Out amongst the Seals.

[Richard Mason]

Australian Fur Seals actually; Chrisch was bemoaning the lack of action on YD on Fri afternoon. On my Friday afternoon, (still sleepie bye byes time for most in YD land) I was taking my non-diving mate out for a spin in the rubber ducky off the Tasman Peninsula (Munroe Bight), just to get him out of the house really and to get some hours up on the new motor so I can get it's 10 hr service done and onto a 100:1 mix, instead of the current 25:1.

Anyway, fascinating as all this is; the area is one of our regular dive spots and as I've mentioned before, the scenery is pretty speccy; yesterday, I even managed to squeeze between The Lanterns, The Candlestick and The Totem Pole, something we've not dared do in the club boat because it's just not manoeuverable enough, whereas the rubber ducky being smaller just gets right in there, although the weather being the calmest I've ever seen certainly helped too; there's normally a big surge breaking through there.

The Candlestick


The Totem Pole (60M tall)


What was interesting was that we are in the middle of the Spring plankton bloom, the waters turned a bit green a few weeks ago and now the zooplankton has boomed in turn, so much so that the water was thick with salps, small jellyfish and ctenophores - had I been in the water, my 5 at 5 would probably have stretched to 10 or 15 at 5. It was so thick, that it actually showed up in photos:



Although it knocks the vis down a bit, it's still a remarkable sight.

After reaching down almost to Cape Pillar, we headed back towards Fortescue Bay and happened upon in the far distance what looked like a forset of shark fins; actually no, they were just rafts of Australian Fur Seals, having a siesta, floatring on their backs with a flipper out of the water, they do this because at 14 degrees C, they are feeling the heat in the water - they simply wet the flipper and then raise it like a sail, the breeze cools the flipper and they feel more comfortable. A strange thing to see though:



Whilst not really welcoming the presence of humans, they let you get quite close before they disperse, dive down and then reappear, to raft up again a 100 metres or so away.

We even took some video.


I was understandably cursing that I'd not brought my werttie & snorkelling gear.

[triplefin]

lovely pics of the candlestick and totem pole looks like an awesome place to dive - seems like you had a great day

[Buoyant Babe]

Lovely pics and footage Richard

Hxxx

[Scuttler]

Right....are you gonna sponsor me and the family so we can move over?

[Richard Mason]

Originally Posted by Scuttler

Right....are you gonna sponsor me and the family so we can move over?

Depends....how old are your daughters?

Here's some video I took last Sunday at Isle de Phoques, mid East Coast when I dived there with Saeed Rashid (of Bournemouth) on his second visit here. It was pretty awesome; a bit surgey so we didn't dive the caves, vis wasn't too good either (still got the plankton bloom) but we managed 2 very exciting dives of an hour each. I had my fins grabbed a couple of times too.

My only point of trepidation was doing my 5 @ 5, on the anchor line, looking down at where it disappeared off the edge of the kelpy platform into the blue void below, when I suddenly noticed that all the seals had "gone" somewhere else. It was at this point that the 5@5 became a somewhat truncated 2@5 and I hurriedly left the water.







(check out the weather............smirk)

[Buoyant Babe]

Gloaty barsteward!

[gerbil]

Originally Posted by Richard Mason

(check out the weather............smirk)

Weathers just fine and dandy here at the moment, what you on about? I'm currently wandering about in tea-shirt and shorts in the back garden










git


puts clothes back on before hypothermia sets in

[Richard Mason]

Originally Posted by gerbil

Weathers just fine and dandy here at the moment, what you on about? I'm currently wandering about in tea-shirt and shorts in the back garden












git


puts clothes back on before hypothermia sets in

What? You have a special shirt for drinking tea in?

[gerbil]

you mean you dont dress for tiffin?

[Richard Mason]

Originally Posted by gerbil

you mean you dont dress for tiffin?

Nah, vest & undies, that's been me ever since I went native.