5/11 2022 Diversnight

 Hi and ho!

Once again, it has become time for Diversnight, the international yearly event for night diving, and like usual, me and my buddy went to Släggö in Lysekil to join up with the dive centre there at their event. This year was much fewer divers compared to earlier years, but i guess the somewhat dire weather forecast was to blame for that, with strong winds and rain being the prevailing forecast on the day. 

Goldsinny wrasse (Ctenolabrus rupestris)

Depth: 30 m, Time 58 min, Temp: 12 C

We descended early as the wind and waves were battering straight into the bay of Släggö, making a longer surface swim undesirable this day, well under the surface, it was much calmer, though one could still feel the waves in the shallow areas. We swam along in good pace and quickly found the line that leads downwards and out on the soft bottom, so we started following it ever so slightly. Well out on the soft bottom we saw that the squat lobsters were out and about, as they usually are after sundown, and unlike daytime, they are less timid, which is nice for photography :)

As we swam along the line, we soon came to the part of Släggö at 25 m where there seem to be a perpetual haze since about early 2020 (no really, before 2020, there was no such haze down there). Either way, in this haze there wasn't really much to see, some swimming crabs and squat lobsters scurrying about, but nothing of particular interest. As we started to near our no deco time-limit, we started to make our way upwards, and also back towards the starting point, as I wanted at least 1 h long surface interval before doing the second dive, the official diversnight-dive.

We surfaced at 58 minutes, got up and doffed our gear quickly before heading up to the dive centre to partake in the diversnight cake (this is a very important part of the event).

Spiny squat lobster (Galathea strigosa), one of many

Dive 2: Diversnight official dive.

Depth 16 m, Time 55 min, Temp: 12 C

We were a bit behind schedule, but alas, it wasn't more than like 2 minutes delay for us, so it wasn't the whole world really. Either way, we decided to dive towards the right side of Släggö, keeping it shallow as we hadn't really had a 1 h surface interval, while also looking for squids, as now is the season for them. But to no avail, the squids did not show up on this dive, even though we were in the area they frequent during this time of the year. Instead, we saw quite a few Harbour swimming crabs and smaller codfish, in addition to this, we also saw at least one reticulated dragonet, a species that officially only has been seen once in Sweden (to be honest, i suspect that this is a very easily overlooked species and might be more common than one think, it just looks very much alike the other two known species in the area).

Not much interesting of note on this dive, which we ended at 55 minutes.

All in all, it was some nice night dives, though the absence of squids was a bit disappointing.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Reticulated dragonet (Callionymus reticulatus)

Släggö 10/9 2022, Night diving season maybe?

 Hi and ho!

After a longer vacation from diving due to various circumstances, i once more should be back in the saddle. This week we went to our regular haunt of Släggö in Lysekil for diving. 

Close up look of a Peacock feather duster worm

Dive 1:

Depth 23 m, Time 64 min, Temp:15 C

Me and my buddy decided to swim along the wall, and man did we do it slowly, very very slowly as we were looking for smaller critters like nudibranchs. The visibility this day wasn't the best really, in fact it was quite bad, not the worst, but not the best either. As we swam along, we reached the part of the wall where there are a lot of Peacock feather duster worms on a overhanging area. I tried my hardest to get some decent photos of them, but as the current was facing our way, it was quite difficult to do. After trying for a bit, we continued onwards until it became time to turn around and make our way back towards the starting point. 

We surfaced at 64 minutes got up and doffed our gear and got ready for our surface interval

Closer look of the same Peacock feather duster worm

Dive 2:

