Jordfall 23/10 2021 Cold air, warmer waters and krills

 Hi and ho!

This weekend we went to our old haunt of Jordfall marina, a site we haven't been to in a while due to various circumstances, but at last, we got ourselves there. We also decided to go a bit later, as to get some night diving in, as the season is starting right now. When we got to the site, it was still somewhat warm in the air, so we kitted up, divided into pairs and started to head out into the water.

Close-up of a Plumose anemone, with the orange mouth part visible

Dive 1:

Depth 32 m, Time: 47 min, Temp 14 C

Me and my buddy had planned to do a sweep over the deep soft bottom, so we swam out to the end of the marina before descending in free water. As we descended, the first few meters was quite low visibility, but that cleared up pretty quickly, though there was much particles in the waters. We headed outwards and slightly to the left, following the slope. As there was a lid of brownish fresher water on the surface, we were hoping to see squids on this dive, but no squids were to be seen on this dive, instead, there seemed to be a lot of the starfish Luidia sarsii, a close relative to the Sand sea star (Astropecten irregularis), on this day. After a while, my buddy signalled that it was time to turn around and swim back towards the starting point. We surfaced at 47 minutes, got up from the water and got ready to do a surface interval.

Luidia sarsii a starfish found on soft bottoms, similarly to it's relative the Sand sea star

Dive 2

Depth: 27 m, Time:44 min, Temp: 14 C

After a surface interval with some hot drinks and trying to keep up the body heat a bit, we got ready to head out once more. Now it was significantly colder in the air compared to when we arrived, so it was a bit of a pain to keep warm and going. We also did some change around with the pairs, as one in the other pair felt like they didn't want to do a second dive, feeling a bit cold and all. So three, including yours truly, headed out into the water for a second, somewhat shorter dive. The waters were warmer than the air, so it was honestly a bit of a relief to get into the waters. We once again planned to do a sweep over the soft deep bottom, looking for squids and the like. We descended at the end of the floating pier and started following the slope downwards. On this dive, almost immediately me and my photographer buddy got swarmed by krill that swam in the light from our camera lights. It was almost to the level of being annoying, there was that much krill, but as they kept flitting about in front of the lights, it was impossible to photograph them properly. As we turned around and started swimming back, we came across the smaller Fireworks anemone that can be found at about 25 m on the slope in Jordfall. Unfortunately i didn't manage to snap a good photo of it :(

We surfaced at 44 minutes, got up and doffed our gear, making ready to head home.

All in all, it was pretty nice of a dive day, but next time i gotta prepare more warm beverages, or chocolate before the dive

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Sand seastar, with a nice visible pattern

Släggö 17/10 2021 A beautiful autumn day.

 Hi and ho!

This weekends we went to Släggö in Lysekil once more, we had originally planned to go to some site in Gullmarsfjorden, but due to various reasons, we decided to go to Släggö instead this day. The weather was forecasted to be sunny, if a bit cold, we were hoping that there would be a bit of a lid layer on the surface this day, as "night" diving during this time of the year is super nice, but when we got to the dive site, we realized that there would be no significant lid on the surface this day, the waters seemed somewhat clear this day. Oh well, it be what it is.

A small Sand goby that decided to sit down for a bit and allow itself to be photographed.

Dive 1

Depth: 29 m, Time: 52 min, Temp: 14 C

We swam out a bit before descending, as we wanted to have some depth from the beginning, though not as far as i usually force my buddies to surface swim. We descended quickly and started swimming following the slope downwards, taking it easy and slowly, photographing as we went. Out on the soft bottom, i spotted a small shape crawling about across the ocean floor, turned out to be a small Gray gurnard, which I of course had to photograph for a little bit. No squids on this dive though... After a while, i did the signal for turning around, as we had been down for about 25 minutes at that point, and in order to get back to the starting point within the time we had told the surface people, while also not stressing, we sort of need to turn around at that time point in my experience, so we began swimming back, again, as we closed in on the shallow, we started to look for a Lumpfish that was supposed to lurk close to the guiding line in Släggö, but alas, we lost the line on the way up and did not manage to find the lumpfish on this dive.

