Petert71
Registered
Opps, I meant on Monday (long weekend). Thought I'd share some dives just for the fun of it.
I did two dives from Portsea on Monday, Portsea Hole & Lonsdale Arches. I've done both before but previously either in or assisting an OW class. Never had much of an opportuinty to look around...
First was Portsea Hole. Jumped off the boat and started to descend when I realised there was a young seal buzzing us. My buddy and I broke off from the main group and the seal followed us for the entire dive!
We explored most of the wall and ledge, the entire time this little fella coming down to 20m for a minute or two to play, before going back up for air :mooner:. The whole time he was rolling, buzzing around us, showing us how big his teeth were (grrr) and waiting in ambush on the bottom.
When we surfaced, the boat opperator told us he knew where at least one the groups was, just by following the silly seal. Definitely one of my most amusing dives!
Lonsdale arches was interesting. I've only been there before when assisting a class in bad surge conditions. I didn't realise how intricate and interesting the reef is. Plenty of swimthroughs for a few metres and lots of places for fish and crays to hide (but nobody came back with one).
We found a cave type swimthough which looked about 10 metres long. I was sorely tempted to try it, but realistically it would have been a stupid thrill seeking activity. We just shone our torches down there from the outside. (I'm in no way trained for that, wasn't streamlined enough to do it safely we nobody should take on stupid risks
).
Towards the end of the dive we spotted a ray with a 2 metre wingspan laying in the sand. We observed for a minute before he decided he didn't want to be around us. He got up and gracefully sailed off. He was missing his tail, a few other divers mentioned he'd been seen elsewhere in the bay.
It was one of those magical days. There's always plenty to see, but playing with the seal and observing a large ray made the dives extra special. My only regret is that I didn't have a camera with me
I did two dives from Portsea on Monday, Portsea Hole & Lonsdale Arches. I've done both before but previously either in or assisting an OW class. Never had much of an opportuinty to look around...
First was Portsea Hole. Jumped off the boat and started to descend when I realised there was a young seal buzzing us. My buddy and I broke off from the main group and the seal followed us for the entire dive!
We explored most of the wall and ledge, the entire time this little fella coming down to 20m for a minute or two to play, before going back up for air :mooner:. The whole time he was rolling, buzzing around us, showing us how big his teeth were (grrr) and waiting in ambush on the bottom.
When we surfaced, the boat opperator told us he knew where at least one the groups was, just by following the silly seal. Definitely one of my most amusing dives!
Lonsdale arches was interesting. I've only been there before when assisting a class in bad surge conditions. I didn't realise how intricate and interesting the reef is. Plenty of swimthroughs for a few metres and lots of places for fish and crays to hide (but nobody came back with one).
We found a cave type swimthough which looked about 10 metres long. I was sorely tempted to try it, but realistically it would have been a stupid thrill seeking activity. We just shone our torches down there from the outside. (I'm in no way trained for that, wasn't streamlined enough to do it safely we nobody should take on stupid risks
).Towards the end of the dive we spotted a ray with a 2 metre wingspan laying in the sand. We observed for a minute before he decided he didn't want to be around us. He got up and gracefully sailed off. He was missing his tail, a few other divers mentioned he'd been seen elsewhere in the bay.
It was one of those magical days. There's always plenty to see, but playing with the seal and observing a large ray made the dives extra special. My only regret is that I didn't have a camera with me
