Divers: Puspendu, Carl, Mark, Stuart, Wolf, Mark, Deon & Vikki

Anniversaries , Hot water and Cool dives
Last Saturday turned out to be a day of anniversaries. A friend gave Jude and I a voucher to the Peninsula Hot Springs for our 25th wedding anniversary so I persuaded her to take Friday afternoon off so we could sneak down there before the weekend. Then an email popped up from Aquability to remind me of a Saturday morning dive at the Pinnacles Deep on the following Saturday. I cunningly booked a B&B in Portsea so we could combine the two.
The Peninsula Hot Springs (www.peninsularhotsprings.com) were a delight. Hot mineral water gushes from a previously aquifer which is then distributed to pools, baths and sauna of varying temperatures and design set in delightful gardens and lake. More than three hours later we headed on to our Portsea hideaway.
Saturday morning looked great as a small group of Aquability divers headed out of the Heads to the dive site off Point Lonsdale. Deon was on his 100th dive and I discovered when I wrote up my log that I was on my 50th. The Pinnacle Deeps were reputed to be 18 - 30 metres of dive throughs and rocky ledges with plenty of fish life. The temperature turned out to be a relatively warm 13 degrees, which is several more than the upper bay but about 25 less than the Hot Springs. Visibility was said to range from 5 to 15 metres depending on whom you asked. The shot line's resting place didn't seem to extend below 18 metres but provided a range of reef formations and kelp beds which contained Port Jackson's, Crayfish, Seals and a variety of perch, Southern Blue Devils, and Magpie Perch (which is a Morwong). We returned to Portsea fuelled by Vikki's famous berry and white chocolate muffins. Congratulations to Deon on his century. I can recommend a Hot Spring, B&B and diving weekend combo.
Last report's mystery fish was a common weedfish. This week's challenge is to name fish pictured below.

Stuart Garrow

Photos by Stuart Garrow (with his new lens!!!)