Dive Number: 160 01/06/11 15.36, Cottage by the Sea
Wind: 10knot Northerlies
Tide: 2hrs before 0.93 low tide at Heads (slack at 1510)
Conditions: A crisp, blue skied winters day. A very high low tide but near flat conditions. Reasonably strong current running to the west.
Visibilty: 10m
Water Temp: 14c
Bottom Time: 72minutes
Max Depth: 11m
Air usage: 175bar/2500psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: Its been two weeks since my last dive, and i was having withdrawls. The first day of winter brought beautiful conditions with light northerlies and a crisp blue sky. Cottage always seems current affected around slack water times (and this was no exception), but waiting for a low meant it was going to be dark. The water looked crystal clear from the shore line but dropped off a little as i got further out. Still great vis though. A large school of salmon visited the shallow reef on entry, so i dropped down and hoped they’d do another lap…no luck. I continued out and came across a cuttlefish under a small ledge. It was a little bit inquistive, but kept its distance and took off once it decided my strobes were just too freaky for it to handle. I continued further out, but the strong current kept pushing me westerly. I tried to maintain a southerly direction and assumed i’d hit the ledges eventually, but it wasn’t to be. The current must have pushed me further than i anticipated, and i soon found myself totally disoriented in 11m of water. I’ve never been in 11m of water at cottage so i knew this was somewhere i’d never been before…. possibly alot further out the back, but most likely further westward, which is unusual since i thought the depth would drop off towards Pt lonsdale. Large sand bowls and banks appeared, so the lack of reef must have accounted for the extra depth. I started to make my way shoreward and came accross some small reef outcrops. I hit about 3m and surfaced to find a tower rising out of the sand dunes in front of me. “Where the hell am i?”, I thought. I soon realised cottage was about 4 flights of stairs to the east. The current must of been much stronger than i thought. I leisurely waded eastwards towards cottage, taking in the soft hues of a winter sunset as it painted the rippling water around me. Such traquility…. and only shared with a lone dog walker and the pilot boat glowing orange as the sunset coated its bows. This is why you’ve gotta harden up for winter…it was 14c in the water, but uninterrupted nature at its best.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , dual SS200 strobes
Dive Report:
