24C today
. 5mm semi-dry
. well a very old (16 yrs) semi-dry, still good though with a hooded vest.
Set out on Glenn's boat (CTD) with my daughter and one of her friends who was on her 50th Dive and had never done Inch 1 due to various issues in the past. We also had four RB divers on board who would be running through a skills practice for Saturday's dive on the U-boat
First dive was planned for Inch 1, and as we approached we all groaned as we saw three boats on the mooring plus another close by
As we got closer we noticed that the boat not on the mooring was picking up divers, SMBs erect around it, somebody on an RB
.. the BSAC boys (and girls).
The middle boat on the buoy was also picking up divers, the front boat was Scuba 2000 and the last boat was Al Doom.
Glenn commented something about going to Dibba Rock, however I pointed out that most of the Al Doom divers would be on air and would only be down for 20 mins max, probably the same for Scuba 2000. By the time we kitted up we could be dropped off at the buoy by Samir (who was driving today because Kevin damaged his knee yesterday).
The three of us non RB divers dropped off first, however there was a pretty strong surface current, and by the time Yanni and I had our cameras handed over we were off target and thanks to two people on the Scuba 2000 boat who threw us a line and we made it to the buoy. WE rested for about a minute and I looked down to the barrel at 5 meters, viz looked awesome but there was a lot of divers hanging on to the line at the safety stop. As we descended down we had to swim past around 10+ divers some of whom were holding on to other divers who had a hand on the mooring line, talk about busy.
Once down on the wreck we moved over to the stern to have a look around and Yanni spotted a crocodile fish.
Yanni is using my 60mm port at the moment with my old D70 so I have to use my 105, different challenge to photograph larger critters.
At about 2 mins short of our NDL Hannah spotted a seahorse
.. well more of a sea stallion, it is massive around 25-30 cm (10-12 inches), all I could manage was a head shot
Nice slow ascent and for me a gas change at 21M to 50% (still testing my Petrel), an when we surfaced only our boat was on the mooring.
Once all the RB guys were back on board, we slowly headed off to Inch 2 having a spot of lunch on the way and a decent 90 minute SI. Yanni, Hannah and I were diving 40% so we planned for a 60 min dive, but in reality Hannah and I did 71 min, whilst Yanni who was cold, surfaced at 58 min with 100 bar left!
Usual nudi species
Phidiana militaris, and
Hypselodoris carnae, however I like this particular shot of a
Hypselodoris dolfusi
Great day out, and nice to be on a boat without a 50 min limit
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