It was not meant to be a Rapid Bay night dive. It was not even meant to be a dusk dive but in the end it was a race against the light.

As our days are as short as they will be for the year it is easy to get caught out not planning an afternoon dive early enough to beat the sunset.

I remember looking up at the dappling yellow and greens of the sunset above us and we still had not found any leafy seadragons.

Then as the undersea gloom of dusk descended we found them and to our delight we found an entire family, two adults and one juvenile.

For the next 20 minutes we played in the gloom until it was too dark to focus and it was too cold to bare.

It was never the plan but in the end it was wonderful to experience the leafy’s at dusk as the gloom engulfed us.

Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Dusk Dragons’, 1/60s f/10 ISO800 15mm