Nov

29

Dive Number: 519 29/11/2013 The Labyrinth

Conditions:

Visibilty: 8m

Water Temp: ??c

Bottom Time: 45minutes

Max Depth: 22m

Details: Chris had recently bought a new DSLR setup, so we went out off Ocean Grove to check out a few sites. Not much around at the Labyrnth today, but great structure as always.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes

Photos:

Nov

27

Dive Number: 518 27/11/2013 Tunnel Reef, Point Addis Marine Reserve, Anglesea

Conditions:

Visibilty: 8m

Water Temp: ??c

Bottom Time: 45minutes

Max Depth: 20m

Details: Despite a great dive off Ingoldsby reef earlier in the day, i really want to sound out some deeper sites. One area looked great on the sounder sitting in about 20m and coming up to 14-15m. I wasn’t disappointed with this site, with lots of swim throughs and overhangs, and some great sponge life.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes

Photos:

Nov

27

Dive Number: 517 27/11/2013 Ingoldsby Reef, Point Addis Marine Reserve, Anglesea

Conditions:

Visibilty: 8m

Water Temp: ??c

Bottom Time: 50minutes

Max Depth: 10m

Details: I’ve been itching to get back to the Point Addis Marine Reserve…its got so much potential. The first dive was on the outer edge of Ingoldsby Reef. A lush shallow reef system that has a great diversity of algae. I encountered a crayfish just wandering around unprotected along the ground…only in a marine reserve! Towards the end of the dive i came across a piece of wreckage, presumably off the Inverlochy, although that is suppose to be on the shoreward side of the reef.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes

Photos:

Nov

2

Dive Number: 510 02/11/2013 Dannevig Island, The Glennies, Wilsons Promontory

Conditions: ?

Visibilty: 15m

Water Temp: ??c

Bottom Time:50minutes

Max Depth: 24m

Details: This was the last dive of the trip as the weather turned nasty for the next couple of days. It was a great dive though. Lots of big swim throughs and caves. Unfortunately i had camera issues on this dive so no photos.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes

Photos:

Nov

2

Dive Number: 509 02/11/2013 Seal Colony, Andersen Inlet, Wilsons Promontory

Conditions: ?

Visibilty: 15m

Water Temp: ??c

Bottom Time:30minutes

Max Depth: 8m

Details: After the dive at Suicide Point (and giving up on the chase of a humpback and calf that disappeared off the horizon), we popped over to Andersen Inlet to view the Seal Colony. In the distance you could see the massive granite boulder island covered in black specks. As we got closer the black specks started turning into a landslide of movement as the seals spotted out boat and tumbled down the granite slopes into the water. They were so excited to have company and within minutes the boat was surrounded by hundreds of playful seals leaping and and peaking up out of the water at us. The numbers were truly astounding and the behaviour was priceless to watch. Diving with them was just as fun!

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes

Photos:

Nov

2

Dive Number: 507 02/11/2013 Suicide Point, Anser Island, Wilsons Promontory

Conditions: ?

Visibilty: 12m

Water Temp: ??c

Bottom Time:45minutes

Max Depth: 24m

Details: Day two at the Prom and the dive clubs got the big boys out. What a mission beach launching these behemoths compared to the inflatable! We headed down to the south tip of the prom and into the Anser Group of Island on Alan’s boat “Freediver”, and dived a usually current prone area called Suicide point. We had dolphin, seal and humpback whale activity on the surface, and beautiful granite swim throughs and underwater vistas below. So this is what Prom diving is all about…fantastic! A big thanks to Alan for having me aboard and providing a great skipper, historical guide, and dive buddy.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes

Photos:

Nov

1

Dive Number: 506 01/11/2013 Norman Island Wilsons Promontory

Conditions: ?

