Dive Details

Location

Date

Saturday 18 June 2016

Time

12:04pm - 12:43pm

Details

After a short boat ride from the boat ramp at Port Kembla we arrived next to the seal colony on Martin Islet. There were quite a few seals on the rocks but also probably as many in the water.

We jumped in and once all 10 of us were in the water we descended in two groups. Visibility was only 2-3 metres and I got separated from the group quite quickly. I'd taken a compass bearing before jumping in and new the island was due north so I swam in that direction until I was close enough to see the rocks. I hung out there for a few minutes and was buzzed by a few seals. Every now and then I was hit by a few huge surge waves. While my depth relative to the surface hardly changed I was moving up and down by 3 to 5 metres relative to the rocks. I was also being taken slowly east by the current. I surfaced close to the rocks and realised I had moved 20-30 metres to the east into rougher water. On the surface I saw that much the same had happened to Gateano and Magda. The boat was picking them up. I waited for the boat and got back in.

Jason took us back west and we jumped back in for another go. This time I went straight for the rocks and found a relatively sheltered spot at 8 to 10 metres. I had a lot of seals come down to visit me but the visibility was not good enough for photographs. There was still some surge which was disconcerting. I was pretty close to the bottom and I had a large Ray swim under me a number of times. I had to keep finning up away from it.

After 20 minutes or so I'd had enough and ascended to 5 metres, did my safety stop and surfaced. It was fun swimming with the seals but the combination of the poor visibility and surge made it uncomfortable.

Seas

Rough

Visibility

2 to 3 metres

Duration

30 minutes

Maximum depth

11.5 m

Average depth

7.5 m

Water temperature

17.2°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Port Kembla AEST

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

Low

1:00am

0.51m

High

6:45am

1.29m

Low

12:27pm

0.53m

High

7:03pm

1.69m