JamesD
Contributor
Dive 1: Medtridium Fields
- After an amusing site briefing due to the fog layer (site briefing along the lines of "there is a bouy out there above the metridium fields, honest, no really there is, you just can't see it) and a very long surface swim out to the bouy (it was there, we did find it, but I did wonder at times, and a zodiac packed with divers offered to give us a tow which was nice but we'd just got close to the bouy) we got the Metridium fields.
This being my third dive in cold water, I have to say I was much warmer than I remembered from my last dive, really didn't find the water cold, dropped down to about 60 feet to discover, the wonders of the medtridium fields. Nothing particularly "special" encountered on the dive (above and beyond the title) except did encounter one stingray, which given that the vis was 10' (maybe 15' at the outside) I was impressed that we saw it as it sailed by on the edge of our view.
Notes: Video does work at that depth without lights (and white balancing on the sand seems to work quite well) however it's very grainy video due to the lack of light, next time bring light rig.
Dive 2: Breakwater
- Second dive was to be breakwater, managed slightly better than my last breakwater dive (when my mask snapped). Did see some of breakwater, vis was about 10' (maybe a bit less) unfortunately lost my buddy fairly quickly (that's two for two breakwater) realised I need to go over missing buddy procedures better with buddies I'm not used to, as so far other than me no-else seems to do the "wait for a minute looking around for your buddy, then surface" routine, not sure if that's an official procedure or just Padi.
Think maybe I might use breakwater as a reason to look into solo diving courses, because trying to keep with a buddy when the visibility is less than 10' feet is really quite hard. Might also look into getting something that can attach between buddies to keep them together, however I can see that running into entanglement issues.
Notes: Video worked better with light rig (I think) didn't need to white balance, and video appears less grainy, however since it wasn't at as great a depth, I'm not sure if the single HID light (UK Light Cannon) will be enough light to record by, or if more will be needed.
Overall a nice day of diving, and once the fog layer had disappeared it was a beautiful warm day.
Many thanks to the staff of Bamboo Reef for giving up their time to dive with us, and for all those who came out for a nice days diving.
- After an amusing site briefing due to the fog layer (site briefing along the lines of "there is a bouy out there above the metridium fields, honest, no really there is, you just can't see it) and a very long surface swim out to the bouy (it was there, we did find it, but I did wonder at times, and a zodiac packed with divers offered to give us a tow which was nice but we'd just got close to the bouy) we got the Metridium fields.
This being my third dive in cold water, I have to say I was much warmer than I remembered from my last dive, really didn't find the water cold, dropped down to about 60 feet to discover, the wonders of the medtridium fields. Nothing particularly "special" encountered on the dive (above and beyond the title) except did encounter one stingray, which given that the vis was 10' (maybe 15' at the outside) I was impressed that we saw it as it sailed by on the edge of our view.
Notes: Video does work at that depth without lights (and white balancing on the sand seems to work quite well) however it's very grainy video due to the lack of light, next time bring light rig.
Dive 2: Breakwater
- Second dive was to be breakwater, managed slightly better than my last breakwater dive (when my mask snapped). Did see some of breakwater, vis was about 10' (maybe a bit less) unfortunately lost my buddy fairly quickly (that's two for two breakwater) realised I need to go over missing buddy procedures better with buddies I'm not used to, as so far other than me no-else seems to do the "wait for a minute looking around for your buddy, then surface" routine, not sure if that's an official procedure or just Padi.
Think maybe I might use breakwater as a reason to look into solo diving courses, because trying to keep with a buddy when the visibility is less than 10' feet is really quite hard. Might also look into getting something that can attach between buddies to keep them together, however I can see that running into entanglement issues.
Notes: Video worked better with light rig (I think) didn't need to white balance, and video appears less grainy, however since it wasn't at as great a depth, I'm not sure if the single HID light (UK Light Cannon) will be enough light to record by, or if more will be needed.
Overall a nice day of diving, and once the fog layer had disappeared it was a beautiful warm day.
Many thanks to the staff of Bamboo Reef for giving up their time to dive with us, and for all those who came out for a nice days diving.