Enterprise Channel (Victoria) again

[MarkH]

I went in today about 2 hours before the Race Passage slack ( I went in at around 10:00). According to the "Current Atlas", this was slack at Enterprise Channel. Of course there was lots of current. I made it out halfway along the "sewer pipe" reef (on the side "shadowed" from most of the current), before my brain kicked in and I swam back. Just for fun, I went over the top of the reef to see how strong the current was on the exposed side. It felt like a hurricane hitting my face. It was way stronger than at drift dives I have done at Race Rocks. When I left the water, the current was way stronger than when I went in. During the "Race Passage" slack, it was ripping like crazy. Here's some frame-grabs from the video (Visibility was only around 15 feet, but I got some nice footage of the kelp flapping in the current on top of the reef).

 

[MarkH]

And the rest:

 

[MarkH]

I've found that slack here isn't random after all because I went in at random today and it wasn't slack. I was testing out a new strobe (only from the 1980's!) and a video light cannister (no leaks!). The current was too strong to go out very far so I hid behind a few boulders and took some macro pictures. There is so much variety, it took me a few minutes to notice even half the creatures in a square-foot area. Visibility wasn't very good (10-15 feet) and I kept seeing these huge blobs shooting out of the murk towrds me. I kept thinking they were sealions, but they were just masses of bull kelp. Now I realise why there isn't lot of bull kelp on top of this reef. When it gets too big, it gets ripped away. I saw some kelp attatched to a rock the size of a basketball. The rock was being dragged along the sand by the current. Of course the attatched kelp made the rock much more bouyant, but it still looked impressive. The photos:

 

[SeanQ]

Amazing colour! I have to get out there sometime.

 

[naclydogg]

I've found that slack here isn't random after all because I went in at random today and it wasn't slack. I was testing out a new strobe (only from the 1980's!) and a video light cannister (no leaks!). The current was too strong to go out very far so I hid behind a few boulders and took some macro pictures. There is so much variety, it took me a few minutes to notice even half the creatures in a square-foot area. Visibility wasn't very good (10-15 feet) and I kept seeing these huge blobs shooting out of the murk towrds me. I kept thinking they were sealions, but they were just masses of bull kelp. Now I realise why there isn't lot of bull kelp on top of this reef. When it gets too big, it gets ripped away. I saw some kelp attatched to a rock the size of a basketball. The rock was being dragged along the sand by the current. Of course the attatched kelp made the rock much more bouyant, but it still looked impressive. The photos:

Okay here we go again. Using the current profile from the day in April that you said you dove with no current, it looks like this Saturday at about 9 am or just a little later is close to the same profile.

 

[Darnold9999]

The strobe makes a huge difference. Lots more colour. Tried out my camera exactly once without the strobe. Don't always use it, but rarely do I wish that I had left it behind.

This looks like a spot that might be worth all the trouble if you ever get it figured out.

 

[MarkH]

The strobe makes a huge difference. Lots more colour. Tried out my camera exactly once without the strobe. Don't always use it, but rarely do I wish that I had left it behind.

This looks like a spot that might be worth all the trouble if you ever get it figured out.

The problem with my last strobe was that it wasn't very bright (homemade) so I had to use 400-speed film (the macro extension tubes on my Nikonos 3 reduce the light by a few stops). If I wanted to do enlargements they were pretty grainy. Now I can use 100-speed film.

 

[ChillyWaters]

The problem with my last strobe was that it wasn't very bright (homemade) so I had to use 400-speed film (the macro extension tubes on my Nikonos 3 reduce the light by a few stops). If I wanted to do enlargements they were pretty grainy. Now I can use 100-speed film.

Did you get your "new" strobe and value village?

I'd like to get a strobe someday, but they are too $$$ for me. If you ever spot a good deal, let me know...

Oh yeah, I'm planning on going to Thailand for nearly 3 months, in 3 months. Shouldn't need a strobe in the shallows there though, eh? Sweeet... A macro lense would be nice though.

- ChillyWaters

 

[MarkH]

Did you get your "new" strobe and value village?


- ChillyWaters

No, but the flash in my homemade strobe came from there. My "new one is from Ebay. It's an Ikelite substrobe something-or-other. It came with the power pack adapter so I can use the same strobe with my Ikelite housing and my Nikonos 3 on the same dive. It was around $100 which is around 10 times what I normally like to pay, but I guess we're all slaves to the consumer system.

 

[MarkH]

The most recent thing I saw there was a 30-lbs-or-so weightbelt for $7. My favorite Value Village find was a drysuit for $25. The zipper and seals looked good, but it was only around 4 1/2 feet tall.