Dive 288

25 April 2002


Lancelin WA
Wreck of the Key Biscayne


Max depth 35.1 m
Dive time 43 min
Bottom time 20 min
Deco stops 1 min @ 9 m, 8 min @ 6 m, 2 min @ 3 m

Nitrox, Deep, Wreck, Decompression dive
Second dive of Anzac Day dive trip. Same conditions, more soupy viz, clouded over and darkened.

Came down the tether line and followed the upper edge of the platform, like cruising past a space station. Large structures - legs, ladders - all encrusted with greyish-green texture. Large solitary ascidians. A large baldchin groper was hiding. Some tiddly fish.

Ascended slope of the platform (which looked like its own sandy bottom except for the metallic sound). Lots of large fixed animals widely spaced apart. Rust holes gave us windows down into the wreck. Berwin showed me a couple of wobbegongs - no it was one huge wobbegong about 2 m long.

Banded sweep, crested morwong came past. Blue striped goatfish.

Meanwhile back at the dome, batfish circled around,; we looked in a hole and saw 2-3 crays - a rock cod promptly shot into the hole and blocked Berwin's access to the crays. King wrasse, purple sponges (soft fork shapes), white cauliflower sponges were everywhere.

More batfish and sea jellies at the deco stop.


 
temp 21°C
rubber 5mm titanium wetsuit, hood;  OK
weight 7 lb (integ); OK
tanks 12.2 l steel + 3 l pony
BC SeaQuest Pro QD
gas used 146 bar
average depth 21.3 m
RMV 13.2 l/min
Nitrox
gas mix EANx 32
MAD 33.7 m (1.4), 36.8 (1.5)
EAD max 29.0 m
ppO2 max 1.44 ata