Oct

5

Dive Number: 79 11/09/2010 13.30 Stradbroke Island – Flat Rock – Shark Alley

Wind: ????

Tide: 3.5hr past 2.30 high tide at Point Lookout

Conditions: Another lovely sunny queensland day with no clouds and a light breeze.

Bottom Type: 20-25m deep rocky gully/valley with steep walls and a sandy bottom.

Visibilty: 20m

Water Temp: 20c

Bottom Time: 54 minutes

Max Depth: 26.1m

Air usage: 170bar/2500psi

SAC: ???? litres/min

Details: Another lovely day, after a day off diving due to strong NE winds that cancelled most dive trips. We caught the ferry over to stradbroke island, and decided to take the car over as well to take the pressure off getting up to Lookout point in time for my dive trip. This was a dive trip with Manta Lodge that ran rubber dinghies off a beautiful little beach. Dolphins buzzed the boat just metres off shore as we launched the boat and on the way out we saw a Loggerhead turtle on the surface. A changing of the guard was underway as the Grey Nurses left for summer, and the Manta Rays were just starting to return, so a sighting of both was on the cards. This turned out to be a cracker of a dive just for the underwater terrain alone, a deep valley with sheer walls with plenty of fish around, and scattered patches of coral.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm , single SS200 strobe

Dive Report: I didn’t really get a lot of good photo opportunies and mainly enjoyed the dive. We dived in groups of 4-6, so it wasn’t real conducive to spending time to take photos. Here’s a few anyway, nothing i’m overly happy with apart from the stonefish.