Wind: ???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: 8m
Water Temp: 18c
Bottom Time: 48minutes
Max Depth: 21.6m
Air usage: 170bar/2500psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: Some dives will stick in your mind for ever…this will be one of them. My first encounter with a broad-nosed seven gilled shark. Here’s what i posted to flickr about this dive after it happened:
“What an experience!!! I have dreamt of seeing a sevengill shark since i started diving, and i’m not sure i’ll have a better encounter than my first yesterday. I was sitting at about 20m, stalking a large school of bullseye that were sitting in a gully over a wall from me. Luckily i had the camera all ready to go when this shark gracefully swum through an archway, along the gully and continued past within a couple of metres of me. I was totally blind-sided from its vision and it continued through the gully and into the blue, totally unaware of my presence. It had an amazing vibe to it. It moved so gracefully and it almost gave off a happy vibe, without a trace of menace or fear about it. Perhaps it would have behaved differently if it was aware of my presence….this is why i feel i’ll never get an encounter like this again.. just nature doing nature’s thing.”
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS400/SS200 Strobes
Photos:
Mar
19
Dive Number: 279 19/03/12 18.00, Chimney Rock
Wind: ???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: 8m
Water Temp: 18c
Bottom Time: 36minutes
Max Depth: 20.4m
Air usage: 170bar/2500psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: I’d heard alot about Chimney rock and i was dying to dive it. Alan Beckhurst kindly past on the gps coords to me, so while the going was good, i headed out with the old man who was keen to do some fishing. The coords were spot on and it picked up on the sounder very easily. I dropped in to 20m and explored the bommies that made up chimney rock. Its a great site. Archways covered with zooanthids, sea fans on the walls and plenty of fish around. We left the run a bit late and it was getting dark so i kept the dive short and viwed to come back for a longer dive.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes
Photos:
Mar
18
Dive Number: 278 18/03/12 13.15, Friendly Bommie
Wind: ???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: 8m
Water Temp: 18c
Bottom Time: 83minutes
Max Depth: 8.4m
Air usage: 170bar/2500psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: Well, friendly bommie never gives up its secrets easily, but i got lucky on this dive and came across it nice and early in the dive. I cant get enough of the swim throughs at this site, and it had some wonderful soft corals on the outer rock too. The swaying ‘roof’ kelp coverage revealed a ‘pencil’ kelp critter that i’ve never seen before. It was small and i had the fisheye on, so not great photos, but good enough to identify it hopefully.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS400/SS200 Strobes
Photos:
Mar
17
Dive Number: 277 17/03/12 11.30, St Leonards Reef
Wind: ???
Tide: ???
Conditions: Some current early.
Visibilty: 8m
Water Temp: 19.6c
Bottom Time: 70minutes
Max Depth: 3.6m
Air usage: 170bar/2500psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: This turned into a great dive. This was the reef out off St Leonards Pier. The area is dominated by rocks covered with sponge and brown algae. We dropped straight onto a cuttlefish and then explored the sponge area. After 10 minutes i came across two Port Jackson sharks spleighed across each other…as they do. A real suprise. Chris also saw some squid out here…a really productive area.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes
Photos:
Mar
17
Dive Number: 276 17/03/2012 10.00, Pt Edwards
Wind: ???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: 6m
Water Temp: 18c
Bottom Time: 17minutes
Max Depth: 5.4m
Air usage: 170bar/2500psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: No Photos…an exploratory dip with clary off Edwards point….just seagrass beds.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS400/SS200 Strobes
Photos:
Mar
10
Dive Number: 275 10/03/12 14.30, St Leonards Pier
Wind: ???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: 6m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time: ???minutes
Max Depth: 3m
Air usage: 170bar/2500psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: A short dive to test a new (used/old) reg i bought off ebay.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm, SS200 Strobes
Photos:
Mar
9
Dive Number: 274 09/03/12 7.20, Charlemont Reef
Wind: ???
Tide: ???
Conditions: Dark and surgey
Visibilty: 8m
Water Temp: 16.5c
Bottom Time: 61minutes
Max Depth: 16.5m
Air usage: 170bar/2500psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: This was just a random spot off charlemont reef. I got a bit lazy with the sounding and the area was fairly monotonous with a gentely sloping terrain. It was a fairly dark and surgey dive with not a lot of interest in it. Always good to get wet though.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes
Photos:
Mar
9
Dive Number: 377 09/10/12 Cenderawasih Bay, Kwatisore Bagan
Conditions: Good
Visibilty: 15m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time: 80minutes
Max Depth: 8m
Details: These bagans, (or fishing platforms) are used by indonesian fisherman to camp out on and fish during the night by enticing fish up to thier lights, drawing them into the middle of the bagan, and then closing the nets in around them. The local whalesharks have a field day picking off any stray fish, and now with the interest of the dive community, the bagan operators are feeding them during the day. Up to around 7 whalesharks can be at the bagans at one time, but most days 2-3 hung out for a feed and to swim with the snap happy tourists.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm, 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Mar
4
Dive Number: 273 24/03/12 10.30, Perpendicular Reef
Wind: ???
Tide: ???
Conditions:
Visibilty: 8m
Water Temp: 17c
Bottom Time: 95minutes
Max Depth: 8m
Air usage: 170bar/2500psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: A nice little dive at Perpies with the usual suspects. A massive school of Slender bullseye were around …this site seems to be a hotspot for the species.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS400/SS200 Strobes
Photos:
