Dive Details

Location

Date

23 December, 2013

Time

8:46am - 10:05am

Details

This dive was another example of how the underwater terrain at Bare Island can be entirely different from the above water terrain. Our plan was to jump in near the south east corner of the island and swim around the corner to the east and swim along the wall. We did not execute the plan all that well because we followed the terrain and not our compasses.

After jumping in near the corner, we headed into deeper water - I guess we were heading south west when we thought we were heading south. We followed the reef along, veering to the left in the hope of turning north. We were swimming into a very strong current which was odd at the time but makes sense as we were actually heading south east rather than north east. The reef was beautiful with lots of sponge growth and was quite similar to Henry Head. I had hoped to see some seahorse but did not.

After swimming for a while I checked my compass and realised we were heading in the wring direction. We turned to the north and swam for a short while and then decided to ascend as we were already at around 8 metres and we wanted to check where we were. Well, to our surprise we were at least 100 metres from the island to the south-south east. We checked our bearings and headed back down. After swimming for a while we got separated. I was still heading north but it was getting deeper, which didn't make sense so I surfaced again. I was heading in the right direction but as I was now down to 70 bar, I thought it best to swim back to the island on the surface and then descend when I got there. Swimming almost due north I ended up where we jumped in.

I swam around the corner to the east and then north along the edge of the island to the pole. I then descended and swam east out the the wall. As I descended over the wall I came across John videoing a cuttlefish.

We continued along the wall and I managed to find all three regular anglers. I had a quick look for pygmy pipehorses but found none.

We exited on the mainland to the east of the bridge.

Buddy

John Keogh

Seas

Slight

Visibility

5-10 metres

Duration

68 minutes

Maximum depth

15.6 m

Average depth

8.9 m

Water temperature

18.4°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

Note that tides at dive site may vary from above location.

High

12:48pm

1.28m

Low

6:28am

0.63m

High

12:42pm

1.55m

Low

7:21pm

0.45m

Camera gear

Camera

Nikon D7000

Lens

Nikon AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8D

Housing

Ikelite 6801.70

Lens port

Ikelite Flat Port 5502.41

Strobe

2 x Ikelite SubStrobe DS161

Photographs

Depth information, where present, indicates the depth of the camera when the photograph was taken and can be used to approximate the depth of the subject.

Nudibranch, Chromodoris splendida. 15.6 m.
 

Nudibranch, Aphelodoris varia. 10.7 m.
 

Undescribed angler. 9.1 m.
 

Undescribed angler. 8.8 m.
 

Undescribed angler. 8.7 m.
 

Undescribed angler. 7.1 m.
 

Nudibranch, Hypselodoris bennetti. 7.9 m.
 

Pygmy leatherjacket, Brachaluteres jacksonianus. 5.5 m.