After this weekends warm weather, the tide has finally turned... 
What a difference a few degree's make...even though the water was the same ~11 degrees on Sat, with the 20 degree air temps, it felt *much* warmer in the water
2 more weeks for Spring!
A little sun on the wetsuit makes such a difference. It's also nice to not have horizontal rain whacking me in the side of the face.
what do the four lines mean?
Are some areas of the Bay warmer than others? Where are they?!
If we're past the worst then it's a good sign that the wetsuit was a good investment. I've only been cold when wet and standing on the beach for a large period of time.
Though I hardly ever wear just shorts and rashie, I find Melb too cold for that, but thats just me...In summer I will still wear my springy.
Yeah, I think I wore my boardies and rashie twice last summer.... and still a little cold from memory. Boardies and a hot top might have been better, or spring suit.
Once its over 30 *and* once the bay hits +20 degrees...
When there is a seabreeze, it has a pretty good cooling effect, making the air temp drop significantly - usually enough to still need a 1:2 shorty.
The real issue however, is the increase in the number of jellyfish... once it is that warm, you will want to wear a wetsuit so that the jellyfish dont get too annoying... (and keep some vinegar in the car!)
The Port Phillip jellies are dangerous?
The big blue balls?
i thought they were harmless
The smaller red ones burn you a little when you make contact with them. The blue ones just look big and scary...
I wore my boardies only all summer. 15-20 knot seabreeze means not too much windchill on my formula board so that's fine at least until sunset. 20-30 knots quite a bit of windchill but I work heaps harder and generate a ton of heat, not to mention having no floation from the wetsuit means even more work. I'm usually thankful to fall in.
Although in November the water still seems a little chillie despite the air temperature.
ive seen penguins, dolphins, big blue jellies, a fish that jumped out & over me whilst waterstarting and stood on anenomies at Ricketts, I've kicked something underwater that was worrying firm ! but never seen a small red jelly.
What else have peole seen out there?
Once when I was sailing at Mt Martha, I sailed over a huge, like about 1.5 meters wide, stingray. I didn't see it until it saw me coming over the top of it and it unburied itself and swam away, all of a sudden I saw this huge dark round thing move off from under me. I have seen seals swim around me also once.
Saw a humpback whale rise up about 30 metres in front of me at Rye just past the pole about 2 months ago. Bloody huge. Made me almost leave a stain in the wetsuit.
Surfed with some dolphins in Byron Bay last year. Pretty special.
Seen plenty of "Coles" and "Safeway" jellyfish off St. Kilda.
Anyone seen or found the leg off Sorrento over the weekend?
Just getting back to the main topic, I'm glad I'm not the only dork that follows sea temperatures and celebrates the passing of the coldest (sea) day.
By the way, did you all know that in winter the coldest body of coastal water around Oshtraya (including Tasmania) is our very own Port Phillip Bay? Go here for the depressing proof: www.marine.csiro.au/remotesensing/web_point/.
Here are some random sea temp figures for this week that illustrate the point:
P P Bay - 11.8 (not bad given it drops to about 10 some years)
Hobart - 13
13th Beach - nearly 14
Portland - 15 (you could just about swim in that)
Esperance 17
Perth 18
Noosa - 20
Darwin - 26 (yes please)
For the record again, the big blue jellyfish are called Catostylus mosaicus (Blue Jellyfish, Blue Blubber or Jelly Blubber). Apparently when dried they are edible (indeed, a delicacy in Japan and other Asian markets) and someone was once looking to harvest them from P P Bay to export to Japan (http://www.environment.gov.au/coasts/fisheries/vic/jellyfish/pubs/jellyfish-submission-sept06.pdf - page 4 is interesting). Wish they'd hurry up.
Lastly, anyone who needs a wetsuit from Jan to March is p*ssweak (unless its a really cold sou'wester).
Windaddict - quite an expert on the Jellies. Quite ashamedly I can remeber as a kid sailing out from Black Rock in a Port Phillip 12 Dinghy with a big stick and belting the little fellows.
