burna
Contributor
Don't think I've ever started an 'Aussie diving" thread before, so I thought I'd take the opportunity.
Got a couple of dives in on Thursday down on the Bellarine peninsula. No pics this time as my camera housing has a minute leak I'm trying to sort out. We were originally going to dive Barwon Heads, an ocean facing site but there was too much swell so headed to our second site known locally as Cottage-by-the-sea.
It takes it's name from the children's home located there and has a fantastic reef system just off the beach. This site is very current prone and timing is critical due to its close proximity to the heads. It had previously been calculated that 12:30pm was to optimum time however it looked so good at 10am (and I knew that was roughly low tide) that we decided to give it a go.
Fantastic dive, no current, 15-18m vis, temp 14C, large crayfish, giant cuttlefish and the plant life looked really healthy. Got a nice 60min dive in (buddies in wetsuits).
We decided it was so good that we'd go again and I'd only used half my tank on the first dive, so thought I'd just use it up on the second. This was to be the time calculated that we should enter the water.
Wow! Different dive site! Very strong current, so much so that I sucked down that half a tank in 28 mins. My SAC rate had effectively doubled and so I told the others I was low on air and bailed. I wasn't enjoying it in the current. My drysuit is a bit 'draggy' and as much as I love my OMS Slipstream fins, they are no good in current. I was stuffed by the time I got out of the small surf that had developed.
This site has historically had a strange reversing current opposite to the direction of the tidal flow, must have something to do with the headlands either side, but we definitely didn't experience that. I think recent dredging of Port Phillip Bay has upset this reverse flow.
We were going to be diving an old WW2 training plane in the Bay this morning as well as an old sailing vessel, but alas the winds shifted and so wasn't favourable. Prob'ly just as well as I'm working this arvo until 11pm.
Got a couple of dives in on Thursday down on the Bellarine peninsula. No pics this time as my camera housing has a minute leak I'm trying to sort out. We were originally going to dive Barwon Heads, an ocean facing site but there was too much swell so headed to our second site known locally as Cottage-by-the-sea.
It takes it's name from the children's home located there and has a fantastic reef system just off the beach. This site is very current prone and timing is critical due to its close proximity to the heads. It had previously been calculated that 12:30pm was to optimum time however it looked so good at 10am (and I knew that was roughly low tide) that we decided to give it a go.
Fantastic dive, no current, 15-18m vis, temp 14C, large crayfish, giant cuttlefish and the plant life looked really healthy. Got a nice 60min dive in (buddies in wetsuits).
We decided it was so good that we'd go again and I'd only used half my tank on the first dive, so thought I'd just use it up on the second. This was to be the time calculated that we should enter the water.
Wow! Different dive site! Very strong current, so much so that I sucked down that half a tank in 28 mins. My SAC rate had effectively doubled and so I told the others I was low on air and bailed. I wasn't enjoying it in the current. My drysuit is a bit 'draggy' and as much as I love my OMS Slipstream fins, they are no good in current. I was stuffed by the time I got out of the small surf that had developed.
This site has historically had a strange reversing current opposite to the direction of the tidal flow, must have something to do with the headlands either side, but we definitely didn't experience that. I think recent dredging of Port Phillip Bay has upset this reverse flow.
We were going to be diving an old WW2 training plane in the Bay this morning as well as an old sailing vessel, but alas the winds shifted and so wasn't favourable. Prob'ly just as well as I'm working this arvo until 11pm.