Visibilty: 8m

Water Temp: ??c

Bottom Time:50minutes

Max Depth: 20m

Details: The Melbourne Cup weekend sees a number of Victorian dive clubs head to the prom to dive the granite islands. It seemed like a good time to get down to this mythical spot so i ventured down with the inflatable the day before the majority of people arrived. Not knowing much about the dive sites, we just headed out to the nearest island to Tidal River, which is Norman Island and picked a random spot to dive. It was OK, but not up to the world class sites the prom is rumoured to offer. The day turned into an adventure when we realised we headed back to the wrong beach, after a bit of second guessing we eventually found our way back to the campground.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes

Photos:

Oct

19

Dive Number: 504 19/10/2013 Jawbone Marine Sanctuary

Conditions: Horrid, strong northerlies

Visibilty: 3m

Water Temp: ??c

Bottom Time: 40minutes

Max Depth: 4m

Details: Desperate for a dive i took the boat up to Altona and paid $16 for a parking ticket on a borderline day. I got to jawbone in howling winds and choppy sea and conditions were ordinary. I jumped in anyway and had a leaky drysuit zipper. All in all a pretty ordinary day.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes

Photos:

Oct

8

Dive Number: 503 08/10/2013 Abandoned Reef

Conditions: ?

Visibilty: 8m

Water Temp: ??c

Bottom Time:50minutes

Max Depth: 20m

Details: A new site down near Ant Spit off 13th Beach. The place was eerily quiet…devoid of fish initially, and it felt like this was a ‘ghost reef’ that was no longer used.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes

Photos:

Sep

22

Dive Number: 501 22/09/2013 Magi Reef

Conditions: ?

Visibilty: 8m

Water Temp: ??c

Bottom Time:50minutes

Max Depth: 20m

Details: A fairly dark dive at Magi Reef. Not a great deal of action.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes

Photos:

Sep

18

Dive Number: 500 18/09/2013 White Wall

Conditions: ?

Visibilty: 10m

Water Temp: ??c

Bottom Time:50minutes

Max Depth: 20m

Details: I’ve be concentrating my search for new dive sites around the Ant Spit area of 13th Beach lately. This was another site down that way that sounded up as a sharp wall from 20-15m. The wall was covered in a lot of white animal life, like corals and ascidians. Not a bad site, but more of a wall with a flat top and a small overhang on one side, with not a great deal of gnarling going on. Might be worth another visit one day.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes

Photos:

Sep

17

Dive Number: 499 17/09/2013 Ant Caves

Conditions: ?

Visibilty: 10m

Water Temp: ??c

Bottom Time:50minutes

Max Depth: 20m

Details: I’d sounded up some great looking structure out of Ant Spit that I wanted to check out. Returning to the area with Phil, we found an amazing site with lots of overhangs, caverns and caves. Its now been dubbed Ant Caves and is one of the better dive sites off Barwon Heads. A few Port Jackson Sharks around and just really interesting structure.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes

Photos:

Sep

15

Dive Number: 498 15/09/2013 The Labyrinth

Conditions: ?

Visibilty: 10m

Water Temp: ??c

Bottom Time: 45minutes

Max Depth: 22m

Details: Always a lovely place to dive. A couple of Sergeant Bakers performed some sort of mating chase on the way past me. Some great fans and structure as usual.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes

Photos:

Sep

14

Dive Number: 497 14/09/2013 The Olives, Anglesea

Conditions: ?

Visibilty: 8m

Water Temp: ??c

Bottom Time: 30minutes

Max Depth: 9m

Details: After the shocking vis out at the 20m mark after the first dive we debated about whether to do a second dive. It seemed a waste not to and we did a shallow dive off The Olives (part of the Point Addis Marine National Park). The Olives reef is about 1km or so offshore but it comes right up to the surface. This was a really cool dive, the vis was much better here and the reef was honeycombed out forming lots of caves and swimthroughs. It was a short dive due to the lack of air, but I really want to get back to dive this place.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes

Photos:

Sep

14

Dive Number: 496 14/09/2013 Point Addis

Conditions: ?

Visibilty: 1m

Water Temp: ??c

Bottom Time: 40minutes

Max Depth: 20m

Details: We launched the inflatable from Point Roadknight and headed out towards the Point Addis Marine National Park to see what sounded up. We could find anything that interesting out deep, but just decided to jump in to see what was around. The visibility was terrible! Why, I have no idea, but it was near black at 20m and a but scary. After poking around we started to ascend, only to be swooped by a Seal on the safety stop. Chris did a little wee in the drysuit…

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes

Photos:

Sep

8

Dive Number: 495 08/09/2013 Popes Eye

Conditions: ?

Visibilty: 8m

Water Temp: ??c

Bottom Time: 60minutes

Max Depth: 11m

Details: Second dive for the day at Popes. Not much happening…the usual wrasse and leatherjackets.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes

Photos:

Sep

8

Dive Number: 494 08/09/2013 Boarfish Reef

Conditions: ?

