Cordova Dive Blog

Wednesday, 30 January 2019

Martha and I make a short tank dive on the Swiss Cheese Reef

Martha and I left the apartment about 8:30 am and drove to the beach. I had gotten five tanks from a friend and wanted to see if there were any problems with the tanks. Martha's tank had 2100 psi and mine had 1820 psi. The air had no oder and tasted fine, so we decided to dive them.

We swam out to the buoy off Tower 4 and descended at 9:22 am. We headed for the Swiss Cheese Reef.

I set up the camera and immediately took some pictures. The shutter has been failing to trip underwater with the 50 mm lens but seemed to work just fine on the surface. During this dive, the camera worked underwater, as well, but I had replaced the 50 mm lens with the 100 mm macro lens. At the dive shop, Matt Stout suggested that the 50 mm lens could not focus through the Dome Port underwater since the curvature of the port corrected for refraction. The 100 mm macro lens brought the images closer and allowed the autofocus to work.

 As we went from the buoy to the Wrap Around Ledge, I got several shots, including the Porkfish above and the Yellow Sand Ray to the right. These shots turned out well.
 

 As we went over the Wrap Around Ledge and to the Staghorn Coral, I got more shots, including the Juvenile Porkfish to the left.

 I found and photographed the Sand Diver on the right as we left the Staghorn Coral and headed for the Sectioned Rock that marked the beginning of the Swiss Cheese Reef.









I got a shot of the Giant Anemone on the West side of the Sectioned Rock.












Got this shot of a Caribbean Spiney Lobster under the shelf that was the West Wall of the Swiss Cheese Reef.

On the way back, I photographed the Spotted Scorpionfish on the left.

Below is a shot of some Smallmouth and French Grunts over the staghorn coral. Took that shot on the way back.

What little wind there was came from the SW, so there was little surf on the beach. Nonetheless, the step was formidable with very soft sand. I went to my knees and slowly crawled onto dry sand. A helpful beach goer was pulling her up the step when I got to them.


With our less than fully filled tanks, our dive took 56 minutes.  The bottom temperature was 68 degrees. The maximum depth was 19.2 feet. My SAC was 18.15 and the RMV for my aluminum 80 was 0.47 cubic feet per minute.
My pictures from this dive are posted at the following link: 30 January 2019_Fish Camp Rocks