Dive trip 3/12- 5/12 2021. Club excursion to the "polar region".

 Hi and ho!

This weekend, the dive club had their yearly winter excursion to Lysekil, combining it with the last parts of the CMAS** course we've had during the autumn. The weather was clear but windy, which in combination of damp ocean air and minus degrees temperatures was really cold if i have to be totally honest. like really freaking cold even. But regardless, we still went diving :)

Rock gunnel (Pholis gunnelus) hiding in the algae on the bottom

Dive 1:

Depth: 18 m, Time 25 min, Temp: 6 C

After some retakes due to insufficient weighting, somewhat leaky drysuit (not mine this time) and other stuff, we started descending quite close to the pier in Släggö, We began swimming outwards, following the sloping downwards. I have to admit that i did get a bit lost and we went a bit too diagonal to reach the usual spots of Släggö, instead we swam out over the soft bottom slope where one usually finds squids during night dives. But as it was daytime, no squids to be seen. Not much of note on this dive. But as we neared the 10 m mark, my buddy started corking, i tried to turn them around and get their  gas out of their suit, but that proved unsuccessful and i had to let them cork while i quickly ascended to the surface to make sure they were ok, which they were. We then swam back to the starting point and got up from the water. When we got up, my buddy told me they were soaking wet, which is less than ideal when it is sub zero temperatures in the air as well as quite windy.

Small frilled anemone on the side of a sunken rowboat

Dive 2:

Depth: 20 m, Time: 50 min, Temp: 6 C.

After lunch and some time to rest, it was time for the night dive part of the course, and of course the other non-course participants like me were doing a night dive as well, no way we were gonna miss this. Well, my previous buddy didn't participate due to their suit being sopping wet and that we discovered that there were holes in the arm seals (and the neck seals was extremely bad too, the dive centre really shouldn't have even had this one out for renting i feel). So i dived with another group instead on this dive. We entered the waters and descended almost immediately in order to look for the lumpsucker that has set up shop. We didn't see it this dive, but alas, tis fine, I've seen it quite a few times already. We started swimming diagonally across the bottom, heading towards the area where one usually can see the squids. At about 18 m, we encountered the thermocline, which was really quite deep down this time. Here it was about 10 C, but as we didn't stay for too long either, we didn't get to enjoy it for quite as long. After turning around and swimming back for a little bit, i noticed a small shape on the bottom, finally, a squid! So of course i had to stay a little bit and photograph the critter. As i was photographing, some of the other dive pairs came up to us to look at the little squid. We swam back and surfaced at 50 minutes, got up and started loading our gear into the car, preparing to go back to the hotel.

The squid!

Dive 3: 

Depth: 12 m, Time: 30 min, Temp: 6 C

On the second day of diving, we first went to Släggö once more for some of the last course stuff, and to just have a nice easy dive after breakfast. I paired up with my buddy from yesterday and we jumped into the water in short order. We quickly descended after that and almost immediately found the lumpsucker hanging out. Unfortunately, i had forgotten to remove the camera cover, so no photos of the lumpsucker this time, as i had to faff about with removing the lens cover underwater, with drygloves on (i managed to do that, but by then the lumpsucker had moved away) Well either way, we continued for a bit more along the bottom, following the line and the slope. While my buddy did have some issues with buoyancy and trim, they did sometimes lie really beautifully in the waters :)

Well either way, at about 12 m, i sort of felt that we shouldn't go deeper, as my buddy was flailing around quite severely right there and then. So i signalled that we were to turn around, which was probably for the best. We swam back in orderly fashion and i once again got a bit lost on the way back. But it wasn't too badly off course from the pier. We surfaced at 30 min and got up, my buddy said they had been leaking from the neck all dive, so they quickly got into cover to change into dry clothes, as it was still rather windy here.

Dahlia anemone with very clear banding

Dive 4:

Depth: 27 m Time: 51 min. Temp: 10 C

After packing up our things and heading out from the hotel, some of us decided that we were to do a last dive in Skår, the dive site close to the ferry terminal in Gullmarsfjorden. 

Me and my buddy descended quickly as soon as i felt it was deep enough, we soon found the dropp off and followed the wall closely, trying to get to the thermocline as soon as possible. The thermocline was found at about 14 m depth this time, which was quite shallow compared to the thermocline the evening before. Well, either way, we continued following the wall downwards. After about 25 minutes, i made signal  to turn around, as we had to swim back too after all. So we turned around and started to head back. As we neared the end of the dive, i spot a small shape on the sand bottom, turned out to be a sand shrimp, which promptly dug itself down into the sand as soon as i got close, but i managed to snap a few photos before it completely burrowed down. We surfaced at 51 minutes, and it was cold in the surface, so we quickly got up and started to doff our gear. Making ready to get home.

All in all, It was a nice dive trip :)

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Sand shrimp (Crangon crangon) peeking out of the sand