Robert's Ramblings

This week's photo, an Ornate Cowfish, was taken today at yet again my favourite shore dive, Edithburgh Jetty. Aracana ornata, inhabits shallow protected waters of the Eastern Indian Ocean including Australian waters from Western Australia to Western Victoria and Tasmania. When feeding, they often blow a jet of water out of their mouths into the sediment to uncover hidden prey.

Today I think we counted at leat 8 of these beautiful creatures ranging in size from 2cm through to 6cm. All appeared to be females which is hardly suprising as only during mating periods does one of the females change into a male...

From now on I've decided to post BIGGER photos! Partly to see if I actually get any comments from anyone and partly because I reckon they are not half bad! Please let me know what you think!

Until the next post, take care out there and keep diving ( if that's what you do! ) ...Robert

So, you want to grab some "Tube" do you?!!

Look for...
"/player2.swf?video_id=FPejYdBM11I&l=241&t=OEgsToPDskLx8rDtCBpSJsXwHO3kFeM2&nc=6724044"

Then use...
http://www.youtube.com/get_video?video_id=prolonged_video_identification_code

so you get...
http://www.youtube.com/get_video?video_id=FPejYdBM11I&l=241&t=OEgsToPDskLx8rDtCBpSJsXwHO3kFeM2&nc=6724044

This week's photo, Sabella spallanzanii, commonly known as the European Fan Worm, was taken yesterday on the wreck of "The Norma" off of North Haven. This animal is an invader to Australian waters! First found here in 1965 in Albany Harbour in WA, it is now a wide spread pest throughout Australia's southern coastal waters.

More information about this local invader can be found at http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/docs/pub/IMPMarine/IMPMarinePage14a.php?0506

Until the next post, take care out there and keep diving ( if that's what you do! ) ...Robert

This little story actually began more than two years ago when I purchased a gen03 Subaru. I was delighted in everything about the vehicle, well almost everything. The poor excuse for a car battery that Subaru saw fit to include looked like it was going to cause grief, ... and it proved me right!

During a recent dive trip to the East Coast I was required to work with my laptop from the car. Twice I drained the battery with inverter to the point of not being able to crank the engine. I'm sure I was on-line for less than a couple hours each time!

The last straw was during a recent Beta Test of a new "in-car" product. All worked very well for a time until the prototype developed a fault in its power management and continued drawing significant current with the ignition off. A better battery would have held its own but the poor little 48Ah battery was stone cold dead two mornings in a row.

So, armed with frustration and the desire to FIX IT FOR GOOD, I set off to my local auto spares shop and began sizing up the alternatives. Thanks to patient but bewildered shop staff who helped me try successively bigger and bigger batteries I finally found one that nearly filled up all the empty space under the bonnet. Shaking their heads in disbelief I headed home with an Exide PDIN66, nearly double the previous battery in all aspects! Aside from a little bit of battery terminal re-engineering the new battery fit like the proverbial glove.

Here's a quick comparison of the "Factory" battery compared to my new powersource.

Battery: P305C -> PDIN66
Cold Cranking Amps: 305A -> 600A
Reserve Capacity: 48Ah -> 110Ah
Weight With Acid: 13Kg -> 23Kg

So now I have joules to burn and the confidence to use all my gadgets without fear of being stranded,...for now!!

This week's photo, a simple jetty pylon, was taken last month again at my favourite shore dive, Edithburgh Jetty. You can easily spend an entire dive here just on a single jetty pylon. Countless varieties of ascidians, algeas, hard corals, soft corals, crabs, shrimp, scallops, fish and even the odd black cowrie will reward your patience and observation skills. A perfect opportunity for macro photography!

Until the next post, take care out there and keep diving ( if that's what you do! ) ...Robert