Dive 336 – Point George

By pfuller

Jul

29

Dive Number: 336 29/07/12 12.41, Point George

Wind: ???

Tide: ???

Conditions: Some offshore current

Visibilty: 8m

Water Temp: 10.8c

Bottom Time: 80minutes

Max Depth: 4.2m

Air usage:

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: This was an exploratory dive to see what was around the Point George area. The current was fairly significant pushing me away from shore, so i played it safe and kept in shallow. There’s a nice shallow reef here that might be ok in summer. There was an unusual large mollusc/slug on the sand here, and a Green-lipped Abalone showed off its skirts nicely for a photo.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes

Photos:






Dive 335 – Wheel Reef

By pfuller

Jul

28

Dive Number: 335 28/07/12 13.29, Wheel Reef

Wind: ???

Tide: ???

Conditions: ???

Visibilty: 8m

Water Temp: 10.8c

Bottom Time: 62minutes

Max Depth: 2.9m

Air usage:

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: A splash around Wheel Reef…there were wheels. Four types of wheels..it was wheely good. Sorry…these wheels are still a mystery to me. Any got any ideas? Also of note was a Frilled Venus shellfish which i’d never previously seen.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes

Photos:











Dive 334 – Cottage by the Sea

By pfuller

Jul

27

Dive Number: 334 27/07/12 12.18, Cottage by the Sea

Wind: ???

Tide: ???

Conditions: Average to OK

Visibilty: 6m

Water Temp: 12.0c

Bottom Time: 68minutes

Max Depth: 7.3m

Air usage:

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: Its been aaaages since i’d dived cottage and it was glad to revisit it, despite the less than perfect conditions. Heaps of starfish around, and always good to see a Weedy Seadragon.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes

Photos:










Dive 333 – Pt Lonsdale Town Reef

By pfuller

Jul

27

Dive Number: 333 27/07/12 9.55, Point Lonsdale Town Reef

Wind: ???

Tide: ???

Conditions: Strong current running

Visibilty: 7m

Water Temp: 11.6c

Bottom Time: 60minutes

Max Depth: 5.1m

Air usage:

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: There’s a reef marked on Navionics called Merlens Reef out of Point Lonsdale that i’d been meaning to check out. Conditions weren’t ideal and a strong current was running, so we didn’t make it out to the area that marked a drop off. An interesting dive all the same.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes

Photos:




Dive 332 – Blairgowrie Pier

By pfuller

Jul

21

Dive Number: 332 22/07/12 11.40, Blairgowrie Pier

Wind: ???

Tide: ???

Conditions: Some current

Visibilty: 10m

Water Temp: 11.2c

Bottom Time: 63minutes

Max Depth: 5.3m

Air usage:

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: I took the wide-angle over to Blairgowrie this time, to get some situational shots of the Tasselled Angler, rather than macro portraits. Luckily there were a couple of obliging subjects.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes

Photos:
















Dive 331 – Prince George Bank – Iso Reef

By pfuller

Jul

21

Dive Number: 331 21/07/12 14.59, Prince George Bank – Iso Reef

Wind: ???

Tide: ???

Conditions: ???

Visibilty: 8m

Water Temp: 10.4c

Bottom Time: 42minutes

Max Depth: 15.0m

Air usage:

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: This was the second dive out on Prince George Bank at one of the sticks. Not much life around, but another nice shallow reef that will be great in summer.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes

Photos:





Dive 330 – Prince George Light

By pfuller

Jul

21

Dive Number: 330 21/07/12 12.12, Prince George Light

Wind: ???

Tide: ???

Conditions: ???

Visibilty: 8m

Water Temp: 10.4c

Bottom Time: 61minutes

Max Depth: 6.4m

Air usage:

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details:

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes

Photos: A day of westerlies, so i took the boat out with Hyeonji off St Leonards and explored some sites on Prince George Bank. First stop was Prince George light, and despite the Antarctic-like water temperatures, it was a nice dive. A shallow colourful reef that produced the biggest Cuttlefish i’ve laid eyes on. No cuttlefish were harmed in themaking of these pics…despite what it may look like. ;)
















Dive 329 – The Springs

By pfuller

Jul

15

Dive Number: 329 15/07/12 13.14, The Springs

Wind: ???

Tide: ???

