I believe in miracles

Well who'd have thought it? With the wind being so....well, you know....windy, we didn't expect to be back in the water the second day on the trot. To be honest, we weren't expecting too much but with the wind at it's lowest point at 7am this morning, we took a gamble which paid off. 

It was reasonably flat at the surface with minor little swell surprisingly enough. There was still a strong NE current and lots of particulate but it was better than yesterday so it was wide angle all the way today baby, yeah!

And what was also surprising was how quite the dive site was today. Car park was empty, everything was shut, I was expecting more tourists to be here over the holiday period, but you won't here me complaining!

Sunrise over Sunset House

We did our usual circuit of Aphitrite before making a stop on the Nicholson to spend some time with our ever present shoal of friendly snappers. 

Even Amphitrite has put on a few pounds over the Christmas period.......

I swear they have a sixth sense built in as they always seem to know when we're coming so they're ready to nudge my elbow or swim under my arms when I'm taking a shot, the little scamps. Like uncontrollable puppies. I think I'll be taking a leash and a rolled up newspaper in with me next time!

The stern of the Nicholson awash with colour. And snappers.

I also remembered to shoot a little video of this great little wreck with all of our fishy friends harassing the poor old photographer!. And yes, I did forget I was shooting on my side for the first couple of seconds.

Jill escapes the Nicholson before being overrun by a horde of rampaging friendly fish.

As the current was shoving us Southward, we pushed out over the drop off to see if we could catch a turtle or ray or two, but no luck today. We just had to settle for the spectacularly colourful sponges and corals peppered with shoals of triggerfish, basslets, tangs and sweetlips. What a hard life.....

Wicked colour and shapes. Looks like someone tied it into a ribbon of rainbows.

After scouring the depths and checking out into the blue we carried on South down the wall and cut back over the the garden eels who seemed quite content to wave around in the current and get a good feed on the particulate whizzing past.

Lovely pink anemone, all it needs is a clown fish or two.....

With our bottom time closing in, we had a nice drift in the shallows to see if we could spot any small stuff. There was certainly the odd gobie and christmas tree worm but I've never thought of Sunset house as a major dive site for macro work. 

I've no doubt you could get some nice macro shots (I've done so in the past), but for me, it's definitely all about the wide angle at this dive site. And really, with the colours and scenery that they have going on here, there's not much to be unhappy about.

Jill creeps up on the chromis and grunts

With any luck the weather will hold and we'll be jumping off a perfectly good boat in the next week or two, so fingers crossed.