Oct
19
Dive Number: 504 19/10/2013 Jawbone Marine Sanctuary
Conditions: Horrid, strong northerlies
Visibilty: 3m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time: 40minutes
Max Depth: 4m
Details: Desperate for a dive i took the boat up to Altona and paid $16 for a parking ticket on a borderline day. I got to jawbone in howling winds and choppy sea and conditions were ordinary. I jumped in anyway and had a leaky drysuit zipper. All in all a pretty ordinary day.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Oct
8
Dive Number: 503 08/10/2013 Abandoned Reef
Conditions: ?
Visibilty: 8m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time:50minutes
Max Depth: 20m
Details: A new site down near Ant Spit off 13th Beach. The place was eerily quiet…devoid of fish initially, and it felt like this was a ‘ghost reef’ that was no longer used.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Sep
22
Dive Number: 502 22/09/2013 Victoria Towers (Boat)
Conditions: ?
Visibilty: 8m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time:60minutes
Max Depth: 9m
Details: Took the inflatable out from Torquay Boat ramp, but again failed to sound up any good sites. Ended up at Victoria Towers…always nice.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Sep
22
Dive Number: 501 22/09/2013 Magi Reef
Conditions: ?
Visibilty: 8m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time:50minutes
Max Depth: 20m
Details: A fairly dark dive at Magi Reef. Not a great deal of action.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Sep
18
Dive Number: 500 18/09/2013 White Wall
Conditions: ?
Visibilty: 10m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time:50minutes
Max Depth: 20m
Details: I’ve be concentrating my search for new dive sites around the Ant Spit area of 13th Beach lately. This was another site down that way that sounded up as a sharp wall from 20-15m. The wall was covered in a lot of white animal life, like corals and ascidians. Not a bad site, but more of a wall with a flat top and a small overhang on one side, with not a great deal of gnarling going on. Might be worth another visit one day.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Sep
17
Dive Number: 499 17/09/2013 Ant Caves
Conditions: ?
Visibilty: 10m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time:50minutes
Max Depth: 20m
Details: I’d sounded up some great looking structure out of Ant Spit that I wanted to check out. Returning to the area with Phil, we found an amazing site with lots of overhangs, caverns and caves. Its now been dubbed Ant Caves and is one of the better dive sites off Barwon Heads. A few Port Jackson Sharks around and just really interesting structure.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Sep
15
Dive Number: 498 15/09/2013 The Labyrinth
Conditions: ?
Visibilty: 10m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time: 45minutes
Max Depth: 22m
Details: Always a lovely place to dive. A couple of Sergeant Bakers performed some sort of mating chase on the way past me. Some great fans and structure as usual.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Sep
14
Dive Number: 497 14/09/2013 The Olives, Anglesea
Conditions: ?
Visibilty: 8m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time: 30minutes
Max Depth: 9m
Details: After the shocking vis out at the 20m mark after the first dive we debated about whether to do a second dive. It seemed a waste not to and we did a shallow dive off The Olives (part of the Point Addis Marine National Park). The Olives reef is about 1km or so offshore but it comes right up to the surface. This was a really cool dive, the vis was much better here and the reef was honeycombed out forming lots of caves and swimthroughs. It was a short dive due to the lack of air, but I really want to get back to dive this place.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Sep
14
Dive Number: 496 14/09/2013 Point Addis
Conditions: ?
Visibilty: 1m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time: 40minutes
Max Depth: 20m
Details: We launched the inflatable from Point Roadknight and headed out towards the Point Addis Marine National Park to see what sounded up. We could find anything that interesting out deep, but just decided to jump in to see what was around. The visibility was terrible! Why, I have no idea, but it was near black at 20m and a but scary. After poking around we started to ascend, only to be swooped by a Seal on the safety stop. Chris did a little wee in the drysuit…
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Sep
8
Dive Number: 495 08/09/2013 Popes Eye
Conditions: ?
Visibilty: 8m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time: 60minutes
Max Depth: 11m
Details: Second dive for the day at Popes. Not much happening…the usual wrasse and leatherjackets.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Sep
8
Dive Number: 494 08/09/2013 Boarfish Reef
Conditions: ?
Visibilty: 8m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time: 50minutes
Max Depth: 19m
Details: A dirty slack dive with Chris and Phil on Boarfish reef.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Sep
1
Dive Number: 493 01/09/2013 Secret Garden
Conditions: ?
Visibilty: 10m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time: 60minutes
Max Depth: 11m
Details: Always a nice little splash at the Secret Garden. Highlight was a Draughtboard Shark (Cephaloscyllium laticeps) that came in nice and close to check me out.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Aug
31
Dive Number: 492 31/08/2013 The Chambers
Conditions: ?
Visibilty: 8m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time: 50minutes
Max Depth: 21m
Details: A new site down near Ant Spit featuring large chasms in the reef creating large ‘rooms’. Not a bad site, but the less than Ideal conditions detracted from it. There were extraordinary numbers of comb jellies in the water column near the surface.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Aug
9
Dive Number: 491 09/08/2013 St Leonards reef
Conditions: ?
Visibilty: 4m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time: 50minutes
Max Depth: 4m
Details: Horrible conditions on the reef south of St Leonards Pier.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Aug
9
Dive Number: 490 09/09/2013 Boulderfields
Conditions: ?
Visibilty: 10m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time: 50minutes
Max Depth: 12m
Details: This was a site around the mouth of the Barwon River, so you need a nice clean day around high tide to dive this area. It was really nice have large chunks of reef scattered everywhere and making anchoring really difficult. Although shallow, the profile went from about 12m to 3m, so there was some great structure and lots of different fish species. the day was gloomy though so I look forward to going back here.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Aug
1
Dive Number: 489 01/08/2013 Dragons Lair
Conditions: ?
Visibilty: 8m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time: 60minutes
Max Depth: 13m
Details: I’ve been doing a lot of 20m+ dives lately, so doing a 10-12m dive was a nice change. The algae and kelp communities are much more lush in this depth and I really enjoyed this dive. The day was dark and overcast though so not the best photography conditions. Only after reviewing the photos did I notice that a Western Clingfish was on a sponge on this dive. Damn…I would love to photograph this critter!
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Jul
29
Dive Number: 488 29/07/2013 The Labyrinth
Conditions: ?
Visibilty: 10m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time: 50minutes
Max Depth: 22m
Details: What a day to have strobe issues. I dropped in on a den of about 20+ Port Jackson Sharks. They were everywhere. I had to make do with some ambient light photos. Love this site though.
Also included in this post is a picture of the anchoring solution I’ve come up with for my inflatable to allow the anchor rope to be tied off at any length while the rest of the rope remains on a reel in the boat. The bitter end remains permanently attached to the boat, and a green safety harness and T-bar is used as the tie off point which is permanently attached to the D-ring at the front of the boat.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Jul
26
Dive Number: 487 26/07/2013 Chimney Rock
Conditions: ?
Visibilty: 10m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time: 50minutes
Max Depth: 23m
Details: A nice dive at Chimney finding that my favourite little cave/overhang had a cuttlefish hanging out in it. Love the expression on this inquisitive Rosy Wrasse too!
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Jul
19
Dive Number: 486 19/07/2013 The Orungal Wreck
Conditions: ?
Visibilty: 10m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time: 70minutes
Max Depth: 6m
Details: On other dives of the orungal, it been rushed due to little remaining air. On this dive I dedicated a full tank to the dive, and explored the area of this large wreck site. The conditions were good and it was a very comfortable dive.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Jul
16
Dive Number: 485 16/07/2013 The Ledges
Conditions: ?
Visibilty: 8m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time: 50minutes
Max Depth: 20m
Details: The second dive was further down off Buckley Park to “The Legdes”. A bit surgey and dirty on this dive, but a nice place to explore. After such an exciting day though (with a Warty Prowfish and Humpback Whale encounter), this was a bit ho-hum.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Jul
16
After finding a Warty Prowfish on our first dive, I considered myself a lucky diver and a happy man.
On the way to our second dive, I saw a splash off it the distance…”a strange breaking wave”, I thought. I scanned the ocean surface for more signs of movement, and all of a sudden, up rose a leviathan of the sea. A Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) leapt from the ocean, leaving only the tip of its tail beneath the surface…rising triumphantly out of the ocean to body slap the water in an attempt to displace any parasites that had joined it for the ride to the Victorian coastline. Wow…breathtaking. I grabbed the telephoto lens…brought along for just the occasion. It continued to put on a show and leapt from the water 8-10 times. Telephoto from a boat is difficult to get a focus lock, but I managed a couple of keepers.
I was one happy boater…a Warty Prowfish and a breaching Humpback Whale in the one day…
Jul
16
Dive Number: 484 16/07/2013 Warty Wall
Conditions: ?
Visibilty: 8m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time: 50minutes
Max Depth: 20m
Details: This was wasn’t much of a site, more of a bank than any decent overhangs, pinnacles or bommies. That was until I spotted a peculiar looking “sponge” oscilating in the surge after floating down from the top of a boulder. I went closer to investigate and couldn’t believe my eyes…in fact it took me about 10 minutes of thinking I’ve discovered some rare anglerfish or handfish to realise this was the illusive Warty Prowfish- Aetapcus maculatus. The rest of the dive was spent photographing this cool looking critter. The area is now known as Warty Wall ;)
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Jul
10
Dive Number: 483 10/07/2013 Orungal Wreck
Conditions: ?
Visibilty: 10m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time: 30minutes
Max Depth: 6m
Details: Phil hass always wanted to check out the Orungal wreck so we stopped off on the way in to empty the tanks. I don’t think he was left disappointed with some nice vis and great fishlife as always. A school of trevally was a highlight.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Jul
10
Dive Number: 482 10/07/2013 Coraline Reef
Conditions: ?
Visibilty: 6m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time: 50minutes
Max Depth: 20m
Details: This was a site off Ant Spit that had some really lush vegetation and nice structure. The big highlight was gigantic Giant Cuttlefish that came out of nowhere in a bizaar alien encounter. Its clearly the biggest cuttlefish I’ve seen and stuck around for some modelling work.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
Jul
9
Dive Number: 481 09/07/2013 Popes Eye
Conditions: ?
Visibilty: 10m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time: 60minutes
Max Depth: 12m
Details: A very fishy dive at Popes.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
