Mistiming at Point Lonsdale

Dive Number:  115
Location:  Point Lonsdale
Date:  11/12/10
Max Depth:  4.6m
Dive Time:  48mins
Temp:  16C
Visibility: Low, 5 metres
Time In: 13:51
Tide: Low 10:18, 0.5m/ slack water 13:23
Thermal: 5mm semi-dry
Weight:  18lbs

A difficult dive at Point Lonsdale and it was mainly due to my mistiming of the optimum time to begin the dive. Somewhere between adding an extra hour for daylight savings and deducting an hour for the start time I have ended up with the wrong time and we were aiming for exactly slack water at 13:23 instead of an hour before.

By the time we had entered the water, the current was already starting to sweep into the bay. Because the water had begun to flow it meant that the swell and surge had also increased. Once we were at the end of the pier, I decided we should head SSE (i.e into the current) which we did. There were plenty of fisherman so I was keen to stay away from the lee side.

I re-discovered the 'lobster ledge' which is packed with Southern Rock Lobster and I now know exactly where it is. Visibility was low and surge was high so finding other things was difficult although Hamish did find a varied catshark which was willing to pose for a few snaps. It was lying in the weeds though so getting a decent photo was nearly impossible.

About the 25 minute mark I was getting concerned about the increasing current and signalled to Hamish that we should start heading back. Finning west towards the pier was difficult as the incoming stream to the bay seemed to be sucking water away from the pier, staying as low as possible was the only way to make progress. I was relieved when I saw a couple of pier pylons directly in front of me and we made our way in directly from there.

Shortly after reaching the pier the current really picked up and finning almost became useless, staying under the pier was difficult as the sideways current was now quite strong. The only way to make any real progress now was to pull yourself along with the weeds and once in the shallows it was difficult to see the rocks with all of the suspended sand in the water. Exiting wasn't too bad although Hamish had an interesting technique of being washed onto the beach sideways by the surf thereby filling all possible crevices with sand!

All up we did 48 mins which means we exited almost 1.5 hours after slack. It's amazing we didn't end up with a free dive at Pope's Eye! I will certainly make sure I don't get the timing wrong next time!