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We had such a great trip on Sunday that we decided to head out a day earlier than usual again! We started at Keyhole and had just tons of fish life. Trevally, barracuda, drummers, surgeonfish, parrotfish and rankin cods. White tip reef sharks, turtles, moray eels, cleaner shrimp and hermit crabs. We always love this site, but today it seemed to be extra active!
WATER TEMP: 25C
VISIBILITY: 10-12m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 14m
Whalebone had a lot to live up to and we weren't disappointed. There were some great curtains of baitfish, tons of bright pink & purple anthias, more butterflyfish and angelfish than we could keep track of and our dear little reindeer wrasse was flitting happily along the sand. Another couple of green turtles and a white tip reef shark circling then crash landing on the sand for a bit of a snooze. Some rankin cods that were even bigger than those on dive one and bright orange coral cods lined the ledges in the swim thrus.
WATER TEMP: 25C
VISIBILITY: 10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 12m
We popped around to East Side Bommies for some more snorkeling and the water was super blue! It really made the colours of the corals, sponges and fish jump out. Absolutely stacks to see here today: barramundi cod, lionfish, blue spotted sting rays, sea pike, neon damsels, trumpetfish...
A breezy day today for our Muiron Islands trip! Dive one was at Cod Spot and it was fish, fish, fish! It looked like the rankin cods were having a big party as they were everywhere we looked. Gorgeous tiera (tall fin) batfish flitted here and there. The sandy parts of the site were covered in gobies standing guard while bulldozer shrimp worked tirelessly to clean their homes - down the hole, pop back out, spit out the debris, pause, back down the hole,repeat! So fun to watch. Lots of splashes of colour from the wrasse, parrotfish, butterflyfish, damsels and angelfish.
WATER TEMP: 25C
VISIBILITY: 8m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild - moderate
DEPTH: 16m
Whalebone was up next and despite slightly lower than usual visibility, it was still a delight. It's such a colourful and interesting site with its swim-thrus and soft coral gardens! And tons of fish, of course. White tip reef sharks, a juvenile reindeer wrasse, huge orange and green parrotfish, a big school of sea pike, green turtles, brilliant blue neon damsels, bannerfish, moorish idols and fat scorpionfish. We love it!
WATER TEMP: 25C
VISIBILITY: 8m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild+
DEPTH: 12m
We headed to East Side Bommies for our snorkeling. Turtles, blue spotted stingrays, a school of big southern drummers, estuary cod, lionfish, sailfin catfish, anemonefish, Christmas Tree Worms and so much more - beautiful way to relax in the afternoon!
Lighthouse Bay was a little choppy on the surface today but jam-packed with fish action underneath. We started at Blizzard Ridge and there were so many individual fish in the schools that it was almost hard to see your buddy as we swam through them! Five lined sea perch, threadfin pearl perch, trevally, fusiliers, nor'west snappers, rankin cod, sea pike, estuary cod, longfin bannerfish, lionfish, wobbegong sharks, batfish, flutemouths, pipefish - all shapes, colours and sizes today! We also had a green turtle swim with us for a few minutes and the whole time it looked like he was laughing at us before he effortlessly headed for the surface. Fun dive!
WATER TEMP: 25C
VISIBILITY: 810m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 12m
Gulliver's had lots of fish but they weren't swimming too fast! It was great as everything just hung out and watched us and we were able to get very close to all manner of fish. A couple of very large green tusk fish were lolling on the sand while cleaner wrasse picked them clean. The resident school of five lined sea perch seems to have grown - it stretched from the sand almost all the way to the surface today. There was lots of cleaner action and tons of little shrimp were out and about trying to bring in customers. The tiger cardinalfish are carrying eggs in their mouths again, which is always cool to see. More green turtles and white tip reef sharks here - the sharks were super lazy, barely moving a meter before settling again. Another super dive for really getting close to critters!
