And I third it.  I wish I could even begin to recall my dives with the
detail and clarity that Viv brings to her fabulous dive reports.  Their
only "flaw" is that they are so complete in themselves they leave
almost nothing else to say.

Robert delfs

On Tue, 6 Jan 2004 13:30:29 -0500, M. Bevelhimer wrote:

>I couldn't have said it better; I second that emotion!
>-Mark B.
>
>At 11:08 PM 1/5/2004 -0600, you wrote:
>>Hi Viv,
>>
>>Have I told you lately how very much I enjoy and look forward to your dive
>>reports?  Maybe it's because I can hear your voice in the telling and
>>can't help smile from remembering your infectious laugh.
>>
>>I hope you will keep posting your reports and don't get discouraged by
>>lack of comment.  I know that usually I'm simply too stunned to reply
>>after reading how much you wring out of a dive...and out of life for that
>>matter.  We look forward to seeing you again in LaPaz.  It's happy new
>>year that your around.
>>
>>Best regards,
>>Russ
>>
>>
>>Krazy Kiwi Viv wrote:
>>
>>>New Years Eve we welcomed in the New Year with a private function for the
>>>staff of Bayview Caravan Park & Holiday Village at the back of the Lodge.
>>>Chris put on a brilliant fire twirling show and, for his efforts, I don't
>>>think there was a hair left on his hands.  He made it look easy but using
>>>the same motions as a long poi I know how difficult it can be when you are
>>>doing doubles .. up, over and around ensuring you don't set your hair or
>>>skirt on fire. I think this was the first New Years ever where the cops did
>>>not have to arrest anyone for the night.  I snuck off to bed once all the
>>>kissing & hugging was over .. I needed a bit of a catnap before the 7:30am
>>>call to rise & shine for our New Years Day dive.
>>>
>>>On the way down to the beach at 8:15am we came across a few party-goers who
>>>were still at it.  We were the only boat out that morning.. and due to that
>>>we were able to pick and choose what dive mooring we wanted, which was
>>>fortunate as the winds were still a problem.  Knowing the glass bottom
>>>boats would not be taking snorkellers out till sometime in the afternoon we
>>>decided to dive on a couple of their more regular snorkel sites just to see
>>>what was there.
>>>
>>>Dive #7 was way out near where the open ocean broke over the reef wall.
>>>Fish every where zooming around left, right and centre.  As I was feeling
>>>lazy I just sat on my knees in the sand watching all the activity for a
>>>while - it was like being in the middle of a busy road crossing. This spot
>>>had some lovely staghorn formations ... each being nibbled on, the algae
>>>that is, by the convict surgeon fish, numerous types of parrotfish and
>>>various wrasses of all shapes, sizes and colours.  Slowly finning over to
>>>the reef wall itself I was surprised to find the sand had been totally
>>>sucked out from this area so there were many small caves and ledges to
>>>check out.  Found a family of spotted sweetlips in one cave. Lots of blue-
>>>spotted orange stingrays here trying their best to hide headfirst under the
>>>ledges.  Many of the damsel fish were grunting and doing their best to
>>>attack you if you came anywhere near where they had laid their eggs.
>>>A small manta ray came by .. don't know what it was doing on this side of
>>>the bay as normally they only cruise up & down the waters between Maud's
>>>Landing, Oyster Bridge and the main coral porites dive site further north.
>>>
>>>Dive #8 was at a spot closer in to shore where the Coral Bay Adventures
>>>glassbottom boat frequents on a daily basis.  The fish here (schnapper,
>>>spangled emperor, fusiliers, sargent majors and blue-green chromis) had
>>>obviously become accustomed to being feed as they were around the boat as
>>>soon as we moored. This site was very pretty .. stacks of different types
>>>of coral reaching up towards the surface.  Again many large flutemouths
>>>(all three colours), schools of various types of surgeonfish were skirting
>>>around many of the staghorn coral patches.  Came across a dinner plate
>>>sized turtle slowly cruising along popping up now & again for a breath
>>>above. Saw three different types of pufferfish.  The larger ones always
>>>have that funny comical look on their faces when you corner them for a shot
>>>and they don't know which way to go.
>>>
>>>Today things were back to normal in Coral Bay.  The dive shop was open for
>>>business and the various skippers were motoring out in their dingies to
>>>prepare their vessels for passengers.  That could be anything from a manta
>>>ray/turtle/dolphin snorkel, dive trip inside or outside the reef, fishing
>>>charter, out for a sail, a fishing charter or a 4-wheel drive and kayak
>>>adventure.
>>>
>>>Dive #9 we were back at Eel Bommie.  I spent 85mins uw at this site .. one
>>>of my favourite spots.  The wobbegongs were still sleeping in the same
>>>caves we saw them in during the previous dive here.  Took lots of piccies
>>>of a beautiful black & white firefish.  Found a very pretty large cowrie
>>>shell lying in the rubble which I was lining up to take a piccie of before
>>>I realised the beautiful creature I expected to pop out any moment to show
>>>its lovely mantle would not be - as it had already been eaten. On turning
>>>it over a spotted a very small hermit crab had taken up residence.  But, as
