12/2 2022 - 13/2 2022 A not too good weekend really

 Hi and ho!

This weekends diving wasn't really the best I've had to be totally honest, It was a weekend of harsh weather and rain, but nonetheless, a few of us went out to dive because we love diving so much. 

Long nosed spider crab, a smaller species that is easy to mistake for a piece of algae

Dive 1: 12/2 2022 Släggö

Depth: 26 m, Time 41 min, Temp: 5 C

We got to the dive site and saw that the winds were going straight into the bay and that there was some significant wave action, nonetheless, we decided to dive here, a mistake it would prove (should probably become much better at thumbing sites and go somewhere else). Either way, after much getting bashed by the waves, we got a bit further out and started descending. As we descended we discovered that the visibility was not the best, but on the other hand, after a few meters down, the waters became surprisingly calm, not showing any signs of the raging waves above. We followed the slope, keeping relative close to one another. There wasn't really much to see on this day in the shallower parts, but as we started to get a bit deeper down, things started to appear, for example, some dragonets, as well as different types of crustaceans. After a little while, one of my buddies signalled to turn around, and that we did, swimming back in somewhat of a hurry, as they were running low on gas. We surfaced at 41 minutes, and climbed up the ladder they had installed at Släggö while the original pier is being rebuilt. Fortunately, the winds had lessened a bit, so the waves wasn't as bad at this point. 

We decided after this dive, that today was a "1 dive only" kind of day. So we packed up our stuff and got ready to head home again. All while making plans to dive a different site come the next day.

Extreme close up of an Edible crab

Dive 2: 13/2 2022 Jordfall

Depth: 19 m, Time: 42 min, Temp: 5 C

On this day, we decided to go to a more protected site, so we didn't have to deal with getting bashed by the waves. So we choose Jordfall, as it is both easy and usually a lot of life in the water. So we headed out, planning to dive close to the cliffs and walls to the left side of Jordfall. When we started to descend, I noticed that there was a slight milkiness in the surface and as we descended, the visibility was rather bad, which was to expected, as the weather has been a bit violent recently. We continued to follow the cliff walls, keeping relatively shallow as we went. Not much was really out here either on this day, so i didn't snap as many photos. We surfaced at 42 minutes and got up in the freezing rain, making ready for a surface interval while planning the next dive.

A dragonet of undeterminable species

Dive 3:

Depth: 27 m, Time 35 min, Temp: 6 C

After a surface interval in the drizzling rain, we once again kitted up and headed out for a dive. This time, we planned for it to go out over the soft bottom slope in Jordfall, so we swam out to the end of the pier before descending. As we were descending, i had some problems equalizing on the way down, so i had to slow down quite a lot before i managed to clear it all, but after doing that, i could continue as usual. We quickly swam out over the slope, looking for possible signs of king crabs or squids, as it was quite dark deeper down. But all of these creatures did not show up, and in the middle of the dive, my camera ran out of batteries, as i had forgotten to turn it off on the surface. Oh well, such things happen, but was still a bit infuriating. Luckily, there wasn't really any interesting out on this day and dive either.

We soon turned around and started to swim up more shallow, as our No Deco Limits were starting to run low. We surfaced at 35 minutes, making this a shorter dive really.

All in all, despite the really bad weather and conditions, it was some OK dives, not the best, but not the worst either.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!