My third dive of the day was at The Monument. Conditions were less than ideal but still good enough for a third dive.
I entered at the bay around the corner from the flagpoles and it was as my left arm hit the water that I discovered that I had a small tear in the wrist seal which must have happened when I took a tumble at The Steps. It was too late to go back and change so I pushed on with the dive.
The tide must have already been running out with a strong surface current. I thought I made a quick trip down to the sand line but ended up 30-40 metres towards The Steps. It was fortunate, because I had planned to swim that far underwater but this took only a minute or so.
I headed back towards The Monument and had a good look for "Little Sebastien", the tiny yellow angler we've been watching since August. I looked everywhere on its usual rock but could not find it. The last time we'd seen it was a month ago.
I swam on towards The Monument and had a look for the three orange form undescribed anglers, "Oliver", "Jean" and "Beverley". I was only able to find "Jean" although the conditions were not conducive for finding these anglers.
I progressed to the corner, looking for anglers ("Lesley", "Little George") and seahorses, but found none. I then went around the corner and along the bottom of the wall, hoping to find "Angus", the little orange angler. I did well, finding "Angus" along with a Okenia hallucigenia nudibranch. This time I swam up the wall to get a landmark so I could more easily find "Angus" again.
I continued along the top of the wall and started my safety stop as I headed into the beach, exiting in front of the flagpoles. Throughout the dive I could feel the water that got in at the wrist seal make its way up my arm, down my chest and down my legs into the socks of the drysuit. I sloshed my way back to the car park. |
