I finally came back to Pylades Drive on June 9, 2024. I've only been here once before and I've always intended to come back eventually, but the lack of marine life didn't really make it a priority. Today I wanted to try again to find what looks like a steep rock reef that pops up about 200 meters from shore.
I swam on the surface down along the shoreline to try and start my dive closer to where the chart shows the center of the offshore shallow reef. I swam past about 5 houses. The water was only a few feet deep during this swim, but I couldn't see the bottom. This time of year is when visibility can either be good or really bad depending on when it is in the plankton bloom cycle. I gambled that the visibility would be decent, but it turned out to be some of the worst I've ever seen. From the surface down to about 30' deep, visibility was less than 6' ( I could barely see a hazy outline of my fins when I looked back). Below that, visibility improved slightly to maybe 8'. Below 60' it was pitch black. I couldn't even see the white sand without a light and when I turned on my light, I was half-blinded by the light reflected off all the floating particles. I swam down the slope. The rocks near shore ended about 30' deep.
Below that there was a slope of sand. I was surprised to not see any rocky areas or even a boulder down here. I made it down to 100' deep. The rocky reef I was looking for was probably only a bit farther out from this slope, but the visibility was so bad and I could barely see in front of me so I gave up and turned around. It wasn't a day for topographical exploration. As usual, the 180 degree angle of view and the forced perspective of my fisheye lens makes the visibility in the photos seem much better than it was.
I swam back up the slope at an angle towards my entry-point. I was expecting to see some of the long, low, angular rock reefs that I saw during my last dive. These ran parallel to the shoreline about 60' deep if I remember right. Today, I didn't see them, which is kind of confusing. I did see a tiny octopus out in the open. It probably thought it was night time. The only solid structure I saw below 30' deep were a couple of concrete mooring blocks.
Even if I disregarded the bad visibility, I'm still even less impressed by this site than the last time I dove here. There's an almost unusual lack of marine life. I'll still have to come back on a better-visibility day to stubbornly try and visit that offshore rocky reef promised by the marine chart.
