Skår 31/7 2021- Drills and learning experiences.

 Hi and ho!

This weekend we went to the dive site Skår, which is close to the ferry over the fjord, and one of our outermost dive spots in Gullmarsfjorden. This day the plan was to do some exercises at the end of the dives, and maybe some during the dives. So after getting the gear out of the cars, and kitting up, we divided into dive pairs, made our plans, and headed out for the first dive.

Orange brown aeolid crawling along the silt of the bottom.

Dive 1:

Depth: 27 m, Time: 57 minutes, Temp: 17 C

We descended almost immediately, following the slope downwards, while descending, i tried another way of equalizing the ears, which worked somewhat well, gotta practice that more. The visibility was not too bad this day, a bit of particles in the water, but not the worst I've seen. The water temperature was almost disgustingly warm, with the thermocline at about 20 m depth. Several haloclines could be observed, though not as clearly as some other places, being more like a haze at certain depths.

We swam about for a bit before turning around and swimming back. As we had planned earlier, we deployed the surface marker buoys from 12 m in order to train for free water ascent, though I had to wait until we reached about 7 m, as my line was that long at maximum. So we deployed our buoys, and started ascending slowly, just hanging in the lines. It took some effort to deploy the buoy, so that is something I need to work on too.

We surfaced at 57 minutes, got up and doffed the gear at the site, preparing for a nice surface interval.

Once again, a beautiful Dahlia anemone, one of the prettiest sea anemones out there.

Dive 2:

Depth: 27 m, Time: 58 minutes, Temp: 17 C

After a surface intervall, with some food, and also some rain, we once again headed out in the water. This time, we decided to keep a bit closer to the second dive group, as one of the divers had felt a bit nauseous on the previous dive, so in case they needed to thumb the dive, their buddy would have a secondary buddy from our pair. Either way, we descended together with the other group, but soon it became clear that they were doing ok, so we left them be and continued on our way. On this dive, many Rock gunnels were out and about, unfortunately, they weren't very keen to be photographed, so I didn't get any photos of them. We continued for a bit before it was time to turn around once more. Like the dive before, we deployed the surface marker buoys at 12 m (7 m for me) to drill both free water ascent and deploying buoy. This time, it went a bit better, but still need to work on that. We surfaced at 58 minutes, got up and ended the dives for the day.

All in all, it was a nice dive day, and I clearly need to work on some skills and drills. Oh well.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

The zoantharian Isozoanthus sulcatus, a small colonial cnidarian