Depth: 14 m, Time 65 min, Temp: 15 C

We took a longer surface interval this day as we wanted to wait for the sun to set and do a night dive, hoping for squid. So we waited and waited until it was starting to get a bit darker before we started to make ready. We swam out a little bit from the pier before we started to descend, the other pair descended with us as well, as they too wanted to look for squids. Well, we started making our way along the bottom, looking in all the nooks and crannies for squid (but found none unfortunately). As we made our way, I spotted a pipefish in a nice pose, so i stopped for a little bit to try and photograph it, but that's where both me and my buddy went wrong, as after a bit i looked up and my buddy was nowhere to be seen, so yeah, i did look around for a bit before i started to head upwards to the surface in order to look for their bubbles. Well on the surface i found their bubbles quickly, swam over and went down in a huff to link up with them once more, but after doing that, i had to ascend again, as i had forgotten to equalize, and it was starting to hurt real badly. After i managed to clear out the equalization, we continued the dive in a slow and orderly manner. And as it got darker and darker, the fish became more and more active, truly, night diving is the best type of diving. We surfaced at 65 minutes, got up from the water and started making ready to head back home once more.

All in all, despite some of the hiccups, it was a nice dive day, and lesson learned, keep a better eye on photographer buddies :)

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Dragonet posing nicely in front of the camera

Jordfall 30/10 2021, Night diving and leaky suits

 Hi and ho!

This weekend we once again decided to go to Jordfall marina in Gullmarsfjorden for night diving. As i had changed the ring system for the suit, installing something that will make changing ring systems in the future much easier, this was the "trial by fire" to see if they were correctly installed. We arrived at the site rather late due to various reasons, but that wasn't too big of a deal, as today's goal was night diving. 

Close up of a Henricia. sp Starfish

Dive 1:

Depth: 25 m, Time: 59 min, Temp: 13 C

We swam out in the bay and towards the cliff, getting a bit closer before starting to descend. As we descended, i started feeling a cold seep on the right side of my right wrist, it seems that there is a leak somewhere in the system, but the waters are not that cold so it would be too much of a bother on this dive, so I toughed it out as i usually do if there is a "not immediate emergency" kind of leak, and kept on going. A few minutes into the dive, my buddies start signalling me to come look at something, turned out that this something was a bobtail squid resting on the bottom, and rather shallow too. So i spent some time filming it, as i felt like trying to photograph this one wouldn't have worked really, but as soon as it had dug itself down into the sediment, i left it be and continued on with my buddies. We did get a bit off course a while after the squid, swimming out over the soft bottom slopes instead of continuing following the cliff wall. We did find the cliff wall again after a little bit of following the slope upwards. After a while of following the wall, i signalled that it was time to turn around, as we had been down for a while now, and i had said a max time of 1 h. So that we did, unbeknownst to me, it seemed that one of my buddies was a bit light, and had some trouble to keep themselves down. But my other buddy saved the day, as i was way too occupied with photographing and looking for subjects, as i usually do. Either way, we made it back all of us and surfaced at 59 minutes, got up and prepared for a surface interval with hot drinks and some snacks.

Angular crab posing with its big claws.

Dive 2:

Depth: 27 m, Time: 37 min, Temp: 13 C

After a surface interval, we once again headed out into the waters for a second dive, this time the plan was to do a shorter but deeper dive, and sweep out over the soft bottom slope. So me and my buddies swam out along the pier before starting to descend into the water, the suit still leaked on this dive, so i'm going to have to take a look at exactly were it leaked as soon as possible. Either way, we continued the dive as planned, maybe deviating a bit by going more to the right site, where the bottom was covered by mussel shells. Here one of my buddies signalled to me to come look at a rather beautiful Common dragonet male that lay there on the shells. After photographing it for a bit i left it be and we continued the dive along the slope, now turning towards the left instead as we had planned in the beginning. As we were starting to swim back, i spotted a weird, but familiar shape a bit away in the distance, a mature Angular crab male, with it's long claws extended in a defensive position. When i got a bit closer to it to take a macro photo, it started digging itself into the bottom to hide, which honestly was sort of endearing, so after snapping a few photos i left it be. Shortly after this, my other buddy signalled to come look at something, turned out to be another squid, though this one was less keen on getting photographed, so i only managed to get a somewhat blurry photo of it. 

We surfaced at 37 minutes, got up and started making ready to head home after a nice evening of diving. 

