One horse town

Well we definitely had a good omen as we left the house to get some quality bottom time in today. Double rainbow!!

Try not to lose your sh*t when you see this

We hit Sunset house at the crack of dawn to get the right light and avoid the crowds to work on some scenic shots and squeeze some wreck shots in.

Plenty of light from the surface helps to build up the layers

The fish were definitely on a mission today as they just would not leave us alone! I have so many shots of snappers and angelfish bumping the port and just obscuring Jill completely it's comical. Especially the ones that make her look like she has a fish for a head. I'll maybe post them one day for a laugh.....

The fish come out to play

We had to change up our dive plan a bit as we were kind enough to take along a holiday maker who had no one to dive with, so we allowed him to tag along. He told us he was very experienced and his air consumption was great, so what could possibly go wrong? 

Ha! We had half our usual bottom time and he rode the imaginary bicycle the entire dive. Lesson learned. Unless you've trained them, don't get in the water with them! I gave him some friendly (honest!) advice afterwards though, so hopefully he'll think more about his dives in future.

Lovely flowing shapes on the main wall

We then headed to Lighthouse Point as we had been looking for the elusive seahorses that were rumored to be there, but we had yet to find any. 

At his point, it was raining, cloudy, dark, thunderstorms brewing, waves at the surface, strong surge below and the bottom was getting stirred up badly. Like diving back home in winter time and I had a good feeling that today would be the day we find a seahorse.

After a hell of a game of hide and seek, we found one

And after about 20 minutes, I headed to around the 5 metre mark to check some potential hiding spots and I found the orange seahorse nestled in amongst some sponges. There is also a yellow and two black seahorses but they weren't to be found, not on this dive anyway.

A (sea)horse with no name

He was a frisky little blighter and was quite happy to gallop over the bottom to have a nosh on the greenery from time to time. I got a little video footage but due to the conditions, it's not the best in the world, but you get the idea.

There were another pair of divers in the water about an hour after us and had been combing the area for the seahorses as well. Being the kind soul that I am, I took them back to where I had found the wild stallion and pointed him out. I was their new best friend after that!

Jill found a nice big green moray having a good clean  at the rock pile and came and got me for some shots before it ducked back in. A good healthy sized one, probably about 4-5 feet judging by head size and body thickness.

A thing of beauty

Plenty of the usual suspects where out and about, mantis shrimps, jawfish, filefish, flounders, octopus but to be perfectly honest, the main focus was to find the seahorse and we did that with resounding success if I do say so myself.

Banded jawfish looking for some attention

One final shot for the road