Aussie diving - April week two

[almitywife]

me... well i didnt get even get wet! i did a corporate thing yesterday and stayed home to clean up today. not everyday you find a wetsuit, bcd and can light in your bedroom i guess

almity1 was doing a advance course and saturday dived at shelley beach. he says nice 5mtrs viz and found a big tropical lionfish on the rocks side at about 3mtrs - he wished he had his camera.

sunday was a 8am boat out to the royal shepherd. once they picked in they had a nice 15mtrs viz with lots of fish followed by a shore dive around the nets at balmoral where he gave up counting at 30 seahorses.

what did the other aussies get up to this weekend???

cheers

 

[Sas]

Just got back actually from Queenscliff, and about to have a post-dive nap Today was my first time diving without a DM or in a class actually.

Anyway, I dived at Lonsdale Wall first and had a great time, despite the poor vis (about 3m). Saw my first Port Jackson shark (two of them in fact~). Though we were about 200m from the dredge ship so it was very noisy under the water, sounded like it was right on top of us. We went to 21m and I managed to last 40mins on my air so I think my air consumption is getting better! Though my buddy had a lot more left so I have a lot of improving to do in that area I am sure.

My second dive was a drift dive and it was AWESOME! Was like flying. I have never done one of these before. We drifted along at about 2-3 knots and covered just over 3km according to the boat driver. It was hard to stop finning though as I am in the habit of it I also got cold on this dive, haven't gotten cold before so I think next time I will bring my hood. Also I have to remember when checking on the people behind me to be quick about it as I nearly face planted into a wall. Ooops.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Well Saturday turned into a cup of hot chocolate and a chat intead of diving as Bare Island was awash as the tide was quite high ... could have got in if we wanted to but were not that desperate and consider part of diving as socialising.

Sunday after a nice sleep in we took a leisurely trip to Bare Island. There are advantages and disadvantages to arriving at the dive site late ... got there about 9:30am, normally there at 8am.

... advantages - the air temp is considerably warmer 18degrees as oppsed to 12 on Sat
- get to sleep in

... disdvantages - many many more divers (for the sydney siders it was like Pitt Street)
- had to park a lot further away from the road to the site.

We got in about 2 hours after high tide ... viz wasnt as good as I would have expected ... about 5 metres .... spent around 30 minutes scouring a large rock for some very small critters that some person said were there ... (not pointing at anyone :thumbs_up had no luck but i did find a lot of silt and weed. Went out a bit further and saw the upside down pipe fish under sea horse rock. Wife found an extremely small moray eel, it's head would have been under 5mm diameter..(yes she has the pictures to prove it) ... said she pointed it out to me but i couldn't see anything. Chased a Moon Wrasse for a while, a couple of box fish and some pygmy leather jackets .... other than that not a lot else.

all in all a nice relaxing potter ... just what we like

 

[alcina]

Almity had such a good idea, let's keep it going!

I dived Saturday and Sunday here in Exmouth on the Ningaloo Reef. Both days had great visibiity of 15m + and incredible baitfish and feeding action. Water temps were about 81F/27C.

The sea snakes are fat, happy and plentiful as are the white tip reef sharks. Saturday's surface conditions were rolling and I was seasick, violently seasick, for only the second time in my life...but the dives were totally worth it! Sunday was calm again and a beautiful day to just laze around on the surface interval. What a difference 24 hours makes!

We've got an anglerfish on one of our favourite sites and he's fishing up a storm. There are so many baitfish scooting by him that it's very hard to get a frame with no "extras" in it! The baitfish are so loud it sounds like a pouring rainstorm on a tin roof while you are under there. Incredible to watch the giant trevally, rankin cod, coral trout and other big guys swoop through the glass curtain!

On another of our favourite sites, a pair of harlequin shrimp have dragged a blue sea star under a ledge and are settled in for a long feast. I haven't seen harlequin shrimp here in years, so it's very very cool!

All of our usual suspects are plentiful and gregarious - there's just so much food in the water that everything is active and happy!

I didn't head out on the whale shark boats, but I get to watch the videos every night and we had awesome sharks in lovely blue water.

Today (Tuesday) my skipper has just rung in saying that the reef dives were going off with the biggest bait balls he's ever seen there and so much action on the one site that all the divers voted to do the second dive there!

I'm hoping to get out again on Friday!!

 

[almitywife]

now ive seen that shrimp before!!!

you werent out diving with Mr Gudge by any chance

(psst - i like yours better )

 

[alcina]

LOL thanks - yeah, we dive together most weekends We went out on the dive shop boat on Saturday but headed out on theirs Sunday. It was a great weekend again!

There's more photos from the 08 April link in my sig and on my blog, too.

 

[stiebs]

Awesome shrimp pic alcina. Much more exciting compared to what I saw under water on Saturday. I spent most of my dive time in a pool looking at the inside of a neoprene blindfold following a tangled mess of line. This Thursday I drive up to Mt. Gambier for the weekend for the rest of my deep cavern course..

 

[alcina]

I can't be the only person diving in Australia this week! C'mon where's the rest of ya's?

I had to sneak out for another two dives yesterday as the reef is just so incredibly active at the moment - even more so than usual.

Visibility was still good, but there was a lot more big food in the water column - which is still cool coz it brings in more stuff! Basically just one of those gorgeous dive days that puts a smile on your face.

More photos in the 10 APR link below.

 

[almitywife]

heheeh - well despite popular rumor that i sit on SB all week, i do have a day job and my diving is for weekends

but sat and sunday diving already booked so i will be ready to show and tell!

 

[alcina]

Yeah, I know about that day job! I'm surprised I've been able to get out for as many days as I have over the past week or so - that almost never happens!

Did you dive last weekend? Looking forward to hearing from you after this weekend. I think we are diving tomorrow (if I don't end up having to work) but not sure on Sunday yet...