Moss 28/6-30/6 2024, Dive trip across the border

Hi and ho!

This time around, I went on a longer dive trip over the weekend with my dive club, the destination was to be the area around Moss in Norway, a short distance from the Swedish border, 3 whole days of diving (was the plan).

European lobster doing european lobster things

Dive 1: Heyerdalsbukta (i think) 28/6 2024

Depth: 16.2 m, Time: 55 min, Temp: 13 C

The first dive of the trip, on the same day we arrived to the camping spot and had unloaded our things into the cabins. The divesite was close to our accommodation, and of hard bottom type, there was also a wreck of a margarine carrying boat somewhere close to shore. Either way, a team first went down into the water to check the visibility and current, they reported little current but bad visibility, so the rest of us decided to do this as well. The walking in was a bit hard due to waves and slippery rocks, but we managed to do it somehow. As me and my buddy descended, we found out that the visibility was indeed very bad, but also that further down, there was quite severe current to be had, but we kept trudging on, the current and visibility cleared up at about 9 m depth, after which, the dive was quite enjoyable. We followed the cliffs that went down in plateaus to about 15 m, where my buddy made a few signs i didn't quite understand, and that i mistook for something else, so i turned around the dive as we were also starting to near the 30 minutes mark. We swam back, not having found the wreck (due to another mistake on my side, i didn't quite get the compass heading right. Either way, we ended the dive at 55 minutes without too much hassle, though as the time was rather late, we also decided to not do a second dive on this day.

Bit unexpected to find Deep sea king crab this late in the season here

Dive 2: Kjøvangen brygge 29/6 2024 

Depth: 32 m, Time: 53 min, Temp: 9 C

On the second day, the original plan was to do boat dives, but as the weather had worsened, with strong winds from the south (a leading reason for the bad visibility), so we got one of the locals to recommend us a site for shore diving instead, turned out to be the site i went to last time i was in the neighbourhood, Kjøvangen brygge, a good spot indeed.

Me and my buddy was first in the water this time, we had the instruction to go down quickly and try to find the line leading down towards deeper parts. And we did just that, we found the line pretty quickly and started following it downwards. At about 12 m depth, we encountered the thermocline and the waters cleared up (that was a common thing along all the dives, the thermohalocline was the border between bad visibility and decent visibility). We soon got to the cliff walls present on this site and continued following them down to about 30 m. after which we made our way a bit more shallow. The highlight of this dive was for me us encountering a Deep sea king crab out of season, as they usually are not seen this time of the year in Gullmarn, but I guess Norway is different, even so close to the Swedish border as we were. Either way, after spending some time to photograph the crab, I signalled for us to turn around and head back. As we swam back, we did see quite a few lobsters out in the open. We ended the dive at 53 minutes, got up and onto the pier where we doffed our gear.

Norwegian Red Sea cucumber (Parastichopus tremulus) 

Dive 3: Hvitsten torg 29/6 2024

Depth: 22 m, Time: 45 min, Temp: 11 C

We headed to another site for the second dive of the day, another site i have dived before, this one was a few years ago though, during the "pre-covid" times. This time, i was a bit unsure of diving here, as the wind was blowing straight into the bay, giving rise to quite big swell, but nonetheless, we did our dive. And good was that! We swam out and started to descend, this time we were a group of 3, so it was a bit harder perhaps to keep up the contact between the divers, but we managed. At about 14 m depth, the waters cleared out and the visibility became much better. We followed the cliffs and slopes towards the right, we did end up a bit deeper than planned for this dive perhaps, as our max depth should have been 20m, but as seen, we got down to 22 m, so not too much of breaking the depth limit on this one. After a while we turned back, and as we swam over a rock jutting out, one of my buddies signalled for me to look at something, this something turned out to be a Striped Mullet, a fish we usually see late in the autumn on our sites, but there it was. So i did stay a bit and snapped a few photos before continuing. There was also a lot of lobsters on this site, didn't count, but at least 4 were seen as we swam along. We ended the dive at 45 minutes, got up in the swell and swam in towards land, got up and made ready to head back to our cabins.

