Diving Day Five: Sweatin’ the Small Stuff

During the night we moved south and ended up at Fan Belt and Pixie Wall adjacent to Pixie Gardens which we had dropped onto a few days prior. The visibility had decreased dramatically and the only type of diving that made any sense was what I like to call “nook and cranny” diving. You basically stay within a few feet of the coral and investigate small creatures like nudibranchs, Christmas tree worms, and the heads of moray eels poking out.

Christmas Tree Worms

Nudibranch on my glove: Chromodoris elizabethina

Midday we dove on a site called Lighthouse Bommie. Bommie is a decidedly Aussie term used to describe an isolated coral reef head. In this case it was a bommie with a shape resembling a lighthouse. It also reminded me of the column of Marcus Aurelius in Rome. The coral decorated the structure much like the like stone carvings wrapping a Roman column.

Lighthouse Bommie was mobbed by marine life including lionfish, worms of all sorts and even a sea snake – yet another deadly animal fully prepared to remind us that a comprehensive life insurance policy is a shrewd part of any financial plan.

With all that however, we will likely remember Lighthouse Bommie for the two sea turtles lounging on it. Starting from the bottom of the and slowly spiraling up, we came across the turtles hanging on a small shelf about halfway to the surface – maybe 45 feet under water. We had seen numerous sea turtles on other dive trips, but these two had a demeanor that was truly friendly and any diver can tell you that a sea turtle’s massive eyes peering at you captures the imagination like nothing else in the ocean. I know it was all Amy could do to keep herself from hugging them and inviting them to our place for New Year’s.

Teenage Mutant Ninjas

Nudibranch?

Nudibranch: Chromodoris willani