Only a northern song

What a great day we had in the water, despite the limited visibility. The first port of call was Northern Lights which turned out to be a good choice on the part of Captain Nige as it has been a while since we were here but the scenery was spectacularly breathtaking.

"Jump already!"

We had 10-11 knot Easterly making it a little bit lumpy at the surface but nothing to write home about. The start of the dive proved to be a little challenging for some individuals as well as Captain Nige.

Poor sausage, I felt sorry for him but I don't regret giving up teaching/guiding on a full time basis. I already paid my dues many times over back home, but then that's why they get the superstar wages to put up with people who don't properly follow the pre-dive brief.

Anyway, once everyone was sorted out, we headed East down at depth to enjoy the show that Mother nature had put on for us.

And waht a show with amazing fan corals, rope and barrel sponges with all the colours of the rainbow on display for the expectant diver covered with a healthy sprinkling of damselfish and sargeant majors for good measure.

Can you spot the arrow crab in the picture?

Looks like the guys missed a lionfish......

We didn't see any big stuff on this particular outing but that's the way things are, some days you get lucky and others you just get great scenery like some great hard coral formations to have a real good look around to see the good stuff.

And with the light in the right place over head, I was still able to get a couple of quick silhouette shots for fun despite the reduced viz.

 

After getting back on board, we motored off closer to home with the second dive taking place at Fish Tank. Or thanks to Ian's artistic skills, Whale Dalek as it has now been re-christened. Don't give up your day job sir!

I can honestly say I've never been overwhelmed with Fish Tank, sorry, Whale Dalek, every time I've been here. It just don't do it for me compared to somewhere like Black Rock reef, however any dive is a good dive and you make the best with what you've got. In this case some monsterous elysia crispata, probably the biggest I've seen yet on the island. I'm sure it could have taken a hand off if you got too close........

After backing up sufficently to get the godzilla-like nudi in the frame for a shot, I notice a movement out the corner of my eye by some rope sponge which turned out to be a tiny juvenile filefish trying to look inconspicuous. If it could whistle and look nochalant, i'm sure it would have.

There wasn't too much else happening in the nooks and crannies as even after a good scour I only managed to unearth a saddled blenny and a tiny roughhead blenny, but it was still nice to get shots of them all the same.

A great days diving on the North side with Captain Nige, Linda the Swedish assassin and Ian providing the comic relief. If you get a chance, check out Northern Lights as it one of those sites that you are guaranteed not to be disappointed with.

"All aboard the skylark!"