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After the zip, the seals are the next important part of a drysuit. They create a seal between your neck, wrists (and possibly your ankles) and the suit, preventing water getting inside. Why not order a set of spare drysuit seals that can be fitted yourself, or make up a dry suit repair kit for those longer dive trips.
For the neck and wrist seals there are three options, either Silicone, Latex or Neoprene. Seals are best considered as consumables and are likley to require replacing during the life of the dry suit.
Latex Drysuit Seals
Latex Seals offer the most waterproof seal when compared to neoprene, especially for the neck. Latex seals are cheap and simple. If you know your size it's pretty easy to swap them over yourself. Latex seals are soft and give a reliable seal, they come in a few thicknesses, the thicker they are the tougher they are but thinner ones give a softer seal so you don't loose circulation.
Latex stretches over time so your neck and cuffs feel really tight when you first fit them, to the point of cutting off circulation, so you have to stretch them over a cylinder for a few hours so they're more comfortable. You can cut them down to make the seal larger but if you do it too early and they continue to stretch you'll end up with a loose seal that leaks.
Silicone Drysuit Seals
Silicone seals have all of the best features of latex with very few of the drawbacks. Silicone is thin and flexible so you can don and doff your suit more comfortably. It's hypoallergenic so people who suffer from latex allergies are fine to use silicone seals. Silicone is more flexible and stretchy than latex, but some find them to be more fragile than similar latex seals.
Because very little sticks to silicone once it's set you need to use a ring system around your wrists and neck. While they first looked uncomfortable, the rings are now comfortable and practical thanks to newer more flexible and ergonomic designs.
Silicone seals are sandwiched between a hard internal ring and a softer external ring glued to your drysuit so you can change broken seals in minutes not days. Carrying spare seals in your bag is easy and can save a dive even when you're off shore on a boat as you only need a simple tool to swap seals over.
More and more divers are using dryglove systems that fit almost any drysuit, which is an added benefit of rings. The design of some neck seals adds a bellow so you can move your head around without breaking the seal. Silicone can also come in a range of shapes and colours instead of standard black. Bright colours are a great way to personalise your suit and stand out of the crowd.
Neoprene Drysuit Seals
Neoprene seals are warmer to wear compared to latex seals and are sometimes considered more comfortable. They also have a tendancy to last longer. Neoprene is good at spreading the pressure over a wide area so you don't end up with Latex love bites, but getting the right size can be tricky.
Neoprene does stretch, but nowhere near as much as Latex or Silicone so they can be harder to put on and the glideskin sticks to your skin so you need to lubricate to get them on. The glideskin is great at sealing against your skin but is quite fragile so you have to be careful pulling it on or it can tear. Ripped neoprene cuffs can be easily fixed if the rip isn't too catastrophic.
Popes Eye Anchor Farm
Reef Dive | 
Boat access
Depth: 9 m (30 ft) to 11 m (36 ft)
Pope's Eye Anchor Farm
© Phil Watson
The Pope's Eye Anchor Farm has been created with some 13 anchors located North of the Pope Eye Annulus in Port Phillip, Victoria.
Most of these anchors were uncovered as a result of the Channel Deepening Project undertaken by the Port of Melbourne. The anchors were discovered in shipping channels, or near piers, where they posed a potential hazard to navigation, so were relocated to create the Pope's Eye Anchor Farm.
Pope's Eye Anchor Farm Plaque 1
© Peter Beaumont
There are two plaques at the dive site which provide information about the anchors. It's hoped the Pope's Eye Anchor Farm will become a popular dive site and provide a unique way to explore Victoria's heritage.
The identities of some of the anchors in the Pope's Eye Anchor Farm are:
- South Channel Anchor (Rogers Patent) — Relocated from NW of South Channel Beacon 4, 15m outside channel
- South Channel Anchor 3
- South Channel Anchor 4 — Relocated from South Channel between Entrance Beacon and Beacon 1
- Port Melbourne Channel Admiralty Anchor — Relocated from South East of Beacon 75 Port Melbourne Channel
- Port Melbourne Channel Trotman Anchor — Relocated from South West of the Western Bypass Channel in the transit Zone 322m from Beacon 6
Pope's Eye Anchor Farm
Bathymetric Survey
© Port of Melbourne
On the 12 Feb 2013 the Port of Melbourne survey vessel Norgate used its Reson 7125 echo sounder to do a bathymetric survey of the Popes Eye Re-located Heritage Anchors. A detailed A0 size, 1:100 scale plan has been made available which you can now download/view — Port of Melbourne Popes Eye Re-located Heritage Anchors Bathymetric Survey (PDF, 1 page, 5 Mb).
Thus we have the following GPS marks for seven specific anchors in the farm.
