Aussie Diving 15th to 31st January 2010

[Sas]

I did two dives this weekend, both much better than expected given the weather. Our boat dive got cancelled though

Firstly we did the Ozone/Dominion wrecks, and spent over two hours exploring them. I was trying out my new doubles as everything has arrived. I must say twin 12s are definitely overkill for a 3.5m wreck dive... Not much life but I did see a cuttlefish. Then we did Portarlington Pier, which is generally awful viz but we had a nice 6m and there were so many interesting critters in the silt! I found a few things I had not seen before.

Rough Leatherjacket

Spiny Gurnard - new fish for me

Cuttlefish under the Ozone

One of the Ozone paddlewheels

My new gear!!!

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Pretty in Pink Sas! Nice shots. We found a spiny gurnard too only it was a tiny baby maybe an inch long at most. It was very cute. I will post pics in a bit.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

We did a nice long leisurely dive at Shelly on Saturday... viz was pretty awful as you can see from the picture of thanksforllthefish

We hung out over a seagrass bed for quite a while.. watching ahuge variety of fish grazing on it. I found a Numb ray. This time I was smart enough not to grab onto it. There were a fair number of wobbies around but pictures were difficult with the particulate.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

We dived Bare Island on Sunday. Once again the Viz was pretty bad but the fish life made it worth while.

The Eastern Blue Devil put in an appearance but ducked deem under a rock ledge just to add to the difficulty level for the photographers *sigh*

The morays were plentiful. One kept coming right out to look in the camera! Fish seemed to find it amusing to watch the Moray swimming towards me and me finning backwards to tryto get far away enough to get a shot of it:doh: (yes you CAN fin backwards in split fins!)

The find of the day was a tiny spiny gurnard less than an inch long!

 

[Sas]

Woo you got to see a big version of the Spiny Gurnard, cool! Are they common over your way?

I love the fish sticking out of the sand, and also the Blue Devil in particular

 

[vickobcn]

Hey guys, I'm on a 3 month stopover at home in Sydney before heading back to the winteryness and cold water of the mediterranean.

I headed out to Gordons Bay on Sunday which was a pleasant surprise after not having dived there in about 4 years. The visibility was pretty ordinary, and below 8m depth it dropped to a dismal <1m but I was in my own version of heaven - nudibranchs galore. I think we saw over 50 individuals from 6 different species. Unfortunately I can't find the diffusor for my camera so no photos
I've come to the realisation that diving dry in Spain has spoiled me. After 65 minutes on Sunday I was cold and I was wearing a 5mm semi-dry... Still, managed to warm up in the sun and head back in for another dive which was also very nice, albeit a little shorter in length (once I start shaking I can't stop!).

The only other thing of interest is the craziness of the carpark at Gordons. When I arrived at 7.15am it was virtually empty. By 9am the carpark was full, and the pathways through the carpark were filled with cars circling like vultures looking for a spot! As I was changing out of the wetsuit into dry clothes, 10 cars in a row stopped to ask me if I was leaving. I would have thought that after the first 5, the rest would have gotten the idea but apparently not

Anyways, thanks for sharing your dives, I love reading about them!

 

[sydney-diver]

The only other thing of interest is the craziness of the carpark at Gordons. When I arrived at 7.15am it was virtually empty. By 9am the carpark was full, and the pathways through the carpark were filled with cars circling like vultures looking for a spot! As I was changing out of the wetsuit into dry clothes, 10 cars in a row stopped to ask me if I was leaving. I would have thought that after the first 5, the rest would have gotten the idea but apparently not

LOL, Freshwater was the same! It was a nice day so everyone had the same idea

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Yes seems to be a problem all over .... we had the same problem at Shelly.... we no sooner got to our car still wearing our gear... and someone stopped to ask if we were leaving :doh: I said yes but we will be quite a while! BIG mistake... the guy just sat there in his car blocking traffic to wait! We were second car around the corner to the top level of parking.. so he just stopped right there and no one could get past him!

I told him again we would be quite a while (we were thinking of going to the keyosk for wedges. He still waited but finally gave up and left. He could probably have been parked long before if he had left.

LOL I know someone who plays "Are the worthy?" Waits to pull out till someone with the right attitude asks LOL Snooty people driving BMW's apparently are NOT worthy

 

[vickobcn]

Yes seems to be a problem all over .... we had the same problem at Shelly.... we no sooner got to our car still wearing our gear... and someone stopped to ask if we were leaving :doh: I said yes but we will be quite a while! BIG mistake... the guy just sat there in his car blocking traffic to wait! We were second car around the corner to the top level of parking.. so he just stopped right there and no one could get past him!

Hehe I think non-divers don't quite realise how long it takes to dismantle gear and of course the wetsuit removal is definitely a time-consumer...

Oh the blocking of traffic, where the road through the carpark and back towards Manly becomes an additional carpark.. funtimes! That road is so narrow that you get traffic stopped in both directions!

LOL I know someone who plays "Are the worthy?" Waits to pull out till someone with the right attitude asks LOL Snooty people driving BMW's apparently are NOT worthy

Hahaha I must admit I do the same thing - for some reason I'm partial to families carrying small children/umbrellas/eskies/strollers, the parents always look so desperate with the kids in the back of the car crying (as long as its not a BMW ). Or even better, fellow divers!

I was at Shelly last weekend and as I arrived at 7.30am I managed to get a 2 hour park a fair way up the road from where you were Bowlofpetunias. Unfortunately my dive buddies were very late. Now they all have Manly parking permits so I was the only one that after the dive had to run up the beach, dump my gear, scoot up the hill and I was very lucky to get to my car just before the Inspectors.. Of course this meant that I couldn't repark the car as it was absolute mayhem and my coffee that was waiting for me down at the kiosk went undrunk... Oh well, the instant coffee at home almost makes up for it :confused6:

That is the one huge benefit of Gordons Bay. All day, free parking.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Woo you got to see a big version of the Spiny Gurnard, cool! Are they common over your way?

I love the fish sticking out of the sand, and also the Blue Devil in particular

The spiny gurnard we saw was tiny.. half the length of my thumb! There are a couple that "live" in that territory.. we have seen them in that area for a few years now.

Here are some shots of the little one (first two) and two shots from earlier dives of the adults. Look at the size of the shell grit and debris on the bottom to try to get an idea of the size