Conditions: Surgey, milky conditions

Visibilty: 3m

Water Temp: 12.4c

Bottom Time: 53minutes

Max Depth: 5.9m

Air usage:

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: Fairly horrible conditions at the Springs today…surgey and very low visibility. Not much fun.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes

Photos:




Dive 328 – Marengo, Apollo Bay

By pfuller

Jul

14

Dive Number: 328 14/07/12 15.41, Marengo Apollo Bay

Wind: ???

Tide: ???

Conditions: Flat conditions

Visibilty: 10m

Water Temp: 13.2c

Bottom Time: 56minutes

Max Depth: 6.6m

Air usage:

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: Another flat winters day and plenty of sightings being posted of whales along the coast. I headed down past Lorne scouring the coast with binoculars and eventually saw two Southern Right Whales just near Artillery Rocks. They were heading west, and a little way off shore, so i checked the maps and decided to head to Point Sturt off Wye River, as i thought this would be a vantage point they would pass close to. I made a good choice…the two whales coming from the west, met with one whale coming from the east and met up about 60m off Point Sturt. They stayed there for about 1 hour and commanded a large crowd of tourists and locals alike.

After an amazing whale encounter i still felt like a dive, and headed down to Marengo for a quick dip. The shallows were very photogenic, but aprt from a school of zebra fish there was little fish life around.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes

Photos:





























Dive 327 – Pipeline Bommie

By pfuller

Jul

8

Dive Number: 327 08/07/12 15.20, Pipeline Bommie

Wind: ???

Tide: ???

Conditions: Flat conditions

Visibilty: 10m

Water Temp: 12.4c

Bottom Time: 46minutes

Max Depth: 19.2m

Air usage:

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: It was a great day, but the many search and rescue helicopters looking for the missing diver the day before added a bit of drama to the area, I didn’t want to come across a body so thought i’d drive down to Torquay in the boat and sound around Pt Danger looking for dive sites. I found 1 or 2 dropoffs, but had a ‘grass is greener’ mentality going on, and eventually ended up loosing the good dropoffs i did find. Conditions looked to be getting worse, so i ended up heading back and diving near black rock. I didn’t regret the decision one bit finding a great bommie that housed a family of 7 Port Jackson Sharks. It had some nice sponge growth on it too, and was just the perfect size to circumnavigate. One of the first ‘proper’ dive sites i’ve sounded out that will go on the regular dive list.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes

Photos:



















Dive 326 – Clay Bed Reef

By pfuller

Jul

7

Dive Number: 326 07/07/12 14.03, Clay Bed Reef

Wind: ???

Tide: ???

Conditions:

Visibilty: 8m

Water Temp: 11.2c

Bottom Time: 52minutes

Max Depth: 19.3m

Air usage:

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: I arrived at the Ocean Grove carpark to find a very muddy looking Barwon River. I headed out through the river mouth and down towards the Canberra. The outflow from the river spread a long way east down to Port Phillip Heads and gave the water a very milky dirty appearance all the way out to the 40m depth contour. Speaking to a newly surfaced diver at the HMAS Canberra, he informed me that the vis was indeed as bad as it looked and it wasn’t worth the effort. So i headed back over the other side of the bluff, which is generally cleaner. On the way i spotted two Southern Right whales that gave close viewing for about 30minutes. It was great to sit out on the ocean and hear them heaving out of the water and splashing there tales. An amazing encounter. I thought i better get in a dive and went exploring off Charlemont reef and sounded out a nice little drop off. The area had large areas of exposed clay with little growth on it. It was very unique to see the substrate so exposed and where the reef joined it created a great habitat for marine life, with lots of fish…especially for this time of year. I’ll definently be revisiting this area again. It was sad to hear on return that i diver went missing on The Coogee during the day…no doubt the bad vis was partly responsible for the incident.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes

Photos:






























Dive 325 – Blairgowrie Pier

By pfuller

Jul

6

Dive Number: 325 06/07/12 14.49, Blairgowrie Pier

Wind: ???

Tide: ???

Conditions:

Visibilty: 8m

Water Temp: 10.8c

Bottom Time: 79minutes

Max Depth: 5.6m

Air usage:

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: A lovely day out on the bay. A clean smooth surface made for an easy trip over to Blairgowrie. I spent the dive photographying the amazing Tasselled Anglerfish.On the way back i nearly hit some Little Penguins feeding near the surface and some Albatross flew past to check out the action.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , SS200 Strobes

Photos: