Denmark Diving - Lighthouse & Sobadet

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Tom Nic
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Denmark Diving - Lighthouse & Sobadet

Post by Tom Nic »

Another long trip report warning ahead!

The Lighthouse and Sobadet

A 40th wedding anniversary is a good excuse to go to Europe, and when you throw in relatives who live in Denmark and the possibility of a stop-over in Iceland, it is an absolute no-brainer! Because my lovely wife actually does love me (don’t ask me why!), and because one of our cousins is a cold water diver, I was talked into (with ferocious arm twisting) hauling my cold water dive gear almost halfway around the planet with the promise of a few local dives in Denmark and a few more in Iceland (story told in other threads) while we were on our 3 week holiday. It was an wonderful time!

But, since you didn’t come here to read about my vacation, let’s get right into Denmark diving.

Our relatives live in Aarhus, more or less centrally located in Denmark, and after a few days doing touristy stuff our cousin arranged to meet for a quick local mud hole dive to get our gear squared away. Weather was crappy (yes, there is a pattern here) and when we arrived at the in-town site called “The Lighthouse) conditions looked horrible. Looks did not deceive.

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There is a very cool set of metal stairs going down into the water, and a great platform at finning depth. I’d love to see some of these at a few of our PNW sites – really well designed! (Come to think of it, I could think of a few sites in Bonaire that would benefit from the same, but I digress.)
Visibility was 3’. That is three. Feet. Bottom was 20 fsw. The dive was along a rock breakwater, with algae, sargassum, a bit of kelp and life on the rocks, then sandy bottom. Not exactly breathtaking, but hey, at least we got wet and everything worked well! Water temp was 65, and there were a few small wrasse looking fish here and there, but that was about it.

Five days later we went back for a quick dive and it was night and day difference! Weather was awesome, water was calm, and viz was about 15’.

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Once underwater, there was not much to see however. Fish life was barren to non-existent and it was soon easy to see why.

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Nets and fish traps lined the breakwater for several hundred yards (even though fishing is technically “not allowed”). It was kind of sad, actually. Besides the fishing, those who do dive here are often hunting with spear guns, and the resultant paucity of fish life is really evident. The in town dive sites cannot take the pressure of a fairly good sized community of divers who all do the same thing. I understood that they have done much to clean up pollution in the harbor in the last decade and that conditions are WAY better than the past. One can only hope things continue to improve.

Pretty sad invertebrate life, and a few gobies and star fish (besides the cod in the traps) was pretty much all the life that was there.

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Lillebaelt & Sobadet

So…. After “suffering” through the local barren mudhole, our cousin decided to take us to Lillebaelt, a narrow channel that runs between the mainland and the island of Fyn (pronounced Fun). This is very similar to the Tacoma Narrows – the current screams. There are large areas here where fishing is not allowed, and you can really tell the difference in the life. So we grabbed our gear and headed out for the almost 2 hour drive, hoping for some good diving!

We were not disappointed.

This particular site is called Sobadet, and the channel is called Lillebaelt.

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Currents run through this narrow, winding channel, and while that makes the diving current sensitive it also makes it amazing!

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We were greeted by a nice sandy beach, current that was waning toward slack, wonderful change facilities designed by divers for divers, and a wonderful stainless steel “dock” for entry.

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These facilities would be FABULOUS for our local dive sites here! I don't know if the good ol' socialist nanny state pays for these entries and changing areas or whether it is done by local dive clubs. The designs are simple, rugged, and just perfect for cold water diving. I'm grateful for WSA already does for us - it sure would be great to see some of these ideas incorporated here!

There is a buoy in the channel that is a great visual indicator of current. This picture is not quite at slack, and when the current is moving the buoy is actually underwater! Not hard to see what it is doing from the shore entry.

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Visibility was a good 30’ plus, and we were surrounded by what looked like small Lion’s Mane Jellies at the entry.

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You kick out a few feet, then drop and head down a rocky slope with lots of life toward a series of stair-stepping walls that start at around 35 fsw, are around 10-15’ high, and go down beyond recreational depth. There were guys with doubles and scooters on the wall here – lots to do and see, and good conditions when you hit a slack.

Water temps were about 65 degrees, the wall and the visibility were beautiful, and very different from diving at home, yet at the same time oddly familiar.

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Here is some of the invert life on the walls – finger sponges, encrusting sponges, some what looked to be metridium, algae, small crab and sea stars.

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There were many small Black Gobies, and a Wrasse that looks kind of like the Senorita in Cali waters.

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And finally – we found a couple of our Decorated Warbonnet’s cousins – definitely a different species, but definitely the same family, and just gorgeous!

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I also found the cousin to a Crescent Gunnel, as well as some gorgeous hydroids that were clumped everywhere as well.

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If you’re interested in looking more you can click on one of the pics and it will take you to that particular album.

All in all, a gorgeous dive, one that I wish I had about a week of good tides to do on a daily basis. Since this report is already long enough I'll do one more on another site in the channel later.

Thanks for reading this far, and more coming!
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"Anyone who thinks this place is over moderated is bat-crazy anarchist." -Ben, Airsix
"Warning: No dive masters are going to be there, Just a bunch of old fat guys taking pictures of fish." -Bassman
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Gdog
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Re: Denmark Diving - Lighthouse & Sobadet

Post by Gdog »

Very, very interesting trip report. I really like the diver huts, would be super cool if we had those here. Thanks for sharing the report and the pics Tom!
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Tom Nic
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Re: Denmark Diving - Lighthouse & Sobadet

Post by Tom Nic »

Gdog wrote:Very, very interesting trip report. I really like the diver huts, would be super cool if we had those here. Thanks for sharing the report and the pics Tom!
Thanks Gdog...

Yeah, I've got tons of pics of the dive huts. Can you imagine if we had one of those at Redondo? Or TTN? Pretty cool...
More Pics Than You Have Time To Look AT
"Anyone who thinks this place is over moderated is bat-crazy anarchist." -Ben, Airsix
"Warning: No dive masters are going to be there, Just a bunch of old fat guys taking pictures of fish." -Bassman
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Re: Denmark Diving - Lighthouse & Sobadet

Post by Sharkb8 »

One of those dive huts at the Skyline beach in Anacortes would be amazing! Too bad the in-town diving was so barren, but that's what happens with pollution and fishing. I wonder how the diving in Copenhagen is compared to that. We visited a beautiful beach just north of the airport that is used for a lot of training (I was told) and the water looked really nice, but I was never able to gather if it was really worth trying to dive there on a future visit.
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Vjw
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Re: Denmark Diving - Lighthouse & Sobadet

Post by Vjw »

Thanks for the super thorough descriptions and pictures! The first part makes me glad and thankful we get to dive around here all the time. But the pictures of the ‘decorated war bonnet cousin’ is really cool! Glad you had a ‘layover’ there and got to see family too.
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Tom Nic
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Re: Denmark Diving - Lighthouse & Sobadet

Post by Tom Nic »

Vjw wrote:Thanks for the super thorough descriptions and pictures! The first part makes me glad and thankful we get to dive around here all the time. But the pictures of the ‘decorated war bonnet cousin’ is really cool! Glad you had a ‘layover’ there and got to see family too.
Yeah, it's easy to take for granted how awesome our local "muck diving" is compared to lots of other places. Glad you enjoyed the report!
More Pics Than You Have Time To Look AT
"Anyone who thinks this place is over moderated is bat-crazy anarchist." -Ben, Airsix
"Warning: No dive masters are going to be there, Just a bunch of old fat guys taking pictures of fish." -Bassman
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