I’d arrived early Monday morning to find three G-sized cylinders of helium and oxygen tied to the railing on the stern deck, two twin-12s and Greg’s new rebreather in the fill stations, and a small mountain of gear on the deck of Mazurka’s fly bridge.

With coffee brewed and the engine warmed we cast off.  Given the 25 knot wind forecast from an unhelpful NW we made for South Harbour and anchored on The Rock at the entrance to Southern Arch.

Marty and Mark’s first shakedown went smoothly and they surfaced to coffee and soup with some pretty big smiles which set the scene for the remainder of the week (along with Greg and his rebreather being invariably first in - last out).

Visibility was reasonably good throughout, with some exceptional water off the big wall at Cave Bay and Fred’s Pinnacle later in the week and with bottom times between 50-66 minutes and schedules for maximum depths of 40-60 metres the most was made of every site even with the odd flood in Marty’s drysuit.

Due to the mainly NW-W-SW winds we confined ourselves to the eastern sites but with smooth seas on Thursday we dived Middle Arch late in the afternoon - the blue-bell tunicates are coming out in large clusters on the overhanging wall on the island side of the archway and I never tire of gazing at these ascidians.

I’m not sure if it was my focus – mainly macro on triple fins and super wide in the archways and walls – but very few nudibranchs seem to be about. There were the odd clowns without really looking but I wondered for a while if the storm’s blown them all away!

Oddest moment: a ‘gunshot’ sound which nearly sent me overboard while at anchor outside Splendid Arch! The soil layer which the astelias and toitoi grow from on the margins of the rocky out-crops 20 or 30 metres up the cliff face is  extremely sodden with the recent rainfall and with this weight is sloughing off along with the plants and falling to a resounding ‘smack’ in the water below. I then watched this happening several times while we were anchored there.

Highlights for the trip were: the company of good people; the weather; all the dives but especially the last - from the eastern entrance of the Tunnel to Mine Shaft Cave; small waterfalls pouring off the cliff edge above Long Cave; a mollymawk, uncommon on these waters, scudding across the wave tops and Mazurka’s wake on the homeward journey.