Striped mullet, a fish you usually see late autumn in Lysekil

Dive 4: Fristranda 30/6 2024

Depth: 23 m,  Time: 51 min, Temp: 13 C

On the third day, we asked the local dive centre about some good shore diving places close by, preferably more southwards, so that we didn't have to drive for so long to get home afterwards. Said and done, we ended up on a spot called Fristranda with a nice sandy beach and a somewhat protected bay. We made our dive buddy pairs and headed out, I ended up with a newer diver, so i took it a bit more slowly and tried to keep more of an eye on them than i usual (tried being the operative wording here). Well either way, we swam out to a buoy before descending, as to have some sort of reference to make it easier for us, after getting visual contact with the bottom and finding our bearings, we began swimming to the right as we had been tipped off on regarding this site. After swimming a bit along a slope, we found a wall at about 14-15 m, which we then started following for the rest of the dive. Nothing of note was really happening on this dive, it was quite a simple and relaxing dive. After turning around and reaching the end point where we had our safety stop, I deployed my DSMB, waited out the safety stop, and then started to ascending. At the surface, my buddy had a bit of a issue as they had breathed down to about 10 bars, and thus weren't able to completely inflate their BCD, but that was easily fixed with a few breaths of oral inflation. But i guess that if i am to dive with newer people, i will have to tell them to show me when they have 50 bars left, because my buddy sure didn't show that. 

Edible sea urchin with a old tubeworm tube on top of it

Dive 5: Fristranda 30/6 2024

Depth: 26 m, Time: 51 min, Temp: 13 C

The last dive of the trip we made new pairs, as some people didn't want to do a 5th dive. So i ended up with the same buddy as i did on dive 2, and we decided to dive towards the left, to see what could be found there, said and done, we swam out to another buoy a bit further away before descending. We followed the slope downwards and to the left, and before long, we found rocks starting to jut out of the bottom, providing a nice hard substratum for things to settle on. We followed the rocky wall, looking and beholding the things, there is really not much of note happening to us either, and it was quite a nice and relaxing dive as well. We did get a bit lost, as the rocky walls did a turn towards the north in a way we didn't quite expect as we went, so we ended up surfacing a bit further out than we planned and had to do a bit of a surface swim back. We got up and doffed our gear, making ready to head home after a weekend of diving :)

All in all, it was a nice diving weekend, even if the visibility could have been better and not everything went to plan. Some new lessons were also learned :)

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Horseman anemone (Urticina eques)

Stavanger 1/7- 3/7 2023 A journey to the west

Hi and Ho!

It has once again been a while (but such is life).

In the meantime i have been diving as usual, and most recently went to Norway for a diving trip, more exactly the Stavanger area, where the goal was to look for Spiny dogfish, a small species of shark native to this part of the world.

Due to the weather, we couldn't go to the spot we had originally planned, but such is life when diving.

Prideaux's hermit crab, together with the Cloak anemone (Calliactis palliata), these two are almost always encountered together 

1/7 2023

Dive 1: Talgje

Depth: 30 m, Time: 50 min, Temp 8 C

We were shown a site on the eastern tip of a island called Talgje, so that became the name of the dive site. We began with kitting up on the shore, where there was a few benches one could put the gear on while kitting up, we then divided ourselves into pairs and started to wade out into the water (with some difficulties, lots of algae covered slippery rocks. Well into the water, it quickly dropped off and got deep, so we got our bearings on the surface, talked through the plans and started to descend. As we descended, we quickly realized that "oh mighty Poseidon, the visibility is REALLY good" and for real, the visibility must have been 20-30 m, almost tropical levels. Our guides (local divers from the area) started with putting out a meshbag with some mackerels in it, in order to potentially lure out the spiny dogfish in the area. We then left the meshbag hanging mid-water and continued to swim along the wall, taking in and enjoying the sights. As we swam along, i started to spot hermit crabs that were swimming away from us, getting a bit closer, I realized that this was a different species than the one we have in my usual diving spots. A species we actually don't have in Sweden, the Prideaux's hermit crab. 