-
Latitude: 38° 16.524′ S (38.27540833° S / 38° 16′ 31.47″ S)
Longitude: 144° 41.890′ E (144.69816333° E / 144° 41′ 53.39″ E)
Depth: 9.7 metres -
Latitude: 38° 16.525′ S (38.27542333° S / 38° 16′ 31.52″ S)
Longitude: 144° 41.897′ E (144.69828667° E / 144° 41′ 53.83″ E)
Depth: 8.2 metres -
Latitude: 38° 16.577′ S (38.27629° S / 38° 16′ 34.64″ S)
Longitude: 144° 41.896′ E (144.69826833° E / 144° 41′ 53.77″ E)
Depth: 9.2 metres -
Latitude: 38° 16.576′ S (38.27626167° S / 38° 16′ 34.54″ S)
Longitude: 144° 41.899′ E (144.69832° E / 144° 41′ 53.95″ E)
Depth: 9.4 metres -
Latitude: 38° 16.529′ S (38.27548° S / 38° 16′ 31.73″ S)
Longitude: 144° 41.902′ E (144.69836333° E / 144° 41′ 54.11″ E)
Depth: 9.5 metres -
Latitude: 38° 16.529′ S (38.27548333° S / 38° 16′ 31.74″ S)
Longitude: 144° 41.934′ E (144.69889833° E / 144° 41′ 56.03″ E)
Depth: 9.5 metres -
Latitude: 38° 16.535′ S (38.27559° S / 38° 16′ 32.12″ S)
Longitude: 144° 41.936′ E (144.69893167° E / 144° 41′ 56.15″ E)
Depth: 8.5 metres
Map of Anchors 1 to 7. P is Pope's Eye, AF is the anchor farm centre.
Pope's Eye Anchor Farm Anchor
© Peter Beaumont
We'd appreciate your help in matching these marks to the names and details of each anchor. Maybe you have information and GPS marks for other anchors you could provide.
Peter Beaumont reports there are four anchors located near the 2nd GPS mark in the list above (A2 in the illustration).
Pope's Eye Anchor Farm Plaque 2
© Peter Beaumont
The tide runs very fast at this dive site due to the shallow water. Diving on slack water is a must.
See WillyWeather (West Channel Annulus) as a guide for the tide times and the height of the tide.
Please Note: The location of the dive site has been calculated as the centre point of the GPS marks for the seven anchors listed above. You'll need to move around the dive site to find the various anchors.
Heritage Warning: Any shipwreck or shipwreck relic that is 75 years or older is protected by legislation. Other items of maritime heritage 75 years or older are also protected by legislation. Activities such as digging for bottles, coins or other artefacts that involve the disturbance of archaeological sites may be in breach of the legislation, and penalties may apply. The legislation requires the mandatory reporting to Heritage Victoria as soon as practicable of any archaeological site that is identified. See Maritime heritage. Anyone with information about looting or stolen artefacts should call Heritage Victoria on (03) 7022 6390, or send an email to heritage.victoria@delwp.vic.gov.au.
Wathaurong (Wadda-Warrung) country
Traditional Owners — This dive site is in the traditional Country of the Wathaurong (Wadda-Warrung) people of the Kulin Nation. This truly ancient Country includes the coastline of Port Phillip, from the Werribee River in the north-east, the Bellarine Peninsula, and down to Cape Otway in the south-west. We wish to acknowledge the Wathaurong as Traditional Owners. We pay respect to their Ancestors and their Elders, past, present and emerging. We acknowledge Bunjil the Creator Spirit of this beautiful land, who travels as an eagle, and Waarn, who protects the waterways and travels as a crow, and thank them for continuing to watch over this Country today and beyond.
Popes Eye Anchor Farm Location Map
Latitude: 38° 16.551′ S (38.275849° S / 38° 16′ 33.06″ S)
Longitude: 144° 41.913′ E (144.698548° E / 144° 41′ 54.77″ E)
Datum: WGS84 |
Google Map
Added: 2019-02-13 13:36:01 GMT, Last updated: 2022-03-22 17:32:11 GMT
Source: Calculated from anchor marks provided by Graham Ellis
Nearest Neighbour: Popes Eye, 88 m, bearing 171°, S
Port Phillip.
Depth: 9 to 11 m.
Dive only on: SWF, SWE.
Mean water temp - summer: 18.2°C.
Mean water temp - winter: 12.5°C.
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DISCLAIMER: No claim is made by The Scuba Doctor as to the accuracy of the dive site coordinates listed here. Should anyone decide to use these GPS marks to locate and dive on a site, they do so entirely at their own risk. Always verify against other sources.
The marks come from numerous sources including commercial operators, independent dive clubs, reference works, and active divers. Some are known to be accurate, while others may not be. Some GPS marks may even have come from maps using the AGD66 datum, and thus may need be converted to the WGS84 datum. To distinguish between the possible accuracy of the dive site marks, we've tried to give each mark a source of GPS, Google Earth, or unknown.
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