We ended the dive at 52 minutes, got up and made ready for a surface interval with food and relaxing.

This was the first time i spot the starfish Luidia sarsii on a dive

Dive 2

Depth: 29 m, Time: 57 min, Temp: 14 C

After food and a nice surface interval, we once again made ready to head out into the water. The plan was the same as before, do a sweep over the soft bottom and head back following the cliff wall and the caveline. So said and done, we swam out, and started descending at about the same spot as the dive before, as we got down, it was quite a bit darker at this point, as the sun was sort of setting right then. On this dive, i spotted a few more gurnards skittering about on the bottom, the first one kept skittering into the camera lens, which made focusing on it to take photos a bit of a challenge, the second one was a bit more chill, letting itself be photographed for a bit before swimming away. Didn't manage to get a photo of the third one as there was a huge silt cloud coming in right as i was about to start, oh well, got some nice ones of the two others instead, so that matters little. We continued over the soft bottom for a bit before one of my buddies signalled that it was time to go up a little bit, soon after that, they also signed that it was time to turn around. We swam back following the wall until we found the cave line, which we promptly began to follow too in hopes of finding the lumpfish on this dive instead, but to no avail, no lumpfish found. We surfaced at 57 minutes, got up and started doffing our gear, getting ready to head home after a nice long day of diving.

All in all, it was a nice dive day, even if the site was one of the more boring ones (we later heard that they had spotted shark on one of the sites inside Gullmarsfjorden the same day)

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Grey gurnard crawling along the ocean floor

Ormestad 16/5 2020 Rainy days and spontaneous dives

 Hi and ho!

This weekend was a rainy one, with the forecast telling of on and off raining all weekend long. So my buddies decided that we were to go out on sunday, the site was to be decided upon on the way there, as the weather was rather unpredictable at this point. We decided upon Ormestad, as it is one of the few sites in the area with a roof, even if you run the risk of getting stuck due to it being very muddy there.

Either way, we got to Ormestad, carried our gear to the area with the roofing and kitted up under the roof, after which we got ready to dive.

Henricia. sp starfish, this individual had a striking reddish purple colour.

Dive 1: 

Depth 30 m, Time 56 min, Temp 8 °C

Me and my buddy swam towards the left, aiming to dive the wall of Ormestad, the main attraction of that site. When we got close to the wall, we started descending, as we were descending, it was noted that the visibility was really bad, but as we got deeper it started to clear up much more, suggesting that the rain had caused some mixing in the uppermost layers of the water masses. As we rounded the corner and got to the main wall, there was a medium strong current going, but as we kept getting deeper, it subsided too. We swam along the wall in a relatively orderly fashion, after a while the other buddy pair came along around us a bit before we turned around. At 25 minutes, we turned around due to my buddy feeling a bit nervous, as they had changed some things on their setup. So we swam back towards the starting point, or at least tried, it is hard to navigate sometimes in Ormestad, as soon as you get on the soft bottom slopes. As we were following the slope upwards, my buddy signalled me to look at something, turned out to be a Sole resting on the bottom, so I tried to photograph it but it sure hid well, and it was a bit hard to do. 

All in all, despite the rainy weather soaking us from head to toe, it was a good dive session in Ormestad.

So until next time! Keep on swimming! 

Common sole (Solea solea), a very well hidden specimen at that.

Lysekil archipelago 11/10 2020- Unpredictable weather and happenings.

Hi and ho!

This weekend, after much discussing back and forth, me and my buddies had decided upon doing two boat dives in Lysekil. In order to do this, we had to leave at quite the early hours, as the first boat tour went out at 10 am. Said and done, we arrived in Lysekil, kitted up our gear and went to the boat. Unfortunately, one of my buddies accidentally destroyed the zipper of their drysuit while kitting up, so they had to pass on the first dive of the day. Me and my other buddy went out with the boat though. The weather forecast had told of rainy weather all day, and while there was some wetness to be had from the skies on the first boat ride, it did not last very long. So, we arrived at the first dive spot, put on our gear in the boat and got ready to head into the waters.