After about 20 minutes, we turned around and made our way back towards the starting point, where the mesh bag was located, hoping to find sharks circling around, but alas, no sharks this dive. We ended the dive at 50 minutes, got up and started to make ready to head to the cabin we had rented, to make some dinner (as it was a bit late at this point)

Dive 2: Ølbergstrand

Depth: 3 m, Time 40 min, Temp: 11 C

From our guides, we had heard that there was a dive site reachable from the shore close to the cabin we were staying in, a dive site where there was a kelp forest, So me and two other buddies headed there after eating dinner, we soon found that it was outside a small harbour, and that the most effective way to get there was to enter the water in the harbour and do a surface swim out. Well that is what we did, as soon as we had gotten out of the harbour, we started to descend into the water, and soon found the kelp forest after a bit of swimming. We spent some time in the kelp forest before one of us was starting to get sea sick (there was some swell from the open sea further out, and this was a exposed site), so we started to make our way back at this point. We ended our dive at 40 minutes, got up and started to doff our gear and head back to our cabin.

Gold-star Tunicate in the kelp forest of Ølbergstrand

2/7 2023

Dive 3: Horgje

Depth: 29 m, Time 55 min, Temp 8 C

We got invited to do a boat dive together with the local diving club, Stavanger Dykkerklubb. The tour took us to the nearby island of Horgje, more exactly the south-eastern tip of the island, where one can either dive along a wall, or a more gentle slope with a lot of algae forest. Me and my buddy chose to dive the wall this time, and so we did. Unfortunately, i had accidentally left the camera out in the sun again, so i was getting a fogged up lens, and thus, no photos from this dive. Oh well, me and my buddy swam along the wall, the visibility was pretty good here as well, though not as good as Talgje. After about 30 minutes, I made signal to turn around, and we started to swim back to the boat. We ended the dive at 55 minutes, got up in the boat and doffed our gear, waiting for the other's to finish their dives.

Dive 4: Fantahåla

Depth: 36 m, Time 66 min, Temp: 8 C

The fourth dive took us a bit outside of Stavanger, to the site of Fantahåla in Lysefjorden. This site is a wall that goes quite deep down, so one needs to have good buoyancy control. We were guided there by Gjesdal dykkerklubb, using their boat to reach the site, we were dropped of inside the ravine of Fantahåla and swam to the wall before starting to descend. As we descended, it quickly became clear that visibility was to be quite bad, to the level of  the kind of visibility we have here in Sweden. We followed the wall, and soon, our guide pointed their flashlight at something, this something turned out to be a Deeplet sea anemone, another species that is relatively rare back home in Sweden. As we swam along, there were more of the Deeplet sea anemones, but as my camera housing was still a bit foggy, I couldn't quiet get a good photo until the tail-end of the dive. 

We ended the dive at 66 minutes, got back into the boat and started to head home once more :)

Deeplet sea anemone with a Norway king crab hiding underneath

3/7 2023

Dive 5: Talgje

Depth: 29 m, Time 59 min, Temp: 8 C

The last dive of the trip was taken at Talgje, this time, we went down into the water on the other side of the bay, where it was much much easier to get in and don our fins. We swam out of the bay and started to descend pretty soon afterwards. Once again, the visibility was incredible, maybe slightly worse than the previous time, but still extremely good by our Swedish standards. We followed the wall once more, hoping to find any sharks, but to no avail, there was no sharks this time either, there was however a lot of other critters to photograph instead, so i was still satisfied. After swimming around for about 30 minutes, I made the signal for me and my buddy to turn back, And so we did, we did however miss our mark by a bit, and ended up on the wrong side of the bay, so there was a bit of a surface swim back to our starting point. We ended the dive at 59 minutes, got up and started doffing our gear, making ready to head back to the cabin for dinner and cleaning before leaving the next morning.

All in all it was a very satisfying trip, even if one of my drysuit boots was leaking quite severely, so i ended ever dive sopping wet.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Candy-striped flatworm, there was a lot of them on the site of Talgje

Jordfall 16/4 2023 Satisfying dives all around

Hi and ho!

Been a while once more, mostly due to lack of time from either my, or my buddies side. But here we are once more, so lets get into this weekend's dive adventures!