>>>the shell was way, way too large for it, the crab could not move the shell
>>>so I scrounged around in the broken shell area for a small shell for it
>>>leaving that shell turned over right next to the now turned over cowrie
>>>shell in the hope the hermit crab would realise the smaller shell was more
>>>suitable for it. I finned off checking out all the new sponges that had
>>>started to take over many of the coral bommies here. Very surprised when I
>>>chanced across a baby numb ray that was rolling to & fro in the swell -
>>>unfortunately dead.  Never knew numb rays existed in this area so that is
>>>one thing I will have to check up on with the WA museum folk when I get
>>>back. Found quite a few nudibranchs out on the crawl which I photographed
>>>to death .. atleast they don't run away giving you a tail-end view.
>>>There is one particular anemone that for the life of me I can not figure
>>>out why it exists in the middle of the sand and rubble where it has no
>>>protection at all.  The anemone itself is still quite small but it is home
>>>to two large clarkii and 3 baby clarkii, plus a family of dominoes.  Yet
>>>there is a large anemone literally of the same type as that one (adhesive
>>>anemone) that is in a very protected area but has nothing on it.  No
>>>anemonefish or shrimps.  Go figure!  I have been tempted at times to take a
>>>net down and try and catch all those on the swell-swept anemone and move
>>>them over to the calmer more protected anemone .. but nature has its own
>>>way of dealing with things.  So I continue to marvel at how the clarkii
>>>continue to breed, put up with all the wrasse picking and poking at the
>>>rocks around them, and cope with the copious amounts of sand that drift
>>>across their anemone daily.  I shot my last two shots of slide film on the
>>>anemonefish .. had been hunting around for the large baler shell that is
>>>resident in this area but it had disappeared somewhere else.  Yep, you
>>>guessed it .. while I was finning back to the boat there it was .. the
>>>baler shell out in all its glory trumpeting along under the damn boat.
>>>Bugger .. no film left.
>>>
>>>Dive #10 - north of Asho's Gap.  The Ningaloo Reef dive shops boat -
>>>Exmouth Dive - was already diving off Asho's Gap so we swung a big arch
>>>around them to get to the north end mooring to ensure we did not connect
>>>with any of their divers.  Lots of coral heads just under the surface of
>>>the water here so a bit of a tricky weave in & out before we were safely
>>>moored.  Off we all went in the hope of seeing the sharks again on the
>>>cabbage patch coral .. quite a bit of a swim to get over to the main bommie
>>>but once were were on that side and had seen the sharks it was easy in the
>>>current to cruise back slowly down the western side up & around a few of
>>>the bommies on the northern dive site.  The vis was certainly a lot better
>>>this time and there were more fish out roaming about. A very large school
>>>of sailfin tangs were dancing around us at one point as we drifted along.
>>>All the anemonies look healthy with lots of orange anemonefish in
>>>residence. Every now & again a large sweetlip or grouper would appear near
>>>a coral bommie and once it realised we had sighted it would disappear in to
>>>a gap in the coral. There is one turtle in particular that is a regular
>>>here .. it is missing one front fin so had a bit of difficulty swimming.
>>>When it was still a youngin I recall watching it crash in to some of the
>>>tall coral formations that happened to be in its path before it built up
>>>enough momentum to get above them.  Now that it has become accustomed to
>>>all the divers and snorkellers that frequent the northern end of this dive
>>>site it slowly takes its time chomping on sponges and any jellyfish it is
>>>lucky to catch instead of bolting for its life. As I did not have the
>>>camera with me on this dive I was busy picking up drupella snails .. the
>>>vermin of the sea on this side of the pond.  I don't think they have this
>>>pest on the Great Barrier Reef ... guess they have their crown of thorns
>>>invasion now and again while we have the drupella snail.  I think about
>>>400+ of them are now RIP in the local tip.  The CALM ranger came over to
>>>chat to us while we were unloading the dingy and I promptly offered my
>>>bucket full of drupella snail to him if he wanted them, as technically you
>>>are not supposed to remove ANYTHING from the marine sanctuary area (Asho's
>>>Gap falls within that zoned area) but being a pest he was quite happy for
>>>me collect and destroy them.
>>>
>>>Tomorrow is my last day of diving and the weather looks like turning
>>>nasty ... weatherman is sitting on the fence on whether what is coming down
>>>and across the western coastline is going to turn in to a cyclone.   They
>>>have put out a warning that it *may* turn in to the cyclone .. nothing
>>>definite yet.   Fortunately the bay area we are in is not prone to
>>>cyclones - it always seems to wipe out Exmouth at the lowest point .. but
>>>the cyclones that hit the Gasgoyne region normally goes inland to less
>>>populated areas and trashes a few of the cattlestations in its path on the
>>>way before dying out.
>>>Viv


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