Visibilty: 8m

Water Temp: ??c

Bottom Time: 50minutes

Max Depth: 19m

Details: A dirty slack dive with Chris and Phil on Boarfish reef.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes

Photos:

Sep

1

Dive Number: 493 01/09/2013 Secret Garden

Conditions: ?

Visibilty: 10m

Water Temp: ??c

Bottom Time: 60minutes

Max Depth: 11m

Details: Always a nice little splash at the Secret Garden. Highlight was a Draughtboard Shark (Cephaloscyllium laticeps) that came in nice and close to check me out.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes

Photos:

Aug

31

Dive Number: 492 31/08/2013 The Chambers

Conditions: ?

Visibilty: 8m

Water Temp: ??c

Bottom Time: 50minutes

Max Depth: 21m

Details: A new site down near Ant Spit featuring large chasms in the reef creating large ‘rooms’. Not a bad site, but the less than Ideal conditions detracted from it. There were extraordinary numbers of comb jellies in the water column near the surface.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes

Photos:

Aug

9

Dive Number: 490 09/09/2013 Boulderfields

Conditions: ?

Visibilty: 10m

Water Temp: ??c

Bottom Time: 50minutes

Max Depth: 12m

Details: This was a site around the mouth of the Barwon River, so you need a nice clean day around high tide to dive this area. It was really nice have large chunks of reef scattered everywhere and making anchoring really difficult. Although shallow, the profile went from about 12m to 3m, so there was some great structure and lots of different fish species. the day was gloomy though so I look forward to going back here.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes

Photos:

Aug

1

Dive Number: 489 01/08/2013 Dragons Lair

Conditions: ?

Visibilty: 8m

Water Temp: ??c

Bottom Time: 60minutes

Max Depth: 13m

Details: I’ve been doing a lot of 20m+ dives lately, so doing a 10-12m dive was a nice change. The algae and kelp communities are much more lush in this depth and I really enjoyed this dive. The day was dark and overcast though so not the best photography conditions. Only after reviewing the photos did I notice that a Western Clingfish was on a sponge on this dive. Damn…I would love to photograph this critter!

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes

Photos:

Jul

29

Dive Number: 488 29/07/2013 The Labyrinth

Conditions: ?

Visibilty: 10m

Water Temp: ??c

Bottom Time: 50minutes

Max Depth: 22m

Details: What a day to have strobe issues. I dropped in on a den of about 20+ Port Jackson Sharks. They were everywhere. I had to make do with some ambient light photos. Love this site though.

Also included in this post is a picture of the anchoring solution I’ve come up with for my inflatable to allow the anchor rope to be tied off at any length while the rest of the rope remains on a reel in the boat. The bitter end remains permanently attached to the boat, and a green safety harness and T-bar is used as the tie off point which is permanently attached to the D-ring at the front of the boat.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes

Photos:

Jul

26

Dive Number: 487 26/07/2013 Chimney Rock

Conditions: ?

Visibilty: 10m

Water Temp: ??c

Bottom Time: 50minutes

Max Depth: 23m

Details: A nice dive at Chimney finding that my favourite little cave/overhang had a cuttlefish hanging out in it. Love the expression on this inquisitive Rosy Wrasse too!

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes

Photos:

Jul

19

Dive Number: 486 19/07/2013 The Orungal Wreck

Conditions: ?

Visibilty: 10m

Water Temp: ??c

Bottom Time: 70minutes

Max Depth: 6m

Details: On other dives of the orungal, it been rushed due to little remaining air. On this dive I dedicated a full tank to the dive, and explored the area of this large wreck site. The conditions were good and it was a very comfortable dive.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes

Photos:

Jul

16

Dive Number: 485 16/07/2013 The Ledges

Conditions: ?

Visibilty: 8m

Water Temp: ??c

Bottom Time: 50minutes

Max Depth: 20m

Details: The second dive was further down off Buckley Park to “The Legdes”. A bit surgey and dirty on this dive, but a nice place to explore. After such an exciting day though (with a Warty Prowfish and Humpback Whale encounter), this was a bit ho-hum.

Camera Details: Tokina 10-17mm 2 X YS-D1 Strobes

Photos: