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 147 – Marengo, Apollo Bay

By pfuller

Mar

16

Dive Number: 147 12/03/11  14.34, Marengo, Apollo Bay

Wind:   10 knot S’s

Tide:  3.5hours before 1.47 high tide at the heads.

Conditions:   The winds had swung around to a southerly and the swell was picking up. The tide was also coming in, so conditions were conspiring against me, but in comparison to usual conditions in this part of the world they were prtety good.  Slight surge, but the vis was fairly good.  Breakers on the outer reef, which moved to the inner reef as the tide came in.

Visibilty:8m

Water Temp: 18c

Bottom Time: 92minutes

Max Depth: 8.0m

Air usage: 140bar/2000psi

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details:   Marengo take two (after some camera housing adjustments).  I did the same entry as last dive, but surface swam out to about the centre of the channel and the made my way to the outer platform underwater. The force of the swell got pretty full on around where the water got shallower approaching the exposed reef.  There were loads of Herring Cale in the area,  plenty of leatherjackets and i stumbled onto a few cowfish too.  I saw a big ray in the distance, but nothing was particulary photogenic and as much as i tried, i couldn’t get close to anything for a decent pic. The underwater terrain was interesting with big fronds of bull kelp in the shallower reeds, and long flowing kelp over the rest of the reef.   I’d never seen weed civerage like it, and it almost seems to degrade  the diversity of marine plant life on the rocks.  In general it was an interesting dive, but didn’t blow me away like i was hoping…no seal encounters, and luckily no great whites either. ;) 

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , dual SS200 strobes

Dive Report:

Dive 146 – Marengo, Apollo Bay

By pfuller

Mar

16

Dive Number: 146 12/03/11  13.43, Marengo, Apollo Bay

Wind:   10 knot S’s

Tide:  3hours before 1.47 high tide at the heads.

Conditions:   The winds had swung around to a southerly and the swell was picking up. The tide was also coming in, so conditions were conspiring against me, but in comparison to usual conditions in this part of the world they were prtety good.  Slight surge, but the vis was fairly good.  Breakers on the outer reef, which moved to the inner reef as the tide came in.

Visibilty:8m

Water Temp: 18c

Bottom Time: 20minutes

Max Depth: 7.5m

Air usage: 35bar/500psi

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details:   After a failed dive at Torquay, i didn’t want to waste the day and decided the next available airfill option to replace my dirty air was Apollo Bay, which has just had a shop open that does fills. It was a risk..i didn’t even know if it was open, but i assumed it was, so headed on down the coast admiring all the potential dive sites along the way that looked diveable if i had air.  I got to Apollo Bay and found the fishing shop which had a sign saying they did fills. They only have a small generator, so i dropped it off, had some lunch and headed back in 30mins when it was ready. After getting down to Marengo,  i geared up and headed out along the rocks to find a suitable entry point.  After a fairly dicey entry, i dropped down into about 7m, with large scatter bommies covered in kelp. I went to take a photo, and… nothing….my card was full (must have reemed off 300 shots accidently of the car boot). No probs..i’ll just format the card. Nope..if the camera is slightly misaligned in the housing the housing button doesn’t quiet hit the “set’ button on the camera.  Usually i can hold the housing upside down and give it a little bang into position, but it just wasn’t going to happen. I had to abort the dive, head back to the car and reposition the camera in the housing.  Two continuous dive blogs without photos….a first!  

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , dual SS200 strobes

Dive Report:

No Photos : (  …again.