Supernaut

Another perfect day in the water, with the wind dropping off and the temperatures rising. It's almost back to normal again. Mind you the forecasted storm did hit us come midday but we were well out the water and away by the time that arrived.

Little bit of surge on the dive which stirred things up a little at the bottom which made for a cloudy dive in the shallows but that cleared up after getting a little depth.

Clear blue water. Nice

With my faithful pet Snapper by my side, we ventured off to see what we could find today. Which turned out to be loads of turtles amongst other things. 

The water was crawling with them today for some reason, I mean we normally see a turtle or two most dives but you couldn't swing a fin without nearly hitting one this morning.

One of many turtles cruising today

A lot of the ones we found were feeding on the elephant ear sponges as well as being accompanied by a collection of angelfish who would dart in for any goodies that got stirred up during the meal. 

One turtle shot I had lined up perfectly got photo-bombed by a queen angelfish, though not the shot I was after, still pretty to look at. That's the way of underwater photography, sometimes unexpected things happen that turn out for better than expected....

"No, take a picture of me instead!"

A lot of morays were out and about cruising amongst the reef and a few at cleaning stations as well, obviously getting their morning grooming done before heading out to the shops.

A spotted moray with cleaning attendant

We came of the wall and got a bit more depth just to see what else may be hanging around out there and had some more turtles do a fly past as well as some nice shoals of sweet lips and grunts. 

My faithful snapper, Spot brought some more of his friends out to play with us and they were more than happy to nudge and generally pester us for several minutes. Next week I'm taking a ball and going to train him to play fetch.

Oh Spot, you scallywag!

There was plenty of small stuff to find as well this morning. Remember that patience needed for a lot of shots that you take to get the shot you are happy with, especially some of the small stuff. It's not unusual for me to sit for 20-25 minutes just to get a shot of something I'm happy with, as they say, good things come to those that wait.

A happy orange sided goby

Blennies, gobies, hermit crabs and cowries where on the list of things to be seen today. There was a beautiful sailfin blenny which I did sit for ages trying to get a shot of with the dorsal fin fully opened up, but it was immensely camera shy and after a long time it only graced me with a head shot.

You've got to come out some time.......

Still, you take what you can get and I had the added bonus of a lettuce leaf slug crawling past not a couple of inches away. Double point score.

That's right, you just look ashamed and crawl away like the slug that you are!

And towards the end of the dive there were a pair of flamingo tongue cowries getting horizontal. Literally. Now I'm not one to be a voyeur but I'm considering selling the shots to The Sun newspaper. I'm sure there's a good scandal in there somewhere....

That's disgusting! Further pictures on pages, 2,3,7,9,11,14,15,16 and pretty much the rest of the paper....

If you're going to end a dive, make sure you end it on a juicy sex scandal! Safe diving everyone!