Devonshire cup coral doing coral things.

Dive 1:

Depth: 26 m, Time: 57 min, Temp: 14°C

Me and my buddy rolled into the water and began swimming towards the cliff wall where the dive was to happen. when we had reached a close enough distance, we signalled that we were going down and began descending. As we descended, it quickly became evident that the vis, while OK, was to be a bit grainy, with a maximum of maybe 7 m vis in any direction. We soon had visual contact with the seafloor, we spent some time on the way down photographing, before we began swimming in the direction we were supposed to go. As we swam, we came across large areas of boulders, where many fish were to be found, both, wrasse and gadiform fish of different kinds.

We also came across large swaths of shell bottom, here it was often also a bit less visibility due to silt in the water column, not sure if that was the previous dive pair, or just naturally occurring silt clouds, the likes that has been in Släggö all summer long. Either way, as we were swimming over the shell bottom, I spotted something a bit dug down in the seafloor, with a closer look i determined that it was a Great Scallop. After photographing it for a little bit, and moving a bit further away, i saw that my buddy was doing something close to the area where the scallop was. Turns out he was picking up a small seastar and placing it on top of the scallop in order to make it start fleeing. As much as i prefer to not touch the animals, i cannot deny that i find the flight of scallops quite entertaining (though you shouldn't touch the animals when you are diving really). So, after we managed to get the scallop swimming, we continued our dive further. As the time started to tick away, and my air started getting low, we began ascending to shallower depth in order to soon end the dive.

As we got up, there was coffee to be had in the boat, which is a super nice thing when you dive in Sweden, so us divers had coffee while we were driving back to harbour for lunch and surface intervall rests.

Great Pipefish on the mixed sediment bottom

Dive 2:

Depth: 28 m, Time: 58 min, Temp: 14°C

After a surface intervall with pizza and relaxing, it was time to get ready for the second dive of the day. This time we went out a bit further in the archipelago, to the outer islands, where the sites are available depending on the weather conditions. This day was one of the rare days where they could go out there without an issue, especially at this time of the year. We went with the same dive pairs as in the morning, with the exception of a new dive pair, consisting of two other friends of mine, one of which was the one that ripped their zipper in the morning. We were dropped into the water close to a set of small islands called "Trillingarna" (The Triplets) where the dive was to happen, me and my buddy descended almost immediately and began swimming with the cliff wall on our left side. On this site, there was a lot of ravines and crevices where the creatures were hanging about. Not much notable on this dive really, Saw quite the number of Henricia. sp sea stars, which, like always, is hard to differentiate to species level from photos only. 

Either way, when I started to near NDL, it was time to start heading upwards again (As my buddy dives rebreather, he does not have to worry about NDLs on this level of diving). So, we swam up in a relatively slow manner, taking our time photographing as we went. When we surfaced and got back into the boat, we once again were given a cup of after-dive coffee, which is always nice 😁

All in all, it was a super nice dive day, with perfect weather for all the sort of diving we do.

So until next time! Keep on Swimming!

Henricia. sp sea star, variant red.

Kårevik 20/6 2020. Plans and bbq getting rained upon

Hi and ho! 

This weekend me and my buddies were planning to do a larger trip with overnight stay and all, unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worse so we had to cancel those plans. So instead, we decided to go to a site a bit closer to home, namely Kårevik on the south corner of the island of Tjörn.

We carried our gear to the clearing closer to the entry site as in order to not have to carry all the full gear from the parking lot, and thus kit up closer to the entry spot.

