Dive report - West Side Friday 19 June 2009

Still a big swell, but the Floats didn't have any current today, just surge.  We had a manta ray do a leisurely swim-by but he didn't stick around to show off.  Big groups of sweetlips huddled at the top of the reef and drifted back and forth in the surge as if they were attached to each other, always in the same formation.  It was pretty cool to just glide with them.  Tons of bullseyes shielded the entrances and exits to the swim-throughs and made shimmery curtains along almost the entire edge of the reef.  The bright blue water made everything stand out and it was a very pretty dive.
WATER TEMP: 25C
VISIBILITY: 12-15m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: moderate to strong
DEPTH: 16m

Central Station was next up and it was chilly! We had surprisingly low visibility on this dive site, too. There was next to no current or surge, but the stirred up sand and the tremendous amount of food in the water really cut the viz. On the upside, it seems like every cod, coral trout, trevally, barracuda, parrotfish, squirrelfish, angelfish and butterflyfish was out and about doing something - the reef was crazily active! You just had to get pretty close to appreciate it. There were also about 10 zillion big, black sea cucumbers around - we've never seen so many scattered over the reef before.
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 2-5m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: slight
DEPTH: 16m