In the still of the night

I've missed the post from Sunday but honestly just now the hours I'm doing at work is crazy and that in conjunction with looking after my old mate Roland whilst he's visiting doesn't leave a lot of time to get stuff done. I got up at 4am just to sort out my photos and do this update before I go to work. Last night was night dive time straight from work and it was a nice one. Not the best I've ever had at LHP but still nothing to be disappointed about.

LET'S GET WET!!!

 A little excursion across the hard pan threw a up some nice fins, like peacock flounders and yellow spotted rays along with the obligatory flamingo tongue cowries, especially the juvenile variety and a very fine selection of crustaceans.

We then sculled along the mini wall out to the left for a bit to take in all the colours of the sponges and corals under lamp light as well as play with some monstrous spiny lobsters who are always pretty friendly. Unfortunately they were too big to fit in the frame of a macro lens.

We doubled back and done a couple of laps round the guardian statue for good measure with a shot of the old man. And the statue. *boom-boom!*

The old man of the sea. I'll let you decide which is which........

We carried on to the right of the mini wall , dipping on and off the hard pan just to make sure we didn't miss anything. One surprising thing I did mange to take a shot of was a spotted trunkfish. 

Now anyone that's ever tried to take a picture of a trunkfish will know that the most likely shot you'll get of one is of it's arse as it disappears over the reef. However this particular specimen was happy to pose for a couple of shots head on. And then it showed it's rear to the camera.

 There was also a fantastic display of the sponges feeding but wasn't particularly happy with the shots I took. Sorry, next time. It was spectacular though. Along with the superb selection of gobies and blennies which are always happy to pose for the camera like super models. Except with fins. And gills.

With about 20 minutes left in the tank, we headed back onto the hard pan to the engine block and went off on a nudibranch hunt, of which there were many, especially of the fringeback and lettuce leaf variety.

There's actually two elysia crispata in the picture. Don't ask what they're getting up to.......

 And one last final one before we left the water was  a nice little bristle worm. What's not to love about night diving?