Thorny skate (Amblyraja radiata), a slightly uncommon sight at our dive sites

Dive 1: 

Depth 24 m, Time 57 min, temp 6 C

Me and my buddy swam out towards the cliffs to the left side of the dive site before we started to descend, having decided that this dive we were to follow the slope and cliffs instead of going out over the deep soft mud bottoms. As we descended, it the visibility showed to be relatively good for the season, meaning it wasn't overly good, but not completely bad either 😆

As we were swimming along the slope and cliffs (and I photographing) My buddy suddenly started to signal to me in a hurried manner. I turned around and they pointed with their light towards something on the bottom, took me a few seconds before I realized that it was a skate right there and then at 24 m depth! So naturally I was ecstatic, making sure to photograph it as much as possible. After spending a few minutes photographing it, I decided that it had been bothered enough and signed to my buddy that we were to turn back, as it is cold in the water, and 40 minutes is sort of a limit of how long I'd prefer to spend in the water right this season (and as you can see, we did go over 40 min, and my fingers were quite cold when we got up). Either way, we made our way back slowly but surely, making our safety stop and then ending our dive at 57 minutes. We got up from the water and onto land, making ready for a surface interval.

Deep sea king crab (Lithodes maja) out wandering over the seafloor

Dive 2:

Depth: 30 m, Time: 41 min, temp: 6 C

After a surface interval, we made ready to head into the water once more, this time, I made the plan to go "straight out" over the soft bottom slope instead. So we took a surface swim out to the end of the jetty before we started to descend into the waters. As we got visual contact with the bottom, we started following it outwards, maybe slightly to the right side. After a swimming a little bit, we spotted a nicely sized Deep sea king crab close to one of the jetty anchor blocks. After spending some time around it, with me photographing, we went on our merry way, continuing downwards. As we swam along, my buddy signalled me for a bit, showing another, even bigger king crab right to my side, which I of course tried to snap some photos of, but alas, this one was not too keen about that and started to walk away, so I just got a blurry photo of it. It was around this point that we were starting to get low on No Decompression Time, so we had to make a rather hasty swim back towards shallower depths again. We ended the dive at 41 minutes, got up and doffed our gear, making ready to head home after a day of very satisfying diving 😄

All in all, the dives couldn't really have been more perfect, though it is hard to top the first dive with a skate for sure!

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Norway lobster (Nephrops norvegicus) crawling out of its burrow

Hällebäck 21/1 2023 And we're back in business!

 Hi and ho!

It has been a while, mostly due to Christmas holidays and people not being available. Either way, we should be back in business now (yeah totally not jinxing it).

This week, we went to Hällebäck for diving, as it is the season for King crab and nudibranchs right now, and Hällebäck is a very good site to find them at.

First Deep-sea King crab (Lithodes maja) of the year, winter is the best season for them.

Dive 1:

Depth: 32 m, Time: 51 min, Temp: 5 C

We jumped in and did a surface swim until we were in line with the second jetty of Hällebäck, which is a good place to start descending. We gathered up a bit on the surface, as we realized on the surface that there was a brown freshwater lid on the top, limiting visibility to the extreme. Well, either way, we started descending and at about 6 m, the waters started to clear up a bit, though still a bit gunky. As soon as we found the bottom, we started to follow it outwards and to the left, looking for the king crabs and other things that make this time of the year interesting in Hällebäck. After a few minutes of swimming and searching, I chanced to look up on the wall, and lo and behold, a king crab sitting there. After staying around and photographing it for a little bit, we continued on, following the cliff walls. At about 20 minutes, we turned around and started to make our way back towards the entry point again. We surfaced at 51 minutes, feeling a bit cold and miserable, looking forward to the warm drinks we had prepared for the surface interval :)

Typical Spiny squat lobster (Galathea strigosa) photo

Dive 2:

Depth: 23 m, Time: 45 min, Temp: 5 C

After a good surface interval, it was time to head back into the waters, this time we were planning to dive towards the right side instead, keeping it more shallow, while also looking for squids. We descended closer to the jetty that we jumped in from. After descending, we followed the slope towards the right side. Not much was seen on this dive really, probably because of the season and temperature in the water, though there were some critters out and about in the darkness. The seafloor however, did look quite barren and also quite a bit "dirty" in a sense, maybe next time, I should take a photo of it, for scientific documentation?

Once again, we turned around at about 20 minutes, making our way back to the starting point once more. We surfaced at 45 minutes, got up and started doffing our gear and make ready to head home.

