Aussie Diving July 1-15

[Sas]

Hello!

Time for a new thread

Conditions were not great around the Bay but we got out for two nice dives yesterday. I was joined by two SB members - burna and hmoffatt as well as my buddy Michael and another person I met on Dive-Oz. One dive was at Blairgowrie where we had 8m viz but there was a current running making photography difficult. Then we did an awesome night dive at Rye Pier. At Blairgowrie Michael lost his key somewhere under the pier so he had to spend the day in his thermals whilst waiting for a friend to drive down from Melbourne with a spare. It was quite amusing to watch him walk around Sorreno in socks and his drysuit thermals (one piece- looked like PJs!). Poor guy!

I have my new camera set up so was able to take some photos again!

Here is a Verco's nudibranch

Dumpling squid looking a bit agro

Southern Keeled Octopus - never seen one this large

Spider crab

Orange-Lobed Flabellina - this was just tiny!

Anyone else get out? Or have future plans?

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Great shots Sas! I love the dumpling quid... they look like the little Ropers Cuttles we get here. Thanks for the shots!

 

[Sas]

Yes most people who see photos of them always go "oh! A baby cuttlefish" I think the dumpling squid are more closely related to cuttlefish than say, calamari type squid.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

yes and most people who see the Ropers Cuttle say... AWWW cute.. baby cuttles! :lol:

 

[Sas]

Oh the Verco's nudibranch is after some 'shopping efforts (though using Picasa). To remove backscatter Getting there with post processing but its so boring I tend to reserve it for shots I really love. These are my favourite nudibranches

 

[Sas]

yes and most people who see the Ropers Cuttle say... AWWW cute.. baby cuttles! :lol:

Like me and Paul did.

 

[toefa]

Great shots Sas. +1 on the Dumpling squid loving. What's the water temp there at the moment?

We tried to Dive yesterday, but the conditions ended up the winner of the day. We were set to dive a place called Windy Point, which is just near Cronulla but the swell made the entry and exit too risky (open, East facing headland), so we jumped back in the car and took off to Oak Park, which although only a few hundred metres down the road, is a bit more protected by a headland to the South.

We had completed a dive brief and geared up and got down to the waters edge as the sets started rolling in. Starlet and i managed top get out relatively easy but as i was 3/4 of the way out (just in the crash zone of the breakers) i saw a mask and snorkel and realised it was one of the DM's behind us. So i was trying as hard as i could to grab it as then the sets came rolling back in. I got punished. I quickly forgot about the mask and snorkel and just focused on getting out safely. Once out, we were waved back in by the rest of the group. The decision was made after 4 of us were out that it was too dangerous and we had to turn back in.

Being close to low tide meant the current was ripping out and made it bloody hard work to get back in. We were exhausted and hadn't even had a dive yet.

We then hot footed it around the headland some more and jumped in at Bass and Flinders Point, but again found ourselves battling current, sand clouds, bad vis and stupid buoyancy problems. We had added a 3 mill spring suit under our 7mm for the 16 degree Celsius water and hadn't bothered to add weight. This wouldn't have been such a problem if we stayed at the original spots, but Bass and Flinders Point is a very tech 3 metres.

We thumbed that dive after about 10 minutes and went home to a nice warm blanket on the lounge..

Until next weekend.

 

[Sas]

Water is 10-13C or so depending where you go. Yesterday we had 11C both dives.

Well you guys went all out to find a dive site! I remember doing the same one trip to Sydney when the weather was awful and ended up at Camp Cove after checking out three other sites!

Hopefully the weather will clear up soon for the Sydney people! Here has been bad all week but looks ok this week *fingers crossed*

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Great shots Sas. +1 on the Dumpling squid loving. What's the water temp there at the moment?

We tried to Dive yesterday, but the conditions ended up the winner of the day. We were set to dive a place called Windy Point, which is just near Cronulla but the swell made the entry and exit too risky (open, East facing headland), so we jumped back in the car and took off to Oak Park, which although only a few hundred metres down the road, is a bit more protected by a headland to the South.

We had completed a dive brief and geared up and got down to the waters edge as the sets started rolling in. Starlet and i managed top get out relatively easy but as i was 3/4 of the way out (just in the crash zone of the breakers) i saw a mask and snorkel and realised it was one of the DM's behind us. So i was trying as hard as i could to grab it as then the sets came rolling back in. I got punished. I quickly forgot about the mask and snorkel and just focused on getting out safely. Once out, we were waved back in by the rest of the group. The decision was made after 4 of us were out that it was too dangerous and we had to turn back in.

Being close to low tide meant the current was ripping out and made it bloody hard work to get back in. We were exhausted and hadn't even had a dive yet.

We then hot footed it around the headland some more and jumped in at Bass and Flinders Point, but again found ourselves battling current, sand clouds, bad vis and stupid buoyancy problems. We had added a 3 mill spring suit under our 7mm for the 16 degree Celsius water and hadn't bothered to add weight. This wouldn't have been such a problem if we stayed at the original spots, but Bass and Flinders Point is a very tech 3 metres.

We thumbed that dive after about 10 minutes and went home to a nice warm blanket on the lounge..

Until next weekend.

Sounds like an adventure We saved ourselves the hassle... looked at the conditions, checked Surf Cams and bed won over ocean! I am a bit too old and brittle to challenge Mother Ocean now days Glad it all worked out in the end... every dive is a chance to learn and gain skill even the ones that turn out to be "nondives"

 

[alcina]

I love the dumpling squid - they are just too cutie!!

Sorry to hear the diving conditions weren't perfect everywhere this past weekend. They were stellar here! I couldn't go out on Saturday because my naughty puppy dog knocked my legs out from under me on Friday so spent Saturday on painkillers and with multiple heat packs/pads tucked in to my back.

Sunday I was doing a little better and my wonderful dive buddies promised to do all the heavy lifting for me, so I jumped out for two dives. We hit Lighthouse Bay and it was really nice. A little milkier than Saturday's dives, I was told, but still excellent viz and the wildlife was just crazy. Oh yeah, it was WARM, too!

There were so many turtles on the first dive site I lost count at either 22 or 32...my mind wandered in the middle LOL The second dive was covered in fish. Had to push them out of the way to get to what you really wanted to see. Fabulous day out!

Our whale sharks have been awesome along with the diving a bit further south. Yesterday they had multiple whale sharks (again), tons of extremely close swimming manta rays and humpback whales - underwater!! I wish I could have been in two places at once really