All in all, despite the leak, it was a nice dive evening

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Common dragonet male, a very pretty and colourful fish

Släggö 19/6 2021 Diving with a chance of showers

 Hi and ho

This weekend we decided to meet up with a couple of friends that live close to and in Lysekil, so Släggö was once again the logical option for a dive site. The weather forecast told of thunder and rain, which made our choices of dive spots a bit smaller, we needed roof to hide from the rain after all. So not much to talk about there really, we did as we always do, get our gear ready, pair up and getting ready to dive.

Devonshire cup coral, a side view

Dive 1

Depth: 26 m, Time: 57 min. Temp: 13 °C

At first, we were going in two pairs of buddies, as one usually does, however, due to unforeseen circumstances, we had to do a quick re-arranging of the pairs, and dive in a pair of 3 instead. Also, one of my gloves broke as i was going into the water, so I had to go up and do a quick change of gloves, changing it to a wet-glove instead for this dive. Either way, we swam out into the bay and close to the cliff before we started descending. the goal of this dive was to look for dragonets of different kinds, so we tried to get towards the deeper soft bottoms, where they usually like to hang out, as quick as possible. In the surface, the visibility was somewhat bad, about 3 m of visibility, but that cleared up as soon as one got down a few meters. At 20 m, we hit the thermocline, and the visibility cleared up even further. Here, we started to encounter Common dragonets, in particular a beautiful male, which one of my buddies started to photograph while hung around for a bit, photographing some other animals, including some female common dragonets. 

Near the end of the dive, my second buddy signalled me to look at something in a crevice, turned out to be a large lobster, which did not match the description of our regular European one in my eyes, so I tried to photograph it as much as possible, but none of the photos turned out useable due to it hiding too deep in the crevice.

We surfaced at 57 minutes, got up, and got ready for a nice surface interval.

As we began doffing our gear, it started raining quite heavily for a few minutes.

Female common dragonet, not as colourful as the male

Dive 2

Depth 30m, Time 65 min, Temp: 13°C

After a surface intervall with food, talking and me changing my dryglove, it once again became time to get into the waters. This time, we went in pairs of two, as our original plan was, and right as we were donning our gear, it started to rain, again. Though, as we were in our drysuits, it didn't matter too much really.

We got into the water and me and my buddy swam to the cliff before starting to descend into the water. The goal was once again to look for dragonets on this dive. As we swam along the wall, my buddy started following something, after a closer look, it turned out to be a lobster out in the open, something you don't usually see during the day, though this specific one was pretty big, and the waters pretty dark at this point, so maybe that was the reason for the lobster to be out and about. Either way, we followed it for a little bit, before we left it be and continued to swim towards the depth. When we reached the deeper soft bottom, we started to encounter swimming crabs, as well as common dragonets once more. Not much else was of note on this part of the dive, we turned around at the half tank point and started swimming back. As we reached the shallow waters, I didn't pay attention to where I was swimming and almost got a jellyfish smack dab in the face, i managed to avoid it by getting really flat towards the bottom. As I did this, I saw a small shape sticking out of the sand, as I got closer, i realized it was a Greater weever, a species i know occurs in the area, but is one i hadn't seen yet. So i spent some time photographing it, before i signalled to my buddy to come and photograph it too. After a little while, we left the fish alone and kept swimming back. We surfaced at 65 minutes, got up and doffed our gear, satisfied with the dives of the day.

All in all, the day was a nice dive day, even if the weather did leave some things to wish for, and the chaotic beginning of it.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Greater weever, the Swedish equivalent to a Stonefish of warmer waters

Släggö 23/5 2021 Jellyfish season has started

 Hi and ho!

Due to the weather forecast once more telling of bad weather this weekend, me and my buddies decided to go to a site with a roof over the changing area. As we also had a newer diver with us this time, we decided to go to Släggö, as this is a site that is easy to dive. When we arrived at Släggö, the rain was pouring down, but soon it started to subside, which was quite nice.

We set up our gear, divided into pairs and got ready for the dives.

