Two Season in One Day - 17/11/2016

Four Seasons in One Day by Crowded House was one of my favourite songs as a teenager. I still love it. There is a lyric that resonates with me:

"Smiling as the shit comes down

You can tell a man from what he has to say"

Tonight that was Jester and I. We arrived in monsoon like conditions despite the false promises of Accuweather for cloudy but dry. We waited 10 minutes for the downpour to restrict itself to a drizzle. At which point we made a dash for the water. It was cold - my computer said 6c.

I was still without a camera so floated between the A-Frames, just having a cold old time trying to spot interesting things for Jester.

The highlight was a catshark, but I couldn't get the idea of a more sinister shark in the water out my head. Largely because we watched the opening scenes of The Shallows while we waited for the rain to subside. Perhaps this wasn't the best pre-dive preparation. :/

We surfaced an hour after entry only to find a shift in the seasons. It was now cold monsoon with a blizzard hurrying our packing up.

Blizzard

It Flooded - 03/11/2016

OK, so not every diving experience is perfect. I think we can all agree on that. 

Tonight wasn't a great night. It started with a getting kitted up at St Catherine's in the dark, buddy check and descent down to around 8m. At which point Jester and I paused to take a picture of a cuttlefish. You can see my picture below. At that point I noticed some water inside my Sealife camera housing and my camera starting to misbehave.

I knew what was going on. I immediately went for the surface, left my camera on a rock and headed back in to continue the dive. We swept down by the bottom of the reef to around 31m and then back up the far side enjoying gurnards, nudibranchs, more cuttlefish and the resident cushion star. None of which were photographed by me. 

Instead I took up photobombing. Jester hates it. I love it. If you have a photography daft buddy here's how to do it.

1. Enter stealth mode - switch off torch 
2. Swim round buddy in the dark - they'll think you're still behind them 
3. Approach head on as they compose the photograph
4. Sit 1m from the target
5. Await strobe flash 
6. Boss it Zoolander style

We returned, I collected my camera and dekitted to confirm what I already knew. It had flooded, but not horrifically. 

I took it home, nursed it back to health, couldn't get the battery to retain charge. So I've ordered a new battery for £4 on ebay. 

The Last Cuttlefish Photo

Photobombing is fun