Dead man's finger, not what it sounds like, but instead a type of coral

Dive 1: 

Depth: 19 m, Time: 53 min , Temp: 11 °C

Me and my buddies swam out through the channel and followed the cliff walls until we reached the opening of the bay, where we decided to go down. As I was the only person in my buddy pair with experience of this site. I had the honor of leading this time around. So we descended in a orderly fashion, and started to swim outwards following the walls. One in our dive pair was a new prospective buddy, he spent a lot of time flitting around us while me and my other buddy took our time and slowly made our way, at one point he all but disappeared from our sight as the vis was not the best, at maximum 5 m maybe. Anyways, we made our way outwards and deeper down. at 15 m there was a sharp thermocline where the temperature dropped from around 20 C to about 10 C. During this dive we saw brown crabs, lobsters, squat lobsters and a lot of fish all around.

Spiny starfish

When we got up again after the dive, we had a nice bbq which had to be cut a but short due to worsening weather, we also decided against doing a second dive due to this, as diving during a thunderstorm is not a good idea.

All in all, it was a good, if somewhat hot dive day 😅

So until next time, Keep on swimming!

Brown crab, looking like it is having a "existential crisis"

Ormestad 28/4-2019, Krabbor, Hummer och cylinderrosor

Henricia spp

Tjenare!

Cylinderros (Cerianthus lloyidii)

I helgen var jag tillsammans med CDK ute på dagsutfärd till Sveriges enda och bästa tröskelfjord, Gullmarsfjorden, närmare bestämt, Ormestad. Denna dykplats består av 2 olika sorters dyk: Simmar man åt vänster förbi båthamnen kommer man till en klippa som sluttar rakt ner i vattnet. Följer man denna klippa kommer man till en vägg som går rakt ner till ca 80m. På detta väggdyk ser man ofta Påfågelrörmask, sjöpungar och diverse fiskar och skaldjur i skrevorna. Är säsongen rätt (mellan Januari till Juni) kan man även med god chans se trollkrabbor sitta lite varstans från 12m och neråt. Simmar man åt höger istället kommer man till en botten som sluttar neråt i platåer i typisk gullmars-stil. Här kan man mycket fisk och nässeldjur som lever på mjukbotten samt även krabbor, havskräftor och ibland även rocka!
 Just på denna dyktur såg jag cylinderrosor, krabbtaskor, trollhummrar och en liten hummer bland stenarna och ute på lerbotten. Vi var lite oroliga med vädret då prognosen sa att det skulle regna under dagen. Men när vi kom fram till dykplatsen så var det bra väder, och det blev bara bättre under dagen.
Sikten var god under dyket, med några få lager av dåligare sikt på grund av olika salthalter. Temperaturen börjar närma sig 10 grader i ytan så man känner att sommaren kanske har börjat komma :)
Det är nästan så att man börjar känna sig lite lätt bortskämd med alla bra dyk man har haft på sistone.

Ser fram emot nästa dyk och vad som kan tänkas ses där.
Så tills nästa gång. Simma lungt

Havsros (Urticina felina)

Europeisk Hummer (Homarus gammarus)

Nu sätter vi igång!

Hej och hå på böljan den blå!

Detta blir det första inlägget i denna blogg, vilken kommer att handla om dykning i framförallt nordiska vatten, med diverse bilder jag tagit på faunan då jag anser att man inte behöver åka till tropikerna för att kunna hitta vackra organismer under havets yta. Så nu till själva huvuddelen av bloggen.
I helgen var jag, tillsammans med Chalmers Dykarklubb, ute på påskdykutfärd hos Diveteam i Lysekil.

Porania pulvilus - Kuddsjöstjärna

Totalt 4 båtdyk genomfördes i rask takt över helgen med vår båtförare "Flex", samt ett par landdyk efteråt. Dykförhållandena var i det närmaste perfekta, strålande sol, varmt i luften och nästan ingen vind överhuvudtaget. I vattnet var det kristallklart och 6-7m sikt ner till 15m. Dock något kallt (5-7C), men inget som inte en torrdräkt kan råda bot på.
Allt i allt var det en i det närmaste perfekt dykutfärd för oss som gillar naturdyk :)
Ser fram emot nästa dyk och vad man kan tänkas hittas där.

Så tills nästa gång, Simma lugnt!

Tritonia hombergii 

Havsros - Urticina felina