Vibrant male of Common dragonet, truly one of the prettiest fishes on the Swedish west coast

Dive 1:

Depth 27m, Time: 57 min, Temp: 9 °C

Me and my buddy jumped in and started swimming out from the pier before we deemed it far enough to do a descent. As we descended in a orderly fashion, we saw directly that there was a lot of jellyfish in the water, signalling that the jellyfish season had come. When we got a bit further, my buddy signalled that they were having problems equalizing, so we stayed at a certain depth for a bit as they equalized their ears. After they managed to get their ears equalized, we continued further down. at 11 m, we encountered a thermo-and halocline, where the waters suddenly got quite a bit colder. We followed the bottom, along the cliff and out over the soft bottom, finding the dive helmet once more. As we were nearing our NDL, my buddy signalled me to look at something, turned out to be a rather large male Common dragonet. I stopped to take some photos of it before signalling that we were to ascend and turn around, as the NDL had gotten pretty low, and that it was time to start swimming back. When we reached about 12 m depth on the way back, I looked around a little bit and saw that there was a veritable minefield of lion's mane jellies above us, which made me a bit concerned. As we were swimming back, we met the other buddy pair that was with us this day on the way out, turned out they had some weighting problems for the new person and thus took a while to get ready. 

We surfaced at 57 minutes and got up to prepare for a nice surface intervall. At this point it had stopped raining too.

Moon jellyfish (Aurelia aurita) swimming into the light beam of my buddy.

Dive 2:

Depth 27m, Time: 56 min, Temp: 9 °C

After a nice surface interval with pizza and relaxing, it was time for the second dive of the day. Me and my buddy swam out once more and descended close to the cliff. This dive the goal was to look for European lobsters, which meant we were to look among the rubble and in the crevices near the cliffs. We continued in a orderly fashion, descending while following the walls, looking in the crevices and underneath the rocks. The first lobster was really shy, and didn't quite show itself, with only the claws slightly visible from underneath the rock, I tried to just hang about for a bit, to wait it out, but that didn't work, so we continued further. The second lobster was one of heftier size, hiding away inside a crevice close to the deeper parts.

At about 25 minutes we turned around, as I deemed it appropriate to turn around at this time frame, we swam back, gas was starting to get to lower levels too, and I felt like i didn't want too much of a surface swim back (though it was ok really, just making sure that we had some gas to spare on the way back, as a safety thing). We surfaced at 56 minutes, got up and out of our gear, and prepared to go home after a nice dive day.

All in all, it was sure a nice day for diving, even if it began a bit on the wet side.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Lion's mane jellyfish, got my buddy to backlight this one, so we got this motif

Skår 25/4 2021. "Catastrophes" and calm dives.

 Hi and ho!

There was no blog post last week due to me helping out on a beginners course for scuba diving in my club and didn't do any diving of note really. This week however, i was back to the usual shenanigans, me and some friends went to the western-most of our regular dive spots, Skår, which is close to the ferry across Gullmarfjorden. We got to the site got our gears out the car and started kitting up for the dive, while also dividing into buddy pairs. 

Common dragonet male, as vivid as they always are.

Dive 1: The "catastrophe"

Depth: 23 m, Time: 38 minutes, Temp: 6 °C

Me and my buddy waded into the water and put the fins on, swam out for a bit and then started descending. We descended in a orderly fashion, today the visibility was good, and the conditions light, we followed the bottom downwards and outwards, we turned towards the right rather than the left like one usually does (turned out to be a bit of miscommunication between me and my buddy). Anyways, we kept following the bottom closely, staying at between 19 and 20 m depth for the most part. After a while, my buddy signaled me that we were to turn around, so that we did following the sloping bottom upwards. At about 15 m, we encountered a boulder which we started following upwards, at about 12 m depth, the "catastrophe" happened, I saw that my buddy was starting to flail, and floating upwards, so I started grabbing them, trying to pull them down and into trim, allowing them to ventilate the excess air of their suit. But as I did this, I started to feel cramps in both my calves, which I toughed out for a bit, before the pain got too intense and I couldn't even move my legs anymore. At this point I had to release the grip on my buddy, and let them "cork" from 12 m, not an ideal thing, but something that I had to do at that point. I blew my safety stop and ascended quickly to the surface to check the condition of my buddy at the surface, they seemed ok, if a bit agitated about the whole situation of corking. We swam towards land, while discussing the situation a bit, turned out they had a bit of a constant bubbling leak from their regulator 2nd stage, which in turn had annoyed them the whole dive, the reason for the uncontrolled ascent was at this point still unknown. We got onto land and doffed our gear, preparing for a surface intervall, all while discussing the incident that happened.

