Unseasonsonal water conditions 03/11/2013

Last weekend I dived out of Terrigal with a friend from Canberra in what were pleasant water conditions, 10m vis and 19 degrees temp. I reflected on how different the conditions were to spring diving on the coast over the last few years. Over the last few years we have had a lot of spring rain, the water has been green and cold, vis shocky and diving only for the keenest of us.

Today we decided to head up to Foggy Reef for our first dive. The water looked quite good on the way until we started to hit patches of heavy red phytoplankton that had me concerned about the conditions we would find. Thankfully by the time we got to Foggies, there was none present and the water has a bit of a blue tinge to it.

On the dive we ended up having 15m+ vis and the water was 20 degrees. These are the types of conditions we expect in autumn not spring ! In fact the conditions were so good we did both our dives today on Foggy Fish.

There were plenty of fish around, including some large Southern Silver Drummer and no shortage of Red Morwong in reef cracks, some Blue Morwong out over the sand and all the usual reef suspects. The highlight of the 2nd dive was a large Eastern Blue Devil (that sent me into deco as I checked it out).

By the time we surfaced from our 2nd dive, conditions on top had deteriorated and we made a dash for Terrigal against the strengthening southerly that was blowing.

One of the best dive days out this year. I hope the diving conditions stay like this until the blue water comes in Summer.