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Playing in the Sandbox Group Build Sept 1, 2024 - Jn 1, 2025

My other hobby........


ajaycad

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10 hours ago, belugawhaleman said:

I also collect small steam engines and other engines

Nice, I made on myself, when I was young. It was the first complex construction, everybody in my company had to build, while getting the education as an engineer. The final quality verdict was, how low you could go with the air pressure and the machine was still working (We used air instead of steam for the tests). It was great fun.

Cheers Rob

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To satisfy my Wife's obsession to visit at least one Reef site every year, last Monday we found ourselves on Great Keppel Island. Covid 19 thwarted our attempts for most of the year, having to twice cancel trips because of enforced restrictions or cancelled Holidays. But the lure of the Sea was too strong to resist.

Great Keppel is the largest of the Keppel group of 16 Islands; 30 minutes by boat from Yeppoon on the Capricorn Coast of Queensland, itself 30 minutes drive from my home town of Rockhampton. Formed as the top of a now submerged volcanic plug, it sits inside the Southern Great Barrier Reef; just north of the Capricorn Group of Islands, of which Heron Island is perhaps the most well known. 

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Conditions on the day offered us fine 30 degree Celsius ambient temperature with occasional Cumulocirrus clouds, a 10 knot easterly wind changing to S/Easterly later with a half-metre swell in open seas. Water temperature in the shallows was 27 Celcius. Underwater visibility was good in bright sunlight, but not great. The UV rating on the day was 14.2, as GKI lies directly on the Tropic of Capricorn and we are only a week past the Summer Solstice.

Coral and marine life on GKI is limited to area beyond the rocky outcrops at the points between it's many long beaches, before the Island drops off into the depths. Not being a Coral Cay like Heron Island, the best viewing is to be had at or approaching the low tide, as any corals exposed to the midday Sun would soon die. We snorkeled Shelving Reef and Monkey Beach at GKI, however the tide was against us for Monkey Beach and too high to allow decent visibility at the depth the corals live. Below, a view of the main beach from the hill above Shelving Beach, the overland track a good hike but well worth the effort to get there.

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A selection of photos we took...

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The predominant corals at Shelving Reef are Staghorn Acropora hard coral, extending around the rocky point for about a quarter acre in area. From our observations, none of the Staghorn was bleached, which is a very good sign.

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A massive orange Platygyra 'Maze' coral, over a metre in length.

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Strikingly coloured mantle flesh on this Giant Sea Clam.

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There were many of these large Sarcophyton 'Leather' corals to be found. These soft fleshed corals bend their bodies to channel water in and around their bodies to trap and collect nutrients in the water.

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An unusually coloured lavender Sarcophyton Elegans, similar yet distinct from the type above. Such large soft corals thriving alongside hard corals in the same section of reef is another good sign.

20201229_102644.thumb.jpg.e6b6220e3b96f40ee0cef3aae1264d2f.jpgAn orange Gonipora 'LPS' coral; these have a rocky perforated body that hide the fleshy feeding polyps that here are shown extended, but then retract at night or when threatened... Ergo, a Large Polyp Stony coral.

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New growth Acropora amongst the established Staghorn.

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We were extremely fortunate to surprise a metre long Epaulet Shark; these are notoriously hard to spot in the middle of the day, but were on the list that we might expect to see on GKI. Beck also had an encounter with a couple of small Black Tip Sharks; unfortunately I had the camera and was too far away at the time to get footage. 

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Yours Truly!

A thoroughly enjoyable trip, and one we'll do again soon I'm sure.

S

 

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Very interesting and nice pics as well. I'm pondering about what camera to use for snorkeling here on my island. I will not go professional or with a heave lighting equipment. What type of camera do you use for your photos?

Cheers Rob

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16 hours ago, Bomber_County said:

Thanks Steve for sharing this with us, very envious......be safe....

Thanks Phil...

We never snorkel alone, never at dawn or dusk to avoid the feeding times of the larger Sharks, and always tell someone where we're going. Mobile phone coverage is very good on GKI, and there are services that will come and collect by Sea or on Land if you sprain an ankle and can't manage the walk back overland for whatever reason.

13 hours ago, DocRob said:

Very interesting and nice pics as well. I'm pondering about what camera to use for snorkeling here on my island. I will not go professional or with a heave lighting equipment. What type of camera do you use for your photos?

Cheers Rob

Rob, we use a Kaiser Bass X400 camera, with a small tripod attached that allows you to set up on the Sea bed and vacate to a distance to capture the more timid Fish that typically hide when threatened. The tripod also doubles as a handle so it can be easily passed between the two of us.

