Friday 19th October
We drove up the road to Geraldton, unpacked onto the boat and went for dinner at The Provincial – great food spot and decent wine list! Swung in past the Geraldton Beach Hotel for some important supplies (Bush Chook), then returned to the boat to meet with Hayden after his search & rescue exercise and had a boat briefing and a rundown of how the weekend would work. The bunks below decks were basic but pretty comfortable and we got to bed at a decent time as early start the next day.
Loading onto the Masterclass
Saturday 20th October
Hayden and the crew turned up while we were still in bed and got underway around 0630. The crossing out to the Islands was fairly flat and we got to our first dive site Tapani Lump around 9.30, where we did a fairly easy dive around a large lump covered in staghorn and plate coral as the crew wanted to find out who the spuds were. A few Clarke’s anemone fish in large purple anemones and 30m visibility which became standard over the course of the weekend.
Clarkes anemonefish
Second dive of the day, after lunch, was Leo’s Lump. Most of the sites we dived over the weekend were like this lump – the top was at around 10m, sloping down on all coral-encrusted sides to a sandy bottom at around 35m. Lots of large demersal fish here including coral trout and snapper plus plenty butterfly and angel fish of various sorts. On the sand at the base of the lump we found an enormous flat anemone containing a family of anemone fish and at least 100 small glass shrimp which were a nice challenge for a bit of macro photography. We also found 2-3 large lionfish skulking around the place. At the top of the reef were heaps of parrot fish and large schools of other stuff.
Abrolhos coral
We next headed to Bynoe Rise, a spot that Hayden hadn’t done before but looked good on the chart and sounder. A great dive with some spectacular nudis, quite a few crays plus a big slipper lobster who looked pretty tasty but we left him alone as weren’t sure if we could take them or not. Also a big Port Jackson, and a decent sized cuttlefish that left a massive ink cloud to let us know he was there.
Nembrotha nudi of some sort
We headed to Big Rat Island for the evening to moor up amongst the jetties and shacks on the East side. Most of us were fairly tired and ready for dinner, but a few of the guys weren’t done and sneaked in a cheeky night dive on Home Reef just off the island whilst dinner was being cooked. Dinner was crayfish and scotch fillet, just in case you were wondering!
Home reef night dive
Sunday 21st October
The first dive of the day (before breakfast, damn we are KEEN) was another spot that Hayden had wanted to check out for a while - christened Pineapple Lump after his love of Cadburys Pineapple Dairly Milk. It took us a while to identify the exact spot on the sounder, then we got towed out over the spot behind the tender which had to work pretty hard with four rebreather divers on the end! Not quite as much coral here, more of a sandy slope with some short kelp here and there but still some interesting stuff include a hole with 20+ crays in it and a peacock mantis shrimp which I had no idea came this far South.
Crayfish hideout #1
Peacock mantis shrimp
We got out to the waft of bacon and eggs for breakfast then moved along to our second site of the day at Chromis Lump. We had a big school of Spangled Emperor off the back of the boat come to look at us while getting ready to jump in. More amazing corals here, reef fish, slipper lobsters, singing whales and a Glorius Flatworm.
Typical Abrolhos Island reef
After getting out and having lunch (watch the hot sauce) we moved to the nearby Anemone Lump which was very similar and equally excellent. Big demersals here including some good Baldchin Groper and Coral Trout, plus Dave bagged a couple of good crays. The top of the lump was solid with massive plate corals and viz must’ve been 40m.
Crayfish hideout #2
After getting back to Rat Island a bit earlier than yesterday, some of us did another night dive on the Home Reef from the tender. Lots of tiny crabs amongst the coral, octopus (including a blue-ring), big crays walking around, sleeping anemone fish, cleaner shrimp and small cuttlefish hanging around. Getting back into the tender was a bit of an ordeal that involved holding onto the side, getting everyone else to suddenly tilt the boat and using the momentum to flop over the side into the bottom of the boat like a seal with a brain injury – good times. Dinner was crayfish and steaks washed down with a bush chook.
Monday 23rd October
We got up again early for a pre-breakfast dive, this time at Suomi. This dive was along a series of walls and wide canyons, with plenty really impressive big plate corals, and with quite a few anemone fish, nudis, tropical reef fish and even a Moorish Idol.
Moorish Idol
We had some food and coffee, then moved over to the Pelsaert Group where we did a shortish dive to look at an anemone field a short swim from one of the jetties. The patch was around 8m across and ranged from 3-10m deep – solid anemones and absolutely full of different anemone fish, mostly the Clarkes that seem to be common here. We also found a massive nest of crayfish but weren’t expecting to so nobody had a loop with them!
Anemone field
The final dive was on one of the best spots we did last year – Coral Patches. This area was broadly centred on a lump but spread out as shallow slopes all round and was completely covered in acres of healthy staghorn coral with a bit of a spread of plate coral over the very top. An already interesting dive was made a bit more interesting by some good crays, cuttlefish, demersal cleaning stations and Stuart’s rebreather deciding to fall to bits 10 mins into the dive. Luckily we were near one of the moorings at the time so he was able to work his way up easily up the chain and get a lift back to the Masterclass via the tender – just as well it was the last dive of the trip!
Rebreather running repairs
Coral Patches
We then made the crossing back to Geraldton which took about 3.5 hours. There was a bit of swell, but generally much less rough than we thought the last day might be from looking at the forecast earlier in the week so we were pretty lucky really. Back in Gero we unloaded everything back onto the quay and into the cars and got away around 4pm arriving in Perth pretty knackered about 9pm taking a pie stop or two into account. Thanks to everyone who came for making it another awesome trip, and special thanks to the Masterclass Skipper Hayden and the rest of the crew - Kate, Heather and Michael – for keeping us fed, watered and with full tanks and for making our experience such a great one!