nicolaoutdoors » Port Phillip Bay

Sleeping Sharks

nicola — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 12:41:38 +0000

A weekend of diving in Port Phillip Bay.

Sunday Afternoons

nicola — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 02:44:16 +0000

The Yarra River had been flowing from it’s source in the Yarra ranges through Victoria and out into the ocean for a long time before Melbourne grew up around its final stretches. Now it winds it’s way through the Eastern and Inner suburbs under roads and railway lines, flowing out though the docks into Port Phillip Bay keeping company with cyclists and runners, rowers and paddlers.

Sunday Morning at Blairgowrie

nicola — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 08:54:34 +0000

I’m really enjoying my new dry suit – so nice to hop in for a dive and come out dry :) I thought it would be another dive with no nudibranchs, but found a cute little orange Discodoris on a pile near the end of the dive. These usually very difficult to spot as impossible to photograph to spot as they hide on oranges sponges and blend into a sea of saturation in the flash so it was nice to see one roaming around on a dark background.

March of the Spider Crabs – Video

nicola — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:18:34 +0000

The March of the Spider Crabs from nicolaoutdoors on Vimeo.

Video: A massing of thousands of Spider Crabs filmed underwater close to the Blairgowrie Marina, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. They do this somewhere along this coast towards the end of every summer but nobody knows what they are doing or why they are doing it …

Music: Alibi was Just an Afterthought by Andrea Wittgens, licensed via the Vimeo Music Store

Seahorses and Spider-crabs

nicola — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 09:43:29 +0000

Blairgowrie is usually a Nudibranch Wonderland, but on this Sunday morning dive we didn’t see any at all. We did see many, many big-bellied seahorses, a lovely orange leatherjacket that I have never seen before and, on the way back to shore, hundreds and hundreds of spider-crabs (video soon).

Australia Day Diving

nicola — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 10:34:04 +0000

Despite forgetting out dive boots (I had to dive in my shoes!) on our Australia Day day-trip, we had a great loooong (90 mins) dive at Blairgowrie and saw a couple of nudibranch species we hadn’t seen before. In fact, we saw 9 different species of nudibranch on this dive. We also saw a tassled anglerfish, a giant spider crab and a shrimp be haven’t seen before :)

I think I either need a new dive suit or to get mine altered – it’s super tight around the calves, forearms and across the shoulders. What to do?

January Diving

nicola — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:43:03 +0000

A couple of dives in the bay on Sunday. Saw a new nudibranch, which makes us happy.

It much much colder at depth that I expected it to be. January should be hot. Well, maybe not hot but the water should be more than 17C.

Tassled Angler Fish

nicola — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 23:44:06 +0000

Finally, we saw it!

Breathing underwater again

nicola — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:42:21 +0000

It seemed like forever since our last dive. A winter of snowplay and a spring of climbing had somehow almost erased the memory how wonderfully relaxing floating underwater looking at fish can be. We had a nice, leisurely dive at Flinders on Saturday. We only had half a tank of air left from last season, but it was plenty. Later, we dropped our tanks in for a service, ready for a summer of diving adventures :) Being ‘tankless’ on Sunday but still beside the beautiful, still and warm ocean, we kayaked from Sorrento to Portsea, peeking in at the millionaires bayside houses and snorkeled. My cuts and abrasions from climbing all healed up in the salt water and I remembered how special the ocean is. Sadly, while having lunch close to Point Franklin, we saw a group of people spear a medium sized ray and drag it ashore, still alive, to taunt it with their spear tips and throw rocks at it until it finally gave up thrashing around and lay black and glistening on the bright, wet sand.

Underwater Christmas

nicola — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:43:14 +0000

Since I received a new dive light for Christmas, have a 2 minute video of some of the wonderful creatures that swim about at night!