Sponge of unknown species, likely a Suberites ficus

Dive 2: The calm dive.

Depth: 19 m, Time: 45 min, Temp: 6°C

After a longer surface intervall, me and my buddy got ready for a second dive, this time, we had another buddy with us, as one in the second dive pair didn't feel like doing another dive (which is fair, the waters are still cold). We donned our gear and got into the water, this time, I was asked to check for bubbling from their gear when we were going downwards. We descended in an orderly fashion, following the cliff walls and slopes downwards, I checked for bubbles every now and then, but found none that were indicating any leaks. We swam around for a bit before it was time to turn around, we swam back in a orderly fashion and without any incidents. After doing our safety stop, i decided that i wanted do do a small drill with inversion, to see if I could fix a "inversion event". So that i did, and it turned out that I indeed can do that, I also managed to kick one of my buddies straight up to the surface (which we were close to, we were sitting at like 2-3 m depth). We surfaced without incident and swam to land, still discussing what had occurred on the dive before, We concluded that most likely, it was a case of the suit not being able to vent the excess air due to something getting stuck in the exhaust valve.

All in all, it was a nice dive day, even if the first dive was a bit too "eventful" at the end there.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

The polychaete Oxydromus flexuosus

Släggö 7/3 2021. Better this time around.

Hi and ho!

This week me and my buddies went to Släggö in Lysekil once more, as we had heard that it was warmer in the water now, also due to the fact that our other dive spots still have ice left on them, making diving there less than ideal at the moment. 

Well, we got to the place, and the sun was shining, even if it was a bit windy and chilly right then, it looked to be a good day for diving. We divided ourselves into pairs, kitted up and got ready for the first dive of the day.

Devonshire cup coral

Dive 1:

Depth 31m. Time: 49 min. Temp: 4-8°C

We swam out and descended early, during the first parts of the dive, one of our buddies discovered that their dive computer was out of batteries, so we ascended to the surface and assessed the situation. Good thing was, I always wear a extra dive computer, my old one, on the other arm, so I lent it to the buddy who had problems with theirs, after some grunting, grouching and heavy breathing on my part, I managed to get the dive computer on my buddy's arm, after which we continued the dive. We descended once more and began swimming outwards. At the boat "wreck" I got the stupid idea to start taking selfies using my camera (just for fun, to see if i could do it), which caused me to become a bit separated from my buddies, when I turned around I couldn't see them, so I swam around in a circle, before I saw them in the distance, not far away from me. After swimming back to them by the "wreck" we continued downwards, following the slope and the tubing from the aquarium in the area. At 31m, my computers started signaling that it was deep enough, so we stayed around this depth for a bit before I signaled that it was time to start going more shallow, and maybe turn around as well, so that we did. On the way back and up, we started to feel the colder waters, you see, it was around 8 C from 15m and down, so, going back up when it is like that, is not very nice. At the safety stop, we were all shivering a little bit, so as soon as it ended, we ascended up to the surface, which conveniently was very close to the ladder up to the pier. We got up and out of our gear as we waited for the rest of the people to come up, so we could go and get pizza.

Black clam (Arctica islandica) mussel that can grow very very old

Dive 2

Depth: 27m. Time 38 min. Temp: 4-8°C

After a surface intervall with pizza and nice hanging out, we once again decided to head out into the water. Me and my buddy got ready, kitted up and jumped into the water, we descended without problems and continued to follow the slope downwards. We took it a bit slower this time, allowing me to look for more stuff. At the boat, we started to turn towards the cliffs. When we started to come close to the cliffs, i spotted a small shape on the bottom, turned out to be a Spotted dragonet male, one of the prettiest ones I've seen in a long while, so i stayed a few minutes to photograph it, it even flashed it's fin to me, but unfortunately i didn't get that on photo. After a while, it became time to turn around and swim back, as we swam back we discovered that the current had started going outwards, making the swim back a bit more tedious and tiring. However, we managed to get through the currents and surfaced at 38 minutes of dive time, got up and started preparing to head back home while we waited for the others to come up. 

