Dive report - West Side Thursday 18 June 2009

A big swell was hammering the reef so we knew we were in for a little more current and surge than usual today.  Our first dive was at O's Wall and most of the little colourful reef fish were hunkered down inside coral heads, under ledges or as close to the reef as they could get!  The bigger guys, like trevally and parrotfish, were more adventurous riding the surge and seeminly oblivious to the current.  Our best sighting on this dive was a massive loggerhead turtle swimming out from the reef, along the divers and then off into the distance.
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 5-8m
CURRENT: strong
SURGE: moderate
DEPTH: 22m

Central Station had a weaker current running and all of the usual suspects were going about their daily business. Several large rays were buried in the sand, only their googly eyes giving them away as the sand had drifted in so deep over them that their outlines were completely obscured. A lone olive sea snake came over to us for some company before deciding we weren't interesting enough and heading into the reef to snuffle around for a late morning snack. One of our dive groups hung out at one of the cleaning stations with a giant manta ray for almost the whole dive!
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 5-8m
CURRENT: moderate
SURGE: moderate
DEPTH: 16m