All in all, it was a nice first dive of the year, if a bit cold, but that's to be expected for the season.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Close up of a Daubed shanny (Leptoclinus maculatus)

Jordfall 15/5 2022 Should be back in business now

 Hi and ho!

It has been a while, due to various reasons, i have not been able to dive and photograph as much as i have wanted to since march. But now, i should be back in business with the regular diving once more.

Either way, this time we went to Jordfall due to one of my buddies having changed to doubles, and thus needed a easy dive spot to get used to their gear.

Sealoch anemone on a tunicate.

Dive 1: 

Depth: 17 m, Time: 45 min, Temp: 8 C

We decided to descend rather early in order to check that everything was ok with my buddy's doubles setup, after making sure that everything was ok for now, we continued following the slope towards the left side of the bay, taking it slowly but surely, there wasn't much else than that really.

After about 20 minutes i signalled that we were to turn around and go back to the starting point again. So we made our way back slowly. We ended the dive at about 45 minutes, got up and prepared to have a nice surface interval in the sunny weather.

Male Common dragonet, i rather like how this one turned out.

Dive 2:

Depth: 25 m, Time: 40 min, Temp: 8 C

After surface interval, me and my buddy decided to do a bit of a deeper dive, as they had felt good with their gear. So, we swam out a bit further before starting to descend into the water in a orderly fashion. We followed the muddy slope outwards, taking it slowly. At about 23 m, we encountered something rather unexpected in the form of a Norway King crab, which is a little bit out of season right now, they usually hide at much greater depths this time of the year. After spending some time to photograph it, we continued on our way, swimming towards the left as one usually does. At about 20 minutes, i once again signalled that we were to turn around and start making our way back to the starting point again. 

When we got to the safety stop and had just cleared it, my buddy almost immediately started floating up, turns out they had a little too little lead on them, which happens sometimes when you change your gear setup, but all ended well.

All in all, it was a super duper nice dive day!

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Norway king crab out walking.

Hällebäck 5/3 2022

 Hi and ho!

This weekend, we once again decided to go to Hällebäck, as it is a good spot for both hard cliffs and soft bottoms, though, slightly better for deeper hard cliff bottoms. Also, parking is free there, so that's another factor.

Face photo of a Redback seaslug

Dive 1:

Depth: 27 m, Time: 45 min, Temp: 5 C

We began with swimming out quite far, a little bit too far for my tastes, so we had to swim back a little bit before descending. We descended in a sort of chaotic fashion, as we sort of lost contact with each other during it (I might have descended a bit too fast too). When we got down to the bottom, I also lost one of my fins, which i promptly grabbed and put on again. After sorting everything out, we began following the bottom, soon finding the cliffs and plateau's of the dive site. We followed the wall towards the left, with me and my photographer buddy looking for the small critters that like to hide. 

As we swam along, we spotted nudibranches of different kinds, mostly Redback seaslugs, but also a few Frond eolis. After a little bit, our other buddy signalled for us to come and look at something, this something turned out to be a Rugose squat lobster hanging out on the cliff wall there. At about 20 minutes, we turned back as our photographer buddy had hit their turning pressure, and it was also starting to get a bit cold. We swam back in a orderly fashion, though as we started to near the more shallow parts, it became evident that today there was relatively much currents, so we had to fight that as well.

We surfaced at 45 minutes and got up to have a nice surface interval.

Frond Eolis (Dendronotus frondosus)

Dive 2:

Depth: 29 m, Time: 38 min, Temp 5 C

After a surface interval, we once again went out into the waters. This time, we didn't swim quite as far before descending. This time, we descended in a more orderly fashion, keeping together the group somewhat better. We followed the slope downwards and outwards. On this dive, there wasn't really much of note, other than three Norway king crabs that is, which has been somewhat consistent with diving in Hällebäck right now. 

We surfaced at 38 minutes, as we had gotten a bit cold on the previous dive, and warming up this time of the year is a bit harder.

All in all, it was a nice day of diving

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Norway king crab, quite common this time of the year in Hällebäck

Jordfall 5/2 2022 We are once again, back in business

 Hi and ho!

It has been a while for sure, I had to take a somewhat unwilling surface intervall due to a tendon inflammation in the thumb muscle, which made some movements painful to do, but after making a visit to the doctor and getting it checked out (and getting a thing to make resting the muscle a bit easier) I decided it was time to make a comeback to diving. 

