היומן של shaun-lee

13th April
Waves 0.5-1m
High Tide 12:45pm
No current
No waves at depth
Rain before and during the dive
Vis 4m or so
64 minutes
Max depth 19.4 m

Launched kayak on beach, paddled around the point for about 1km (750 paddle strokes). I was hoping to see spiny rock lobster in the open / moulting. The rock was submerged but had waves breaking on it. I anchored NW of Tabletop Rock to explore the N side, however I should have checked the southern (landward side of the rock).

I surface swam to the rock which was thick with kelp. Two butterfish and several spotty dashed in and out of the kelp while a massive school of silver drummer circled me. I descended the rock to 5m then began heading east around the base which was not clearly defined. I spent a bit too much air looking around and being impressed with a the fish life: Snapper (all sizes), large schools of violet sweep, many goatfish, common, spectacled, variable, blue eyed and Oblique-swimming Triplefins, a few parore, leatherjacket, jack mackerel, hiwi hiwi and NZ demoiselles, two sandagers wrasse and probably other fish, it was hard to keep track of them all. I also spooked an eagleray. I counted eight crays in crevices as I worked my way down to 10m. Then I went North over the gravel to explore the open area.

The gravels were a really interesting habitat, I found one occupied octopus hole and some evidence of digging. I would like to spend more time on gravel to get a better feel for it. Sometimes in was contoured by waves and in other places it was very flat. There were still many rocky reefs around. The juvenile blue cod was a nice find but would not stay still for a photo and kept its distance from me. As I neared 20 meters I found some really lovely sponge assemblages. I would have liked to spend more time here but was past 50 bar. I seemed to drift west a fair distance during my safety stop and had to do a seven minute surface swim back to the kayak.

27th April
Waves 0.5
High Tide 12:45pm
No current
No waves at depth
Had been windy but no wind today
Vis 4-5m
60 minutes
Max depth 12m
Two wetsuits, no hood, no gloves, not cold

I wanted to explore the interesting sand habitat I had seen further east in Anchor Bay but without going to the effort of getting my kayak in the water. I entered at high tide and went straight out over the reef as fast as I could but it was very difficult as there was so much going on with large mixed schools of fish following me over the reef. I got past the last rocky reef at just over 10m and must have covered at least 100m of sand. The sand was not that interesting, there was no algae film on the seafloor and it did not get very deep, max 12m. No noticeable mud content in the sand, just broken shell, the feather duster worms were abundant and fun to swim over. I used up nearly all my air on the safety stop and had to do a 15 min surface swim to shore.