Shelly Beach 8th November 2008

Dive No. 324.
10.44 am, 20 degrees, 64 mins, 10.4 max, 7 av
Warm water and good vis; large group and Lily, Lily’s friend and I got separated from the group almost straight away - there were so many other divers in the water that we couldn’t work out who was who. I had issues with mask flooding which stressed me slightly and then got stressed again when, at the turn-around point, I surfaced to see exactly where we were and it seemed we were a long way offshore. Thinking about it later, I assume that at that stage of the dive, the shore line is actually farther away than you would assume when you're underwater. It was rough on the surface so I went back down after getting compass bearings and we headed back. The navigational error I made was to go a bit too much due north on the first leg, rather than veering towards north-east at that stage. Sightings: Numb ray, hundreds of young white-eared parmas (maybe young adults?), old wifes, cuttles, wobbies, a PJ, blue gropers and assorted wrasse.