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We usually stay in video mode, as often by the time you change to still camera the opportunity has passed. It was recommended by others on one of the Fishy Forums my Wife uses, as a cheaper alternative to Go-Pro. We are very happy with it, but may upgrade to Go-Pro and have two options so as to avoid missing opportunities like the Black Tip Shark encounter.

Some further examples not shown above as a guide...

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Twin Otter aircraft taken in still camera setting on Whitsunday island, only in the underwater option on the camera as we were in Cousteau-mode at the time. Cropped, but otherwise un-edited.

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Green Turtle on Heron Island in September last year. She was at about 4 metres depth, I am halfway to the surface and following her. When I dived to get closer a minute later, she hit the afterburner and quickly outpaced me! Details are blue here because of her depth and the oblique lighting, but still fairly clear because we are on a reef shelf and not a tidal beach. Photo is a screenshot, but otherwise un-edited.

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Blue-spotted Stingray on Great Keppel last week. Strong sunlight, but some silt in the water at a depth of 2 metres. The magnificent iridescent blue spots that this Ray flashed on it's back when we startled it are mostly lost in this vision, the only blue seen along the tail. A Go-Pro or more expensive set-up may have captured this detail in video mode. Cropped screenshot, but otherwise un-edited.

Other than this isolated motion blur, this camera suits us very well. I guess it depends on the marine life you might expect to encounter in the Canaries.

S

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5 hours ago, Wumm said:

Rob, we use a Kaiser Bass X400 camera, with a small tripod attached that allows you to set up on the Sea bed and vacate to a distance to capture the more timid Fish that typically hide when threatened. The tripod also doubles as a handle so it can be easily passed between the two of us.

Thanks a lot for the detailed explanation. The resulting pics look great, but show the reason, why I was hesitating to buy a camera for snorkeling. On my island, the water normally is very transparent, when the sun is shining and there are only small waves, but the blueish greenish refraction effect of the water is strongly visible, even in shallow water of two or three meter depth on photos. The only real solution is artificial light, which makes the equipment heavy and expensive and/or the use of software to reduce the effect.
It seems, I have to rely on my brain HD to take underwater pictures and ponder about, how amazingly well the human eye adopts to difficult lighting conditions, where technique still partly fails.

Most of the fishes you see while snorkeling, are relatively small, colourful and you have to try to get really close. sometimes you spot some bigger rays or a turtle. Octopus, Sepia, and Morenas are common and sometimes you spot large flock of fishes, sometimes with hunting Barilotes (small type of tuna) darting through.

There is quite a mix of close up, motion capturing, which a camera had to fulfil. The depth range is between surface and 10 meters.

Cheers Rob

 

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On 12/28/2020 at 7:28 PM, belugawhaleman said:

I also collect small steam engines and other engines.

Below is a small hit & miss engine and a Mamod engine that I restored. Also my big oscillator video from YouTube

 

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Cool. Always wanted to find a hit and miss engine and restore it.  No idea what I would do with it though.  I’ve seen some really cool ice cream makers made with them.  

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I used to like wargaming.  I can play cards, but it really doesn't thrill me as much.  But PC games get old and AI's are never very bright.  I did some online stuff, but I never had much success.  Perhaps it was quicker hands and better internet connections...   but I haven't wargamed in years.  I miss competition on a person to person basis with a historical twist.

 

Anyway...   that's my other, dormant hobby.

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My M1 Garand project, finished earlier this year. Started it while I had the kung flu back in January. I showed a couple of you already, but I thought it might be ok to show here, too. Reproduction walnut stock, carved, painted, and weathered in flag scheme. 

The rifle is a Springfield Armory, January 1954 issue, all period correct parts. Got it a few years ago from the CMP. The trigger group (maybe more, not sure) spent it's service life in Turkey as a loaner. Still has the range dope tag inside the base plate in Turkish. 

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I just added a few nice pieces to my collection of vintage kit. 
A 1934 Swiss K31 in 7.5x55. 
A 1943 produced Ballester-Molina .45ACP.          
And another CZ75 compact to balance out the other side.

The Ballester is Argentinian Air Force issue. My first time out with it, it swallowed an extractor. So I spent several weeks installing and tuning a new one. The Ballester is a really, really nice pistol.  
The K31 is a literal tack driver.

The CZ?  What can I say, it’s a CZ.  One of the best handguns produced anywhere in the world today  

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On 9/21/2021 at 6:53 AM, MARU 5137 said:

Nothing  exciting like you Gentlemen  have other hobbies.

I collect Gold and silver Coins..thats all and books if I can get rare ones. 

Got quite a collection Of Coins.

🧶

 

Coins are actually super exciting, they represent history from around the world. As a kid I use to collect different coins of different currencies, I still have 5 ruble bill from 1938 with Chkalov on it. I know it’s a paper bill but still pretty cool. :)

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