Weather with you

Well November is certainly proving to be a tricky month for getting in the water, partly due to the influx of tourists onto the island but also because the weather has been very unpredictable the last three weeks, with strong winds and high gusts. We had a small window of opportunity to get wet and Sunday morning and it was glorious.

Ray and his escort

If you're going to come to the island and dive, do it as early as you can. You get the whole dive site to yourself, you see all the best stuff and the sun rise always helps for some excellent shots.

We'd only just descended and the rays were already cruising around in the shallows looking for their next meal not to mention some epic sized lobsters.

The lobster whisperer strikes again

The mini wall at Lighthouse Point was particularly epic this morning, octopus were in full forage mode and were happy to scamper about in front of the camera like cute, playful eight legged kittens as they frolicked amongst the coral.

So cute and fluffy

The wall was a haven for free swimming morays and the obligatory inquisitive snappers, angelfish, sweetlips and grunts.

Sunrise on the wall

We also had a spate of turtles that were happy enough to stop and admire themselves in the camera lens before cruising onwards.

Don't mind me, just passing through...

Made a bonus find of a nice drumfish, which I was getting into position to get a shot of and found a nice little bristleworm right next to it. Extra points!

"Now the world don't move to the beat of just one drum....."

Bristling with creative energy

And whilst I was busy with this pair, Jill made a nice find of a big old stonefish kicking back and watching the world go by.

Too stoned to move and too lazy to care

I was also mucking around with some experimental panoramic shots but given that the conditions weren't fantastic and with so many moving elements in the frame the results weren't the best in the world however I have plenty of time to experiment and perfect the process, so bear with me.

Lighthouse Point mini wall panoramic

Water temp has been averaging around 28 C just now and vis over the last few weeks has been 22-23 metres, hopefully the winds will settle back down and the vis will improve again.

Peacock flounder for the end of the dive