3 July 2015 - Anchor Point, Hook Island - Qld
Went in off the back of Catlypso from mooring and onto reef edge. Viz not great as a lot of fine sand. Went NW towards point at 13 m and then back at around 7 m. Quite a few tropical species, Kelly found a strange nudibranch. A batfish on way back, an anemone with dozens of glass shrimp. Good to have a dive after 3 weeks but not the greatest. Visibility fair.

4 July 2015 - Blue Pearl Bay, Hayman Island - Qld
Dived off Thunderbird 2. Reef runs N-S, went N for 20 mins at 13-15 m and then back at 7-8 m. Lots of fishlife, barracuda, sweetlips, butterflyfish and more. A nice nudibranch, some clams, lots of different species of coral. A really nice dive site. Visibility good.

Anchored T2 N of no anchoring buoy. Reef shallow here with a few bommies and then a slope from 9 m to 15+ m. Went N at 13 m for 8 mins and back to anchor then S for 10 and back. Lots of small fish near anchor and some trevally attacking them. Some surgeonfish, triggerfish and lots of butterflyfish. Plenty of other tropical species. Quite varied coral in shallower waters. Visibility good.

Ran to the bay from our mooring in Luncheon Bay. Kelly's reg played up, the cover fell off and when put back together fell apart again. She went to use ocky and it was full of water, not sure of problem as it purged okay. Fixed main reg and dived. Went from tender mooring to N to slope, 15 m, turned left and went W. Lots of bommies on edge and smaller ones out further. Quite a few different nudibranchs, lots of seapike, trevally. A huge Maori wrasse back near boat. Very nice dive. Visibility good.

Dived the southern side of the bay, went N to the channel and back. Catlypso was moored on S mooring, we went from T2 about 50 m away. Saw a barracuda type fish, some nudibranchs, batfish, heard whales. All the normal fish we have been seeing at Whitsunday Islands. Visibility very good.

Took T2 a bit further to the N than last week's dive and anchored in 10 m. Went W, a few bommies and some walls and bays. Back to anchor and then SE for a while. More of the same, many different soft and hard coral species. Saw another juvenile harlequin sweetlips, some nudis, a swimming flatworm, some barramundi cod and all the normal species. Visiibility good, but only fair in spots as tide outgoing.

Started the dive from adjacent to the E mooring where Catlypso was. Could have started from the mooring as it turned out. Went N along the slope at about 18 to 19 m. Some small coral bommies. Looks like it goes to over 30 m here. Lots of gorgonias and some sea whips. Plenty of fish. Came back at about 15 m getting shallower to 12 m as we went. After we passed where T2 was anchored went under Catlypso and saw mooring. A huge giant trevally and lots of fish under the boat. Then saw an enormous bullray. Back to T2 and safety stop. Lots of fish, some large anemones with pink anemonefish, some nudibranchs and lots of species of hard and soft coral. A really nice dive, the best we have done in the Whitsundays. Visibility very good.

Again dived from T2 on dinghy mooring and went to N at 14 metres from the bottom of the mooring. Lots of small bommies on a slight sandy slope with a few larger ones in 12 m. After 17 mins into a slight current came back, saw a few interesting nudibranchs. Saw 2 very large Maori wrasse. Back at the mooring did a big circle and then saw a white-tipped reef shark at the mooring before ascending. Visibility fair.

We were going to dive from Catlypso's mooring but the current/tide was still too strong. Took T2 to the dinghy mooring. Came with tide under Catlypso at about 16 m. A huge giant trevally and lots of fish in the shade. Saw another huge Maori wrasse and a large kingfish or similar. Back shallower and then a bit deeper past the other heavy boat mooring. Under the smaller moorings and back to T2 in 6 m. Lots of fish here.

24 July 2015 - The Stepping Stones, Bait Reef - Qld
Took T2 to just outside the reef and anchored in between two bommies (The Stepping Stones). Went S along the wall which drops to 25 m and then slopes deeper. Lots of overhangs and cracks. Went past the next gap between the bommies and around some smaller bommies. Back a bit shallower to anchor and then N. There was a tunnel into the lagoon from outside that we went into. Back to the N again but the current got stronger so we turned around. Current all over the place on this dive. Back to anchor and spent rest on safety stop around the bommies. Saw 3 WTRS, some clownfish, a titan triggerfish, some larger fish, a saw-tooth tuna (?), flutemouth and a number of species of nudi. A brilliant dive. Visibility excellent.