Close up of the Norway king crab

Dive 1:

Depth: 31 m, Time: 48 min, Temp: 6 C

We planned to swim straight out until we reached max depth and then turn towards the left side over the soft mud slope in order to look for king crabs, as we had heard from some divers on the site that there had been some spotted. So we swam out a bit closer to the cliff before starting to descend into the water. As we descended, we realized that the visibility was ever so slightly not ideal, but not the worst I've seen on this site. After about 10 minutes, one of my buddies signalled that i was to come and look at something, turned out this something was a rather large Norway king crab. So we spent several minutes following it, trying to photograph and film it, which wasn't easy, as there were some severe silting around as we followed it downwards. After getting tired of harassing the poor crab, we turned and started swimming towards the left, looking for squids and other creatures of the soft sediment bottom. But nothing of note was really seen there. After a while, I signalled that we were to turn around, as i thought we had been down long enough, and so we did. As we neared the end, one of my buddies signalled that they were freezing, so they were to head up a bit quicker than me and my other buddy, though, we were not that far behind in terms of safety stop and whatnot. We ended the dive at 48 minutes, got up and doffed our tanks, preparing for a short surface interval.

Common bobtail squid on the bottom

Dive 2:

Depth: 27 m, Time: 42 min, Temp: 6 C

After a short surface interval, me and my second buddy headed out for a second dive. Our other buddy choose to stay on the surface, as they were still feeling cold due to a leaking glove. We once again swam out into the bay and out to the outer point of the marina before starting to descend. The visibility was still as bad as the previous dive, but that didn't deter us then, and wouldn't deter us now either.

At about 9 minutes in, i spot a small shape over the bottom, which with a closer look turned out to be a squid, so squid season is still going strong. Other than that, the dive wasn't really that eventful, but it sure was nice to get back into the waters again. 

We surfaced at 42 minutes, got up and started getting ready to pack up and head home.

All in all, it was a nice dive day, even if the visibility was on the not so good side and the temperatures were a bit on the low side. 

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Common grey sea slug going about its business 

Ormestad 23/2 2020. Pea soup with shrimps

Hi and ho!

This week me and my dive buddies went to Ormestad, in the Gullmar fjord, which according to one of us is the best dive site in the Gullmar fjord. The weather forecast had predicted a day of blowing and scattered showers. When we arrived at the site and removed all the equipment, it was time for the first dive.

The Sea pen is not a plant, it is an animal

Dive 1: 
Me and my dive buddy decided to do a wall dive, which meant we had to swim a long way to reach the rock wall that is on the left side of Ormestad. That being said and done, once we got to the place we thought was appropriate, we started going down. The first 5 meters before it cleared up was like "pea soup", once we got under the murky surface layer, the visibility was about 3-5 m. We swam on along the cliff wall down to about 25 m depth. When we got rid of the lamps along the bottom, there were very many small reflective dots, the eyes of shrimp, and large ones as well. After a while we turned and swam back the way we came. The water temperature was measured to 5 ° C at all depths, which was expected as there has been a lot of mixing of the water masses lately. As we stepped out of the water, my dive buddy slipped and hurt themselves in the arm, which caused us to change the diver pair for dive 2.

There was a lot of Caramel shrimp during the dives

Frilled anemones sure can grow big, they are pretty too though

Dive 2:
On the second dive, me and my dive buddy chose to go out on the deep soft bottom, this because we were too lazy to take the long surface swim to the rocks. That said, we went down in peace, the visibility was as bad as the first dive the first 3-5 meters. Once we got down under the lid, oriented ourselves and made "Okay signs" we swam out and down, while we swam we saw that more and more shrimp, until it reached the level of a mat of shrimp. By then I had stopped photographing them as it became far too much for me. When we reached the maximum depth of about 30 m we swam around for a while before it was time to turn. While we were swimming around, we came across a large Deep sea king crab out on the soft bottom, more shrimp and a couple of large sea snails. The temperature in the water during this dive was between 5-6 ° C, which is quite normal for the season.



All in all, this was a very good dive day, even though my first dive buddy got hurt

So until next time, keep on swimming!

Deep sea King Crab