WATER TEMP: 25C
VISIBILITY: 8-10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 12m
It was a little windy first thing this morning but as we headed out the wind calmed and we ended up with a lovely day! Whalebone started us off with masses of baitfish around the reef and in the swim-thrus. A 3m black stingray was camped out on the bottom of one of the swim-thrus, his wingtips almost touching the walls on either side. Potato cod were hanging near the exits, just keeping an eye on things. Mating octopus, four kinds of angelfishes, cute morays, colourful nudibranchs - including a mating pair of neon marked Nembrotha purpureolineatas - and tons of reef fish really put on a show. We also had a grey reef shark cruise by a few times!
WATER TEMP: 26C
VISIBILITY: 6-8m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 12m
We headed around to the east side of the Muiron Islands to snorkel at Turtle Bay - and it really lived up to it's name with over 20 turtles all in a tiny area, all trying to find a special friend to mate with! It was awesome!
Keyhole was action packed with cobia, trevally, barracuda, turtles, schooling surgeonfish, roughback stingrays, white tip reef sharks and all colours of parrotfish zipping this way and that. We have a new juvenile reindeer wrasse pretending to be a bit of drunken weed weaving all over a little patch near a rocky outcrop - he's mesmerizing to watch! Big batfish were getting cleaned near the bottom and smaller batfish followed us all the way up the mooring line at the end of our dive.
WATER TEMP: 26C
VISIBILITY: 10-12m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 12m
Now this is the way to start the week! We headed for Blizzard Ridge for dive one as we wanted to try to find the new anglerfish that we'd seen on Saturday, but, alas, he was no where to be found. We were very sad. But the crazy amount of fish, sharks, sea snakes, eels, and nudibranchs helped us get happy again! We even had a grey reef shark checking us out. Two different lionfish were showing off their fins in mid-water: there's something stunning about a red and white firefish with all of its bits spread out against a blue background! We had two mating octopus today, too. The female was BIG and she was making the male work pretty hard - dragging him all over the reef, swimming away, tucking into small holes, sitting up high on the reef edge and all the while both of them are showing off a breath-taking array of colours, patterns and textures. Best mating display ever!
WATER TEMP: 26C
VISIBILITY: 10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 14m
We had a hunch about Gulliver's so made it our second dive site. The place was hopping with a huge school of five lined sea perch, smaller groups of snapper, a big rolling school of convict surgeons and a dizzying school of southern drummers buzzing & circling us several times during the dive. One of the small magnificent anemones was rolled up into a purple vase and its resident pink anemonefish were weaving in and out of the mohawked tentacles. And we had two manta rays! One of them took over the cleaning station for about half an hour - back and forth, coming right over the divers' heads, circling around, getting a wing massage from our bubbles. AMAZING!
WATER TEMP: 26C
VISIBILITY: 8-10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 14m
We started our day at Cod Hole today and it really lived up to its name with tons of rankin and estuary cod all over the site. The dive started with a big shovelnosed ray lazily swimming past right at the bottom of the mooring! The fish life was excellent: lionfish, coral trout, six banded angelfish, all sorts of butterflyfishes, 100s of neon damsels & blue-green chromis, masses of red squirrelfish and lots of sea pike cruising around. Quite a few colourful nudibranchs and a few moray eels dotted the reef scape and a huge roughback stingray blew great plumes of sand up and over himself. Along the tops of the reef we had numerous green turtles. It was a gorgeous dive.
WATER TEMP: 26C
VISIBILITY: 12+m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 18m
Keyhole was up next and the colours were outstanding. There were even more angelfish covering this site than we'd seen on dive one, no mean feat! Barramundi cod, batfish, blue spotted rays, sailfin catfish, small porcelain crabs, cleaner shrimp, more turtles and some white tip reef sharks gave us plenty to look at as we enjoyed the warm, blue water. We were having such a great dive that we had to hang out for a few extra minutes!
WATER TEMP: 26C
VISIBILITY: 10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 12m
The afternoon was perfect for a big snorkel at East Side Bommies. Turtles, sharks, rays, anemonefish, lionfish, emperor angelfish, octopus, nudibranchs, schools of trevally, coral trout, Christmas Tree Worms...this site is awesome every time we visit!