Harbour swimming crab

All in all, it was a very nice dive day, and the weather was superb for the time of the year, with shining sun and clear skies.

So until next time. Keep on swimming!

Spotted dragonet (Callionymus maculatus)

Jordfall 28/11 2020. Rebreathers, Rays and Rime

Hi and ho!

Common dragonet in front of a Spiny Starfish

This weekend, we got the first real winter temperatures, with below 0 °C temperatures in the air, yet we braved these conditions and went out to go diving. We had decided upon Jordfall, as this is a easy spot, and we were honestly feeling a bit lazy. Said and done, we got to the site, after some "but's" and "if's", assembled our gear and kitted up for the first dive of the day.

Bobtail hiding in the sediment, can't tell which species though

Dive 1

Depth: 27 m, Time: 45 min, Temp: 11 °C

Me and my buddy swam out to the end of the jetty before we started to descend. We had spoke to some divers that had been in the water earlier, and they told us that the visibility was "very bad", but when we started to descend, it turned out to be the rather normal for the area and time of the year. When we got visual contact wit the seafloor, I almost immediately saw two Common dragonets hanging around, unfortunately, one was in a bad position, so I could only photograph the other one.

After photographing the dragonet for a little bit, me and my buddy began following the bottom downwards and outwards on the mud bottom, looking for various stuff. At about 25 m, i spot a little something sticking up in the mud. With a closer look, it turned out to be a larger bobtail squid, very likely a Rossia. sp. So I spent a bit of time photographing it from various angles, when I finally decided that it was enough, it was about time to turn upwards, as no-deco time was running low. So I signalled to my buddy that it was time to turn around and swim upwards, so that we did. As we got close to the cliff wall of  Jordfall, I was hitting turn pressure, so we began swimming back. It was at this point I spotted a small shape close to the cliff wall, turned out to be another bobtail squid, so I was spending some time photographing it before continuing to swim back towards the starting point.

We surfaced at 45 min, got onto land and got ready for a surface intervall.

Sand goby, a small goby that likes to hang out on sandy bottom, hence the name

Dive 2

Depth: 30 m, Time: 35 min, Temp: 11 °C

After a surface intervall, most of us were feeling too cold for a second dive, however, me and another of my buddies were up for one, so we went in. This buddy had gone and got themselves a fancy machine, a Poseidon Rebreather, so they were testing it out this day. We swam out to the end of the jetty once more, and descended into the darkness. When we got visual contact with the bottom, we started swimming outwards following the bottom. After a while, my buddy suddenly signalled that they were seeing something, as i got closer, I see that it is a skate, so we spent a good while hanging around it, while I was photographing it and my buddy was just looking at it. After a while, the skate had enough of us, and we left it alone. The rest of this dive was rather uneventful, as nothing could really top the skate.

We ended the dive at 35 minutes, got up and got ready to head back home.

All in all, it was a nice dive day, with the highlight being the skate

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Close up of the skate, can't really tell which species though

Släggö 19/9 2020, Stubborn gear and semi-night dives.

Hi and ho! 

This weekend, me and my buddies were to meet up with another diving club in Lysekil for some diving and hanging out, unfortunately, this did not come to pass, as our timings did not fit with each others. So instead of going to a new place on the north side of Lysekil, we instead went to Släggö, a safe card when it comes to diving. As we were gearing up, i noticed that one of my regulators was leaking air, and breathing did not fix it, so i had to go up to the dive center and ask them for help, which they did, as they are a really helpful dive center :). When I got back down, one of my buddies had a problem with their suit zipper, it didn't want to close, turns out the zipper teeth was completely broken, so he had to go up and rent a suit from the dive center. After many But's and If's, we finally got into the water, and got ready to start the dive.

