Sunday morning came in a bit strange. Lisa drove in for her fitness class in soupy fog and it was still lingering when she got back mid-morning. So instead of going for a snorkel I was up for a beach walk with Lisa and the dogs. Blue sky crept in and it looked like it might lift, as we got to the beach but as we walked it became thicker with each step. All the way out and back the eerie fog hung there and hopes of a snorkel today faded, despite the water looking reasonably calm and seemingly clear along the shoreline:
It was mid-afternoon when the sun finally cut through the low clouds and the heat of the day dispelled any lingering patches fog. The sight of a blue sky and high sun raised my hopes of a dip, and my thoughts were on how lucky Nana has been with spotting several nudibranchs when she has had a dive off their local beach. So I drove across to their place with intentions of using their driveway to park the car. They too however seemed up for heading out to see what we might see:
The three of us trouped down to pathway to their spot. I’ve not dived off this part of the beach and as we got in the level of hopefulness was reduced. The water even off the shoreline looked murky and the swell was stirring up not just the sediments, but also the weed. Still there were patches were it improved and so the three of us perceived when others would bail. It was great looking ground, a mixed between the reef down Lisa and my end and the more distinct bommies directly out from the river mouth. Offering lots of nooks and crannies to explore:
Geoff told me later that when they first moved here the reef was teaming with life, but then a huge storm came in and the place was ravaged. He reckons that life is starting to creep back, so over the next year or two it will hopefully get back to its former glory. The mixed terrain certainly looked like it could house a varied and abundant forms of life, but today the swell was making it hard to see much. The fish, such as this Leatherjacket, were few and far between making use of protective holes the reef provided:
I went down heaps checking out what there was to see, shoals of Gobbleguts seemed to occupy many of the more protected nooks and other fish I saw disappeared as soon as I started my descent. We did have some Herring drift backwards and forwards as we scoured the area, and of course the ever present and dependable Banded Sweeps. Other than that it was hard to find much else, and I wondered how long we might stay out for. None of us had donned wetsuits and it felt a little on the chilly side:
In-between the crevices I found a heap of squirts and sponges that looked different to what I would normally find. These looked to be safely wedged and perfectly placed to catch any currents that drifted passed their chosen anchorage, full of food for them to filter out. A few sea stars were also about adding to the occasional sprinkling of colour. From what I saw the area was full of promise and I’m pretty keen to get back here on a calmer day to really explore it:
Despite the turbulent and turbid conditions, and I have no idea how she saw it but, Nana called me over. She had found a nudibranch, and I eagerly swam across to where she was. Sure enough two to three meters below us a small splash of orange could be seen intermittently, as the weed was obscuring it from sight half the time as it rhythmically moved with the swell. It looked to get dislodged for a moment, hanging on desperately by its tail and then reattached itself under in a small pocket out of sight:
Being Nana’s third time of seeing them she soon drifted off, but I stayed popping down to watch it and slowly but surely it started to merge giving me a better view. The feathery gills sticking out of its back were visible, but it never fully came out to give me a full body view. Instead turning round and going back into the hole. Maybe due to my presence or the possibly the swell, no matter I was very chuffed to see this Short-Tailed Ceratosoma for the first and hopefully not last time:
I then joined Nana and Geoff who had drifted of, the terrain didn’t seem to end and seemed far more expansive than the island of reef near our place. We continued to look round but there wasn’t a whole heap more that came out for us. Eventually making our way back and finally getting out. Nana came out last and was dragging a sizeable piece of driftwood out. It looked like it had been in the water for decades, and would now become a decorative piece for their garden:
Sandbagged 