FANTASTIC diving today! We started at Labyrinth and it was just truly amazing. Where to start? Manta ray? Check! Group of TEN white tip reef sharks hanging out together? Check! Turtles on every ledge and swimming alongside us? Check! Huge wobbegong shark smiling out from under his ledge? Check! Tiniest mantis shrimp ever? Check! Batfish, cleaning stations, coral trout, scorpionfish, nudibranchs of every hue, olive sea snakes, blue spotted rays... Check!
WATER TEMP: 26C
VISIBILITY: 10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 14m
Blizzard Ridge had a lot to live up to after such an incredible first dive. Happily it seemed every fish for a mile was hanging out for our viewing pleasure: rankin cod, coral cod, black-tipped rockcod, octopus, banded pipefish, estuary cod, firefish, fusiliers being cleaned...and a Queensland Groper!! Better than all those things (in this author's humble opinion) a new anglerfish (aka frogfish)! Woohoo - we adore our anglerfish!
WATER TEMP: 26C
VISIBILITY: 8m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 12m
Another stunner of a day and we headed to Lighthouse Bay for some diving on two of our favourite sites. Blizzard Ridge was jam packed with fish from the sand all the way to the surface. Our pair of banded pipefish are getting big and are sharing their hidey hole with three varieties of shrimps, coral cod and a juvenile olive sea snake who had stopped by for a little nap. Big, chunky estuary cod were cruising the top of the ledge and a good-sized roughback stingray kept an eye on us from the sand at the bottom of the ledge. Our resident school of threadfin pearl perch had some new members today - two small Nor'West Snapper and a stars & stripes pufferfish were floating along with them. So much to see!
WATER TEMP: 26C
VISIBILITY: 10+m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 14m
Gulliver's had even more action today than Blizzard did! Masses of bullseyes, glassfish and convict surgeons. Coral trout everywhere. Octopus out and about. Sailfin catfish snuffling the sand here, there and everywhere. A googly eyed porcupinefish snuggled under a ledge and kept doing circles while staying place - not sure if he was pretending we weren't there or just having a bit of a game! Turltes, white tip reef sharks, many spotted sweetlips and lots of action at the cleaning stations. Such fun!
Oh, and we forgot to mention the TWO enormous Queensland Gropers!!
WATER TEMP: 26C
VISIBILITY: 15+m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 14m
What a perfect day for our first day back diving after our short break in October and after our long blogging break!
We couldn't have asked for bluer skies, nicer temperatures, more perfect light breezes or better diving that our tour to the Muiron Islands gave us. We started the day at Jaws and were surrounded by an incredible amount of marine life before we even got to the bottom! Green turtles, schools of trevally and barracuda, coral trout hunting & hanging under ledges, colourful nudibranchs, curious batfish and adorable tiny yellow boxfish were just some of vast variety on this site.
WATER TEMP: 25-26C
VISIBILITY: 15+m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 12m
Whalebone was next up and it had all of the usual suspects set against a backdrop of gorgeous blue water and stunning soft corals in red, yellow, orange, pink & purple. This is such a beautiful site it wouldn't even matter if there were any fish! Happily, there were plenty: barramundi cod, scorpionfish, white tip reef sharks, flowery cod, rankin cod, sailfin catfish and roughback stingrays. The octopus were out and about enjoying the beams of sunlight, too.
WATER TEMP: 25-26C
VISIBILITY: 15+m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 12m
We stopped to snorkel around at Turtle Beach and there were plenty of turtles for everyone. Our gentle drift showed us anemonefish, bluw-spotted stingrays, small eels, multitudes of neon damsels & sergeant majors, cascading schools of convict surgeonfish, Nor'West Snapper, lazy estuary cod and more angelfish than we could count!
Not enough for you? We also had humpback whales to keep us entertained both on the trip out and on the way back. All in all a pretty perfect day!
