Before Wilma arrived we enjoyed the calm window and got out to The Poor Knights for a 3 day trip. Finally a Stingray was sighted after the Orca event of a few weeks ago. The first dive was at Nursery Cove and, during the middle of the day, a Janolus Ignis was spotted crawling under a rock - never have to do a night dive again!! Also a huge Crayfish (Spiny Red Lobster) was wandering across the rocks. The morning dives were both at Northern Arch - both times it was teeming with life - Snapper, Kingies, Trevally, Maomao and some Golden Snapper. A solitary Ray was hanging around the entrance too.

Landing Bay Pinnacle had a few large schools of Demoiselle, along with some Snapper and big Bluefish just feeding in the kelp. Plenty of Moray action too - Mosaics and Mottled were seen along with Greys, Yellow and Speckled - even a Conger Eel poked his head out of his crack. Middle Arch was somehow missing something without the usual Stingrays making their way back and forth. In Bernie's Cave, however, something fell from the roof into the torch light. It looked like a Roboastra, but not the usual ones seen here! After taking a fair few photos and posting them on the web it turns out it was a Roboastra arika or Waterlily Roboastra.

Then, along came Wilma - 265mm of rain fell overnight and plenty of roadsides ended up in the middle of the road!! The next trip was cut short by a day, but luckily the fallout from shore didn't reach the Islands. The water was still blue with a bit of particulate making vis about 10-15m.

Meditation Wall, Oculina Point and Mary's Wall were the dives on day 1 (also 3 Adventure dives of the Advanced course). We ended up in South Harbour for the evening where Craig and Bill 'did' a night dive - or was it a raging drift dive?? "I learnt more about diving on that dive than any other" summised Bill! Next morning a cool Deep dive at Cave Bay Wall - schools of Koheru, baitfish, Blue Maomao, more Crays and a few more Stingrays! Air bubble cave provided a perfect spot for a photography dive and Emma enjoyed using an underwater camera for the first time. Check out the shots. Last dive of the trip was a gentle float around Matt's Crack and Mineshaft Cave - always a pretty dive in the water, but this time really pretty on the surface too. The rain had obviously landed out at The Poor Knights as there was an impressive waterfall along the cliff face (photo by Kent Ericksen).

Water a solid 20 degrees and vis 10-20m.