The trip started early Saturday morning and we checked out the Sugarloaf and Pinnacles, but a bit too much swell for a comfortable dive. So we headed off to Cream Gardens for our first splash. No Bronzies today, but plenty of Snapper and other action on the wall to make up for it. A few other boats arrived as we finished our dive, so we headed off to find a nice quiet spot. Long Cave was looking calm, so we jumped in and found some interesting stuff. I was watching some fish munching on the wall when I caught something in the corner of my eye. I'd almost swam into an Octopus - it scuttled off into the kelp where I watched it for a while until I decided to pop over the wall and into the crack. Four divers had gathered round a rock and were busy looking underneath it, where a nurse shark was tucked up and hiding from the world. Toward the back of the cave were a couple of Spanish Lobsters on a prowl and further on two big Crays were just hanging on a rock. After a spot of lunch we made our way to Splendid Arch where the waters were calm. Inside the arch a stingray was cruising around and the hydroids were full of Jason's Nudibranchs. The final dive of the day was back at Mine Shaft Cave - the small sandy bottomed cave at the back was full of Demoiselle and the walls covered in clown Nudibranchs.

The next morning the waters were calm and we anchored over one of the pinnacles near Fred's Pinnacle. Not so much a pinnacle as a small continent said Anne after the dive. An Eagle Ray was skimming across the top of the kelp and James had the perfect shot - heading toward him and a couple of divers in the background, snap! Trouble is the camera was still in Macro mode - DOH!!! A translucent Nudibranch provided a rare find a bit deeper down. Before the arrival of the other boats we tucked up against the wall in Cave Bay. Another nurse shark was resting on a rock and wasn't moving. A recently shed shell of a large Lobster provided a useful prop to scare fellow divers with. A couple of squid were going about their business near the wall and a few selp had been attacked by some predator or other. The last dive was at The Rock in South Harbour, were James kept up his 100% record of finding some dive gear on that site - a 14kg weight belt (he decided to leave it where it was!!).

The water temp was 16-17 degrees and visibility was varied between 10 to 25m.