In my not so distant youth there was a darts based TV show called
Bullseye. Bullseye, with hindsight, was a terrible TV show. However, each week it had an epic but rarely won prize that was either a caravan or a speedboat. Today TDFKAMF and I headed to
St Catherines 2 for two dives. The first, a deeper dive down to around 30m and a second to the once coveted Bullseye prize - the St Cats Speedboat.
Our first dive threw up some nice life including a nice dogfish and a red cushion star amongst the usual life in great visibility. However, it was on the second dive when the fun really began. I'd only been to the speedboat once before and that was on a night dive with Big Al and Batman, so today was a first during the day. After locating it and a quick swim around we headed along to the reef. As we swam along I noticed a couple of fine fishing lines floating in the tide, then another couple. After a few seconds I began to realise that these were the longest tentacles of a
Lion's mane jellyfish.
I signalled to TDFKAMF the potential hazard just as the main bell came into view about 8m away. Not wanting to miss the opportunity to have a good I look and gauge the size of the bell, I negotiated my way around the tentacles and up to the bell. Grant stayed seabed and very kindly took some snaps (below), my camera had some condensation inside the case.
I estimate the bell to be between 60-70cm, the total tentacle length easily in excess of 8m. It was a great dive and a nice way to mark Grant's 50th.
 |
| Me approaching the Lion's Mane by Grant |
 |
| Me rounding the speedboat by Grant |
 |
| Dogfish |
 |
| Red cushion star |
 |
| Red cushion star |
 |
| Let's have a look at what you could of won |
 |
| 50 dives and counting |
No comments:
Post a Comment