Great diving this week with sea life in abundance with appearances from tawny nurse sharks and our resident bull shark. The giant Queensland Gropers have been a permanent fixture hanging out on the bow and plenty of sea snakes cruising around.   There have also been plenty of marble rays.   Sea temperature approx 25 degrees C.  Visibility – approx 10 metres

After strong winds over Easter the conditions have turned magnificent with light winds and great vis. This weekend and early next week are shaping up for some awesome diving with 5-10kts of wind and smallish tides. The Qld groupers are very active and getting even bigger with the quantity of food on offer. Come and try one of the world’s best dives!

Apparently a cyclone is threatening North Qld. We however have been blessed with smooth seas and great diving. Everyone came backed stoked today with another awesome day’s diving on the S.S. Yongala, a few are going again tomorrow.  Visibility is back up around the 10-15 metres.

Whist the visibility on the wreck has been down around the 5-10m mark with the recent fresh water run-off the good thing is the Yongala always has plenty to see, the fact that its all big certainly means you dont need 20m vis to see anything.  With the usual bevy of turtles, maori wrasse, GT’s, cruising around we usually find some of the larger species come out to play after the winds have kept the boats at bay including the large cowtail rays, giant queensland gropers and the shovel nose ray.   Visibility has been gradually increasing and we’re hoping that after this bout of wind lets us out to play it should be back to normal. 

Current forecast – SE20-25 up to Sunday, with a very vague forcast for Monday to Tuesday (come on BOM) so we’ll keep you posted or check our weather link for more info.

The Yongala Express is up and running again.  Our first day out to the wreck again in 11 days and its great to see the fish life in abundance - marble rays, shovel nose rays, leopard sharks cruising mid-water, turtles popping up all over it was spectacular.  With the forecast still 10 knots for the next few days its spectacular.

Literally, as our motor decided to do this on the 2nd. Currently being repaired, we hope to be diving thursday 11/1. Check in for an update.

The start of summer has been awesome, some great viz and perfect water temps. Manta Rays most days, large feeding frenzies including one where spinner dophins were schooling large chevron barracuda, and some great reef fish spawning aggregations. 

Seeing whales is an awesome sight anywhere but to actually have a whale swimming underwater next to you – well you’d have to be one of the luckiest people ever !    Our passengers couldnt believe their luck during one of their dives when a whale came swimming directly towards them, then stayed for a play around.   The fish on the Yongala are big but thats the largest we’ve ever seen.  Check out the photos in our photo gallery.