Black goby, letting itself be photographed

Dive 1: Depth: 29 m, Time: 57 min, Temp: 16 °C

We swam out from the pier and quite quickly decided to descend into the water, as our land personell was following us with a drone, hoping to catch us doing the descent on photo i presume? Either way, we descended and started following the bottom downwards. As we swam, we started to see that the visibility was getting worse and worse, at below 25 m, there was a significant limitation to our range of vis, being about 4 m at most maybe. As we came to the max depth, we found the "wind protection" structure that can be found a bit out from the cliff walls on the soft bottom slope. After a while, we began running low on "no deco" time and thus promptly ascended to shallower depth, as we got above 24 m, the waters cleared up, and the visibility became around 7 m. As we reached this point, it was also time to turn back, as I was hitting "turn pressure", so we followed the wall back, photographing as we went. As we were nearing the starting point once more, we started to see more and more divers in the water, we promptly decided to end the dive as one diver "bombed" down right to our side. As we got up, we understood, that there was a diving course going on right there and then. So we got up, got out of our gear and went to the pizzeria for a nice surface intervall and early dinner.

Super closeup of the Great scallop, notice the eyes on the rim of the shell?

Dive 2: Depth 29 m, Time: 58 min, Temp: 16 °C

After a nice surface intervall, with food, coffee and hanging out at the dive center, we got ready to get into the water once more. This time, we were only two, as one of my buddies, the one that had to borrow a suit, decided that one dive was enough for the day, they had gotten a bit chilled during the last dive. So me and my second buddy got ready and jumped into the waters. Once again, we followed the slope downwards, as it was getting darker due to the time of the day, there was a lot more life in the water during this dive, with crabs running about, and fish being much less skittish. As we dove down, the visibility had improved somewhat, even if it was still a bit dusty down below 25m. We turned towards the cliff wall and started following it outwards, as we did so, i suddenly spotted a great scallop out and about on top of the sand, with it's tentacles out and the shell opened. So I started photographing it real close up. Soon after that, i hit turn pressure, and we began swimming back, following the cliff. As it was much darker in the water now, even the gobies let themselves be photographed somewhat, so I spent some time doing that on the way back. As we neared the pier, we decided to end the dive there and go up, as the surface people probably wanted to go home soon by then. 

All in all it was a super nice dive day, even if there was some problems with gear in the beginning, but hey, at least the weather was nice and calm.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Spotted dragonet, somewhat well camouflaged against the seafloor

Släggö 23/8 2020 Winds and waves galore

Hi and ho! 

This weekend I am back to my normal shenanigans in my normal haunts. So me and my buddies decided to go to Lysekil and dive Släggö, even if the weather forecast was telling of somewhat windy conditions straight into the dive site, as one of the buddies lives there for the summer. Said and done, we got to Lysekil and Släggö without much hassle, kitted up in the winds, divided us into pairs, and prepared to get into the waters.

Peacock feather-duster worm, a kind of marine tube dwelling worm

Dive 1: Depth: 26 m, Time: 66 min, Temp: 16 °C

On the first dive, me and my buddy decided to go close to the cliffs as there is a lot of rocky terrain straight below them, which is usually teeming with life, we swam out to a spot we found appropriate and began descending. As we descended, it soon became clear that there was not very good visibility in the water on this particular day, as I suppose the winds and wave actions had mixed the waters, making them quite turbid, but not the worst I've been diving in. We followed the cliff wall down and outwards, photographing as we went. At about 23 m my buddy was off photographing something among the stones, while i was looking out towards the shell-sand bottom when I spotted a small common dragonet, so I went down a and started creeping over the bottom, trying to photograph it. After a while, we were starting to get low on "no-deco time" so we decided to turn around and go a bit more shallow. As we got closer to land and more shallow, we began to feel a slight current, probably a result from the winds, as well as the swell when we reached about 8 m depth. We continued a bit on the shallow part until we simply decided that we were to ascend and end the dive, and so we did. 

