Flew up to Carnarvon on the 27th to catch a ride in to Coral Bay with dive
buddies from the WAUPS group.  Half the group is down south for a 6 day
dive trip between Bremer Bay & Albany .. and the other half of the group is
up here in Coral Bay.  It was heaven to get away from the heatwave Perth is
having.  This is the coolest period I've ever encountered in Coral Bay
during the Christmas period.  Also required me to wear a shortie over the
top of my polartec suit to last more than an hour uw without getting cold
paws.

28th - We all slept in .. did not have frenetic Annie with us this trip ..
she would have been out in the middle of the night photographing spiders &
other creepy crawlies, the moon & so on. Then she would have up before the
crack of dawn and have returned to our chalet telling us what a beautiful
morning it was .. groan!  Where she gets the energy heaven knows but this
time she was with the Bremer Bay group so we all enjoyed our sleep-in. Then
a nice greasy breakfast washed down with lotsa cuppas before we even took a
look out at the bay to see what the wind conditions were like as that made
a big difference which direction of the reef we would be diving.

South-south westerly winds it was which made the choice a little easier. We
were all feeling the excesses of numerous Christmas functions plus Boxing
Day bbqs, etc, so we decided a quiet dip at Eel bommie down near south
passage was the best way to get us back in to routine.  At only 6 metres we
would have plenty of time & air to get around all off the bommies.

I was deckie for Bill's boat - called Jaundice - he's a doctor what can I
say ;-)  It's yellow too!  We drop anchor & its my job to ensure the anchor
has set properly. Good excuse & you are always the first one in the water
so see the skittish things first.  I had noticed lots of turtles popping up
for air as we were circling the main bommie so as soon as checked the
anchor was ok I was off looking for the turtles.  Came across a real old
fella that was up on all fours. I lay down on the sand to watch thinking he
was asleep .. he was just drifting backwards & forwards with the swell ..
but I soon realised he was just enjoying having the cleaner wrasse pick off
the nasties. He opened his eyes a few times to look at me and after lying
there for 5 mins or so I decided to move on and do a big circuit in this
area .. a spot I had never bothered to look at before.  No matter where I
looked in the coral there appeared to be pairs of ring-tailed
cardinalfish .. the male his gob full of eggs.  I normally don't bother
looking at the dead coral lumps but for once I am glad I did. Checking
underneath the ledge I came across a dinnerplate sized stingray that I had
never seen anywhere in my dive travels before.  It was the splotches of
colour that was unusual.. something I must get the Western Oz museum to
indentify for me.  Was not till it moved a little bit that I realised it
was sharing its space with a northern wobbegong. Only a baby about a foot
long.

Moving on came over to the main bommie where most of the WAUParians were.
It was very obvious that the fish breeding was very successful in this
area. You could see 3 generations of fish in one area .. really great for
those who have never seen what the juveniles of these species looked like.
Most of the babies were about whitebait size and literally see-thru. Then
there were some around the size of a large apricot that were starting to
look like the adults except they had a few more bars or lines of colour on
them.  I just luv the juveniles .. they are so pretty & cute.

There is a group of baldchin gropers that appear to have made this area
their patch. They are always digging up the seafloor looking for something
to munch on. You can get so close if you just work your way in slowly that
you feel you can just about tickle them under the chin. This is one of my
favourite spots in this region.  The next day we planned for an exploration
dive to find some new dives sites.  I have the use of a manta board so we
will be cruising off the shoreline between Maud's Landing and the main reef
patch of Bill's Bay.

29th - Another sleep-in.  We are on holiday wot the heck ;-)
The winds are still in so the idea of me whizzing around on the manta board
are put on hold until we get a better day for it. As some of the group want
to see sharks we zap out to Asho's Gap. Only saw one shark :-( but better
than nuffink I guess. The water temps are currently around 23-24C depending
on the dive site. The more coral there is the milkier it is .. and it was
milky around Asho's Gap. I did my own thing knowing the area really well &
just checked out the schooling barracuda and surgeonfish over the cabbage
patch coral before heading north of the reef to get away from everyone.
Found another old turtle having a snooze under a ledge but it appears other
divers have obviously been chasing him because he shot off like a rocket
even though I froze so as not to disturb him. By the time I had worked my
way back to the boat all the snapper were in under the boats looking for a
handout. The charter boats that bring the snorkellers out here are allowed
by our conservation & land management folk to feed the snapper so these
fish expect a handout no matter who turns up in the water. They soon
realise we are empty handed & push off.

30th - We actually wake up early for a change. Looking out to sea it is
flat as a pancake so it's manta board time for me while some of the group
head elsewhere to dive. I head off in Bill's boat towards Maud's Landing.
We check out an area we have not bothered to give the time of day before
and I am amazed how much fishlife is down there. Only gets down to 8 metres
at the most in some areas but what I could see while on the manta board
this was a good spot for a shallow dive where every member of WAUPS could
take pics on whatever they were interested in without anyone getting bored.
Passing the manta board up I get back on board and soon we are working out
the best place to anchor. On goes the tank this time and overboard I go
with camera to first check the anchor has taken.  We have a new guy running
the glass bottom boat charters in Coral Bay and he has asked me to take
pics of the types of fish non-divers could expect to see while peering down
off the glass bottom boats.  This is an ideal place for that. Huges schools
of trevally .. in fact I think there are more trevally in the bay than
snapper. Normally it is the other way around. While photographing some
Clark's anemonefish noticed a tiny little ragged-finned firefish. Naturally
had to take a photo of that as they are normally hiding during the day and
I can't be bothered this trip to get wet at night which is as well as none
of the group are interested in a night dive anyway ... sooks ;-)

There was so much fishlife here I was just amazed that I had never bothered
to even think of diving here before. The teardrop margined coralfish were
the largest I had ever seen. They were in pairs everywhere .. the racoon
butterflyfish were in freesomes. I'd never seen so many different types of
the maori wrasse before in one area .. this is a good breeding area folks.
Naturally I will have to come back again to take more piccies here.  Had
only 5 shots left on my roll of film when I heard Bill's beeper. He has
strick instructions to only use that when he is in trouble or if he sees
something we all would kill for to photograph. He had spotted the largest
leopard shark any of us had ever seen. I managed to get 2 shots of it full
length, a head shot & one of it turning around to swim away and everyone
said he was atleast 3 foot longer than I was when lying face to face
towards it. Being at the head end all I could think was how broad in shape
the upper part of its body was. With only 1 shot left I thought I would
save that for something special .. ya know .. everytime you blow off the
last shot you find something even better just when you get back to the
boat. Well, while I was patiently waiting for everyone in the queue to get
back on board the boat I spotted a 6 foot long white tip having a snooze in
the sand patch. I nipped down to see if I could get close for a decent shot
but it just knew what I had in mind so it started to move off. Wot the
heck .. took the shot any how.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, we hope to dive on Quinn's bommie and then
come back to this site to blow off another roll of film.  Everyone is still
in holiday-mode so its been hard trying to get everyone interested in a 2
tank dive. We have had 2 tanks for each person aboard but everyone has
spent around an hour & a half in the water on the first dive being so
shallow that they have felt that is enough. I will soon whip them in to
shape .. oh, err .. that's me .. I will soon get my lazy carcass in to
gear ;-)
Viv