Dive Number: 44 29/05/2010 14.20 18m Reef
Wind: 15knot SE
Tide: 1hr after 1.69 high tide at Heads
Conditions: Overcast all day with storm clouds looming. Choppy getting out through the heads, and also pretty choppy outside.
Bottom Type: Scattered reef structures. Mostly bommies with some small overhangs, but we didn’t find any large deep ledges.
Visibilty: 5-7m
Water Temp: 16c
Bottom Time: 43 minutes
Max Depth: 16.6m
Air usage: 125bar/1900psi
SAC: 12.5 litres/min
Details: My very first independent boat dive (except open water course – and taka on snorkel) with Dive Victoria. It was blowing NE’s in the morning, so i thought it was a good opportunity to get out of the heads and dive a site i hadn’t heard anything about. The winds swung around to the SE, so the surface was pretty choppy. I wasn’t overly impressed with the site, there were some nice scattering of reef, but very few overhangs, and very little fish life around. We saw a cray, a bull devil, and a nice big horseshoe leatherjacket, but nothing out of the ordinary. Some nice starfish around and a fish i’ve seen before but cant ID at the moment.
Camera Details: Sigma17-70mm , single SS200 strobe.
Dive Report: This was my first deep water dive off a dive off a boat, so i was a little bit (just a touch) apprehensive when i first jumped off the boat into the open ocean. Once i was down though, it was familiar terrain so i felt comfortable, despite the moderate current flowing. I was buddied up with a Kiwi and a bloke from Melbourne; none of which had dived this reef and both fairly new to diving. We explored the reef and came across this fish as soon as we headed into our first gully. I’m not too sure what species this is:
I was expecting to find a lot of growth under ledges, but legdes were few and far between. This ascidian-like thing was growing out in the open.
Again, not as much sponge as i was expecting either, but i decided to snap this starfish sitting next to a patch of yellow sponge that was again out in the open. I think i’ve been hearing too much about Lonsdale Wall. ;)
The thing i found with boat diving is that you get very little bottom time, especially with air slurping buddies. I was a little surpised when my buddies signalled to start ascending, but i realised that with the 5 minute safety stop, that you really have to start your ascent a lot earlier than i’ve been use to. I can see myself going twins in the not too distant future!