Common dragonet, less colourful individual

Dive 2: Depth: 27 m, Time 70 min, temp: 16 °C

After a nice surface intervall with a late lunch, we got read for the second dive. This time we dove 3 people, as one of the people in the other pair only wanted to do one dive that day. So, we jumped into the water (I climbed) and did a surface swim for a bit in the increasingly rough waves. Either way, we got to a spot we deemed suitable and started descending. We descended following the wall and bottom, until we reached a suitable depth. As we swam outwards, it was clear that there was still a current from the wind and waves coming straight into Släggö, which made the swim outwards a bit more taxing, but nothing significant. At between 24m and deepest depth, it was very hazy in the water, a phenomenon that I have observed before this year in Släggö at about this depth, but can't quite put my finger on what is causing it, maybe different currents?

Either way, when we were starting to run lower on the "No-deco" time, we decided to turn around and swim back towards the more shallow parts. As we got there, the swell could be clearly felt, especially in the harbour area where it was in fact sheltered from the winds. 

When I later checked the weather app on my phone, it turns out that the stiff breeze of the early afternoon had in fact turned into a gale while we were under the surface. Oh well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

All in all, it was a very nice dive day, even if the weather was not completely ideal.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Some of the Dead man's fingers coral

Jordfall 4/7 2020. Getting into it deep once more.

Hi and ho! 

Burrowing polychaetae of some kind, likely a Chone. sp

This weekend, me and my buddies made plans to dive in the Gullmar fjord, more exactly, the Jordfall marina, one of our regular haunts. The weather forecast was less than ideal, with strong winds and rain on the forecast for the whole area, however, when we arrived at the site, we discovered that the weather, while somewhat grey, was quite nice. So said and done, me and my buddy kitted up and prepared to get into the water to start the first dive.





Dive 1: 
Depth: 30 m, Time: 45 min, Temp: 10 °C

No idea why this Fireworks anemone is all curled up like this.

This dive we had decided to go straight out, to the deep mud slopes that dominate the Gullmar fjord. So we swam out following the pier until we reached the outermost, where we decided to start descending. When we began, we discovered that the visibility was rather bad, no surprise though due to the rains that had fallen in the days previous. Nonetheless, we descended in a orderly fashion, until we had visual contact with the seafloor, after which we started to follow the slopes downwards. At 15 m, we encountered a very clear thermo and halocline, where we also found many jellyfishes hanging around, probably due to the gradient differences in the waters around forcing them to stay on that specific depth. It was at this point that the waters also went from around 20 °C to about 10 °C, but as we wore drysuits, it was nothing to really make a fuss about.
As we followed the bottom, me and my buddy swam around and photographed as we went. At about 28 m depth, we encountered the Fireworks anemone we had set out to find, a dear old friend that one sees very often when one dives straight outwards in Jordfall. After a while, it became time to get to more shallow depths as both the air and the non-deco time were starting to run lower. So we swam back towards our starting point in a relaxed fashion, stopping every now and then to photograph things.

Dive 2: 
Depth: 20 m, Time: 50 min, Temp: 10 °C

Once again, the second most colourful fish in Swedish waters,
the Common dragonet (male)

On the second dive, me and my buddy decided to follow the cliff wall to the left of Jordfall marina, as it is both easier to navigate there, as well as a lot of different kinds of creatures that won't show up on the mud slopes. Said and done, we swam out until we were close to the cliff, where we decided to start descending. The vis was about the same as before, with somewhat bad range. When we penetrated the thermocline we started following the wall outwards, doing the same as before, stopping and photographing every now and then. As we were swimming, I saw a very colourful male Common dragonet laying on the bottom, so I proceeded to slowly sneak up to it and shoot some photos. As I was doing this, my buddy was swimming away at a steady pace, so I had to leave the dragonet be after a few shots and start swimming towards my buddy once more in order to not loose them in the bad vis. So, we continued following the wall outwards, photographing, fish, sea urchins and other things. at around 20 minutes we decided it was time to go back, so we went through the thermocline again and kept it somewhat more shallow on the way back.

All in all, it was a lucrative and nice dive day, the weather was, as stated earlier, much better than expected, and very suited for drysuit diving.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Orange brown Aeolids (Aeolidiella glauca) in a rather large gathering