It has been close to a months since Lisa and I had a dip at our local beach and got up close and personal with a friendly cuttlefish. In that month I started working from home, giving me a perfect opportunity to make the most of the best midweek and weekend conditions to swim with the fish. While the midweek days offered up a couple of great opportunities, something called work ethics or pure dumbness prevented me from being able to take an hour out to go for a dip. Instead I chanced it on the weekends, which as you probably guess didn’t work out to well:
Each weekend the weather came in and the ocean looked started to take on that choppy and grey appearance more akin to winter. Lisa I went out for a few walks with the dogs and each time it looked hit and miss. The image above was taken on Monday 6th April, it was the first day the cut opened up connecting the Capel River to the ocean. It didn’t stay open too long and within a few days had closed back up. So on Easter Friday, seeing the water looked reasonable I thought I’d take the plunge. I walked down to the River Mouth and dived in, and as you can see I couldn’t see too much:
It was thick and soupy, as soon as my head went under I knew it was bad but I was also too stubborn to give in. Something told me if I went out further it might clear up, fat chance. I felt like the Titanic as I almost collided with a bommie or two due to not seeing them. I knew it was a hopeless course, and resided to just swimming parallel to the beach back along the way I had walked. Occasionally it cleared a bit and I could not only make out the bottom but I also saw a few fish, only briefly before the murkiness returned. Getting out I felt a little sea sick from the swell that had been pushing me back and forth the whole way:
Easter was also the start of a two week holiday for me. I was supposed to be heading to Melbourne to climb in the Grampians on Easter Monday, that was obviously canned. The backup plan was to go to South Coast to climb for a few days, but the interregional travel ban put paid to that too. So I had the thought of a two week holiday at home, luckily I can still get out to the rocks by myself, and I thought that I’d be able to have a snorkel or two. But each time Lisa and I went for a beach walk it just wasn’t looking inviting. Above was on Easter Monday, and below the next day:
The swells and winds were generally up, and every few days it would really come in. The calm and flat summertime beach was slowly disappearing. During winter the shape changes and there is a stepper incline into the water. The waves erode the sand creating these little steps and you know that the water is likely to be like pea soup, this image was from Thursday 16th. So while it was great for beach walks and the dogs loved our almost daily long walks I was beginning to think that my last snorkel had been a sad way to end what has probably been the best snorkelling season I’ve had:
The forecast did however offer me a window of opportunity. This morning the swells were down, there was practically no wind and it was mostly a clear sky. Rain and fresh winds were forecast for the afternoon and tomorrow the swell would jump from a calm meter to three meters. This would be my last reasonable opportunity to end the season on a better note. Wandering down to our local beach and it was looking pretty good, people were fishing and the rays were gliding up and down the beach feasting on the burley and any other bait that fell off the line. The water temperature doesn’t vary too much year round and certainly would have only drop a degree or two in recent weeks. But tell that to my body, it felt cold:
The visibility was reasonable but there was that misty look to the water, the penetrating rays from the early morning sun picking up all the floating particles. There were lots of red Seastars and I as I dived up and down I soon spotted the usual Sweep, Pomfret, Triggerfish, Gobbleguts, Wrasse and others. One fish caught my eye, and I’m pretty sure it was a Grass Flathead but it didn’t stay around long enough for me to get an image. Likewise I didn’t stay out too long. It was a bit too chilly and so I said my goodbyes to the reef, happy to have had a more pleasant last snorkel. It certainly has been a an awesome season, but now it was time to head back in and have a hot shower:
Sandbagged 