Dive 178 – Old Keppel Underwater Observatory

By pfuller

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)

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Dive 177 – Child Island, Keppel Island

By pfuller

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)

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Dive 176 – Barren Island – Keppel Island

By pfuller

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: