Jan
24
Dive Number: 432 01/24/2013 Shortlands Bluff
Conditions: ??
Visibilty: 6m
Water Temp: ??c
Bottom Time: 45minutes
Max Depth: 14m
Details: Even on slack water the currents were ripping on this dive. Exciting stuff.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes
Photos:
May
3
Dive Number: 155 27/04/11 11.33, Shortlands Bluff
Wind: 15 knot NE’s
Tide: 30min before 0.49 low tide at the Heads.
Conditions: Visible current running out to the heads, but generally calm conditions. In the water the current got pretty crazy in certain parts. You’ve gotta be cautious diving here.
Visibilty: 6-8m
Water Temp: 16c
Bottom Time: 44minutes
Max Depth: 12.2m
Air usage: 105bar/1500psi
SAC: ???? litres/min
Details: Crazy, crazy diving here. Low tide is close to maximum outflowing streams, but being a low rate of knots today, i decided just to play around to try to get a feel for what this area does at different tide levels. I jumped in off the far edge of the exposed reef and was soon in 12m of water. The current flows fast through channels bordering the edge of the reefs with different rates of flow at different parts of the reef, so you have to play it by feel and if the current is getting too strong, just head higher up the reef. I envisage the currents never really stop here, even on slack so its about feeling out how the height of the tide affects the direction and speed of the current. I’m thinking that a higher tide might help to diffuse the strong directional currents that exist around low tide. Anyway, i only poked around the high current areas for about 20minutes, finding a nice intact bottle from 1918. A “Geelong water” bottle. There were lots of grey sponges in this area loving the strong current. Fish and weed were flying past furiously, and i decided to play it safe in some shallower water for the rest of the dive. Even then i ended up a long way down the coast on exit. Exciting diving, the kind of place you feel like you might come across sharks riding the currents making suprise ambushes.
Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , dual SS200 strobes
Dive Report:
May
27
Dive Number: 40 22/05/2010 12.15 Shortlands Bluff
Wind: 5 knot SE’s
Tide: 1hr after 0.46 low tide at the heads
Conditions: Great day for diving, sunny, light winds and smooth bay.
Bottom Type: Scattered reef heavily effected by the waters entering the rip, leaving sand dune and weed build up’ amongst the reef bommies. Not a lot of overhangs.
Visibilty: 5m
Water Temp: 14c
Bottom Time: 67 minutes
Max Depth: 7.4m
Air usage: 125bar/1800psi
SAC: 16.2 litres/min
Details: This dive was ran by the Baycity Scuba club. I’d always wanted to check out Shortlands Bluff, so this was a good opportunity. I somehow managed to break the zip to my wetsuit while putting it on, so the dive was a bit chillier than it should have been. A great dive though with interesting terrain and a few weedy seadragons. Fish life wasn’t all that prolific, but definently worth a dive. Thanks to Bay City Dive Club for having me along, and to Warren for posing for some photos.
Camera Details: Canon 17-40mm , single SS200 strobe.
Dive Report: We headed out in an East/North Easterly direction and scoured the sand for bottles, hoping for some of the older torpedo bottles. Not a lot around apart from an old broken telephone or electricity conductor. The area seems flooded with sand layered a good couple of metres deep, so it would be a interesting dive after some big storms. Lotsa loose floating weed around too.
Weedy Seadragons were some of the most conspcious critters on the dive, with very little fish life around. This one we found under the first major ledge we came across:
Here’s Warren getting in for a closer look (pose):
Continuing further north we found some nice little holes and and swimthroughs…nothing major though..again..possibly better after a big storm.
The water was pretty cloudy, but i wouldn’t call it bad vis. This photo looked a bit better in B&W:
Another one of warren interacting with a weedy seadragon;
