Little Bubba

I got to go snorkelling in Oman, which for me was just as good as diving because I still got to see the amazing corals and fish life. There were Moray Eels, plenty of angel fish, lionfish, all sorts of fish I haven't seen before and a lovely 10 minute swim with a turtle. When I get some pics I will post them. However, since I will be limited to snorkelling I won't be posting much in the Dive Blog over the coming months.

Morning sickness has gone - Hoorah! So I have dedicated a new blog to being pregnant and our Little Bubba Hope you'll come and visit my new blog...

Kira

No More Diving For Me

Yep, you read that correctly. I'll be taking a break from diving whilst I AM PREGNANT! I am currently 9 weeks pregnant and battling with severe morning sickness, where I vomit every morning and the nausea is all day and very strong. I cannot bear the sight, sound or smell of food being prepared or eaten. I'm off work sick today as all the smells of the lab were compounding the nausea causing me to want to be sick again - not pleasant.

Anyway I'll be starting another blog (maybe) on my pregnancy once I get over the horrid morning (or rather all day) sickness.

Till next time or I can be bothered to start a new blog....

Kira

Port Jackson Mating Season

We went to the Apartments yesterday and had a bit of trouble anchoring. However, once we did get down to the bottom we were fine. I took the camera along again only I wasn't very hopeful as the visibility wasn't great. There were Blue Gropers out in force yesterday. Here's a picture of the first one we saw:


I think this next Groper knew I was taking photos as he kept coming right up to the camera and harassing me for about 2 minutes:


We then saw a couple of Port Jackson sharks swimming around on their own:


We were looking for Grey Nurse sharks but didn't see any. We found the thousands of Eastern Pomfreds that are normally there and for some reason I decided to look down. That's when I spotted about 10 Port Jackson Sharks huddled in a cave underneath me. It is mating season for these guys. I grabbed Dave before he unknowingly swam straight into them, and took a couple of photos, like this one:


After a few minutes we realised Matt was not there and went and found him so he could have a look at the PJ's. We then headed back to the anchor.

I'm Back

Well, we've started diving again now the weather is nice. It was off to North Head today to try out our new Sony Digital Underwater Housing - works great.

The first photo is of a starfish, this is a type common to North Head:



There are plenty of Nudibranchs at North Head, though I only saw one on this dive and here it is:



Bicuit Stars are also common:



And finally, Matt took a photo of me on my safety stop!

Jervis Bay

For the June Long weekend, Matt, Dave and I headed down to Jervis Bay for some winter diving. We camped in the National Park and encountered a pesky possum and kangaroo who were trying to get food (which we didn't supply). You can see them in the photo.



We took my car and the boat down and it was so much easier being able to do everything to suit yourself. When we were ready to go diving we were able to hire extra tanks and obtain air very easily from Jervis Bay Sea Sports and then head off to the boat ramp. The following photo is of our buddy "triplet" with our trusty transport:



It rained all day Saturday (typical diving weather), however we still managed to dive "The Docks" and "The Arch". On Sunday when the weather was much clearer we dived North Bowen Island and Perpindicular Point. The visibility was fantastic with it around 25-30m on 3 of the 4 dives (it was 15m at Perpindicular Point). We saw numerous Port Jackson Sharks, a Bull Ray, Eastern Blue Devil Fish, Zebra Fish, Nudibranchs, and much more. The fish life was amazing and the numerous swim-throughs and caves were a lot of fun. "The Arch" was my favourite of the dives, a spectacular rock archway with lots of fish and amazing visibility in 30-40m of water. For more info on the dive sites, see Michael McFadyens site.

Because it was clear on Sunday I managed to get a few more photos. In this one, taken from the Boat Ramp, you can see Bowen Island in the background.



We had a great time and we will be back again for more!