We anchor a bit north-east of where we did yesterday, much closer to the entrance to the anchorage. The water is even cleaner than yesterday, probably 35 to 40 metres. We head north-east to the entrance channel. We see a couple of sharks, a white-tipped reef shark and a black-tipped reef shark. We head a bit into the channel before turning around. We go back along the reef towards where we anchored yesterday. There are a couple of very large anemones, one with pink anenomefish and the other with Clark’s anenomefish. As mentioned yesterday, the reef has a shear wall to about 20 or 22 metres. We pass the tunnel we swam through yesterday. We turn around where we anchored yesterday and on the way back we see is a wobbegong shark on a small ledge on the wall. This is a totally different species to any wobbegong we have seen before. It is very short but extremely wide. We will have to look this up on the internet when we get access or have a look in our books when we get home. There are plenty of gorgonias, sea whips, harp sea whips and lots of soft corals. We go back to where are anchored and spend the rest of the dive in the shallows. Other fish we see are lots of flutemouths and blue damsels, a few flutemouths and batfish. We also see a blue-faced angelfish, a regal angelfish, some barramundi cod (with a remora on one) and different species of butterflyfish. There was also a large Maori wrasse near T2. Visibility very excellent.

Took T2 from Luncheon Bay and had Danny from Sentinel dive with us. We did a similar dive to last time, went out to reef edge and NE. Went under the large moorings and then turned around after 17 minutes. Saw two large anemones with anemonefish, some huge GTs under T2, some large Maori wrasse in various spots, some nudibranchs, lots of butterflyfish, some surgeonfish. A really great dive. Visibility was great, as good as out on the reef. Visibility excellent.

Took T2 from Butterfly and Danny from Sentinel again dived with us. We did a similar dive to yesterday, went out to reef edge and NE. Went under the large moorings but we kept going NE for 25 mins. Saw the two large anemones with anemonefish, a WTRS, lots of blue fusiliers, especially under the N mooring. Saw dozens of nudibranchs, how come we have only see a couple each dive before this? Lots of butterflyfish, some surgeonfish, parrotfish and a huge crayfish. Another really great dive. Visibility was not as good as yesterday, but still great. Visibility excellent.

Dive to check keel on a yacht Y Knot that ran aground off the southern end of Black Island. It had hit hard, pushed keel up at rear and bent top of keel and put a crack along where it joins the hull at front. They ended up going back to marina! Looks like a costly mistake for them, deposit lost!

Dropped in off reef to the east of our mooring and drifted south. Kelly did not want to dive so she followed in T2. Similar dive to the one we did south of here 3 July. Some unicornfish, lots of small stingrays, a large angelfish, plenty of blue fusiliers and normal reef fish. Only an average dive. Visibility fair.

Started just to the S of beach entrance and went NW as per first dive. Coral is mostly dead below 12 m but nice fishlife. Went for 15 mins with current and came back at 12 m but overshot entrance. Excellent coral S of entrance, lots of large bommies and overhangs. Nothing real special seen, just all the normal fish for up here. Visibility very good.

Diving from MV Kalinda on weekend trip. Very rough seas but no current. Moored on bow, went to stern near sand and then back higher. Lots of fish as expected. Saw 2 sea snakes, a turtle, lots of Maori wrasse, GTs and more. Excellent dive. Visibility very good.

Similar to last dive but only very slight current.  Lots of fish as before. At stern heard whales, singing a very strange song we had never heard before. Also very loud. Saw a large cod off bow. Excellent dive. Visibility very good.

Another dive from bow to stern. Lots of large barrcuda high above the wreck. Another excellent dive. Visibility very good.

Moored to stern today. Early dive before breakfast, a bit dark as also overcast. Not as much fishlife on wreck as yesterday, a lot was off over the sand near bow. Also barracuda we back and up above 10 m. A large bullray, a few sea snakes, a large cod and a couple smaller ones. Another excellent dive. Visibility better, excellent.

Similar dive to previous one. Went to bow, showed Kelly the toilets as she could not refind them. A turtle there as first dive. A n eagle ray, bullray and more. Last of five fantastic dives here,  virtually no  current and more than 25 m viz on each dive. Visibility excellent. 

For more details about these dives and other dives this year, click here.