Släggö 23/8 2020 Winds and waves galore

Hi and ho! 

This weekend I am back to my normal shenanigans in my normal haunts. So me and my buddies decided to go to Lysekil and dive Släggö, even if the weather forecast was telling of somewhat windy conditions straight into the dive site, as one of the buddies lives there for the summer. Said and done, we got to Lysekil and Släggö without much hassle, kitted up in the winds, divided us into pairs, and prepared to get into the waters.

Peacock feather-duster worm, a kind of marine tube dwelling worm

Dive 1: Depth: 26 m, Time: 66 min, Temp: 16 °C

On the first dive, me and my buddy decided to go close to the cliffs as there is a lot of rocky terrain straight below them, which is usually teeming with life, we swam out to a spot we found appropriate and began descending. As we descended, it soon became clear that there was not very good visibility in the water on this particular day, as I suppose the winds and wave actions had mixed the waters, making them quite turbid, but not the worst I've been diving in. We followed the cliff wall down and outwards, photographing as we went. At about 23 m my buddy was off photographing something among the stones, while i was looking out towards the shell-sand bottom when I spotted a small common dragonet, so I went down a and started creeping over the bottom, trying to photograph it. After a while, we were starting to get low on "no-deco time" so we decided to turn around and go a bit more shallow. As we got closer to land and more shallow, we began to feel a slight current, probably a result from the winds, as well as the swell when we reached about 8 m depth. We continued a bit on the shallow part until we simply decided that we were to ascend and end the dive, and so we did. 

Common dragonet, less colourful individual

Dive 2: Depth: 27 m, Time 70 min, temp: 16 °C

After a nice surface intervall with a late lunch, we got read for the second dive. This time we dove 3 people, as one of the people in the other pair only wanted to do one dive that day. So, we jumped into the water (I climbed) and did a surface swim for a bit in the increasingly rough waves. Either way, we got to a spot we deemed suitable and started descending. We descended following the wall and bottom, until we reached a suitable depth. As we swam outwards, it was clear that there was still a current from the wind and waves coming straight into Släggö, which made the swim outwards a bit more taxing, but nothing significant. At between 24m and deepest depth, it was very hazy in the water, a phenomenon that I have observed before this year in Släggö at about this depth, but can't quite put my finger on what is causing it, maybe different currents?

Either way, when we were starting to run lower on the "No-deco" time, we decided to turn around and swim back towards the more shallow parts. As we got there, the swell could be clearly felt, especially in the harbour area where it was in fact sheltered from the winds. 

When I later checked the weather app on my phone, it turns out that the stiff breeze of the early afternoon had in fact turned into a gale while we were under the surface. Oh well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

All in all, it was a very nice dive day, even if the weather was not completely ideal.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Some of the Dead man's fingers coral