Jordfall 28/11 2020. Rebreathers, Rays and Rime

Hi and ho!

Common dragonet in front of a Spiny Starfish

This weekend, we got the first real winter temperatures, with below 0 °C temperatures in the air, yet we braved these conditions and went out to go diving. We had decided upon Jordfall, as this is a easy spot, and we were honestly feeling a bit lazy. Said and done, we got to the site, after some "but's" and "if's", assembled our gear and kitted up for the first dive of the day.

Bobtail hiding in the sediment, can't tell which species though

Dive 1

Depth: 27 m, Time: 45 min, Temp: 11 °C

Me and my buddy swam out to the end of the jetty before we started to descend. We had spoke to some divers that had been in the water earlier, and they told us that the visibility was "very bad", but when we started to descend, it turned out to be the rather normal for the area and time of the year. When we got visual contact wit the seafloor, I almost immediately saw two Common dragonets hanging around, unfortunately, one was in a bad position, so I could only photograph the other one.

After photographing the dragonet for a little bit, me and my buddy began following the bottom downwards and outwards on the mud bottom, looking for various stuff. At about 25 m, i spot a little something sticking up in the mud. With a closer look, it turned out to be a larger bobtail squid, very likely a Rossia. sp. So I spent a bit of time photographing it from various angles, when I finally decided that it was enough, it was about time to turn upwards, as no-deco time was running low. So I signalled to my buddy that it was time to turn around and swim upwards, so that we did. As we got close to the cliff wall of  Jordfall, I was hitting turn pressure, so we began swimming back. It was at this point I spotted a small shape close to the cliff wall, turned out to be another bobtail squid, so I was spending some time photographing it before continuing to swim back towards the starting point.

We surfaced at 45 min, got onto land and got ready for a surface intervall.

Sand goby, a small goby that likes to hang out on sandy bottom, hence the name

Dive 2

Depth: 30 m, Time: 35 min, Temp: 11 °C

After a surface intervall, most of us were feeling too cold for a second dive, however, me and another of my buddies were up for one, so we went in. This buddy had gone and got themselves a fancy machine, a Poseidon Rebreather, so they were testing it out this day. We swam out to the end of the jetty once more, and descended into the darkness. When we got visual contact with the bottom, we started swimming outwards following the bottom. After a while, my buddy suddenly signalled that they were seeing something, as i got closer, I see that it is a skate, so we spent a good while hanging around it, while I was photographing it and my buddy was just looking at it. After a while, the skate had enough of us, and we left it alone. The rest of this dive was rather uneventful, as nothing could really top the skate.

We ended the dive at 35 minutes, got up and got ready to head back home.

All in all, it was a nice dive day, with the highlight being the skate

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Close up of the skate, can't really tell which species though