On a beautiful and sunny Saturday morning, the six guests who went on the Osprey trip were joined by eight new guests who flew up to join the boat. Once everyone was on the boat, introductions had been made and the safety briefing was done, Nimrod Explorer left Lizard Island and headed out for some diving. The water temperature was 25-26C over the week.

The first dive site that they visited was Snake Pit. After the dive and lunch, Captain Trent Thomas took the boat to Cod Hole. Along the way they were joined by a pod of spinner dolphins who rode the bow for quite a while! The boat arrived at Cod Hole just after 3pm for an afternoon Cod Feed. Visibility at the dive site was about 20m. The boat remained at the Cod Hole mooring for the night dive, and just past sunset, the pod of dolphins swam by the boat again.

The beautiful weather continued as Nimrod Explorer left Cod Hole early Sunday morning and headed to the site Stepping Stones for the first dive of the day. Once everyone had explored the site, they headed onto Lighthouse Bommie for a second dive and for lunch. The third dive of the day was at Acropolis where a pigmy seahorse was spotted. The last two dives were done at Monolith, named for the impressive coral one can see at the site. The visibility was 20m here as well. After the night dive, the boat headed south for Ribbon Reef #5.

On Monday everyone woke up bright and early for a dawn dive at Jayenems Wall. After breakfast, divers jumped into the water again to explore the site in the bright sunshine. As the boat left Jayenems Wall they were joined by another pod of dolphins who rode the bow all the way to Flare Point. Unfortunately they didn’t stick around for the dive. But I guess you can’t have everything! Three dolphin visits is pretty good! The last dives of the trip were done at the beautiful site, Steve’s Bommie in 25m visibility.

While at Steve’s Bommie, guests and crew completed the Project AWARE Asia Pacific Fish Survey. They recorded all sightings of ten pre-determined fish species including big eye trevally, lionfish, leaf scorpion fish, whitetip reef shark and yellowfin goatfish. The surveys were sent to Project AWARE for inclusion in their database. In recognition of their participation in the survey, all guests received Project AWARE certificates and decals. Thanks to everyone who helped with this monitoring project!

After the surveys at Steve’s Bommie, Nimrod Explorer began the long, but luckily calm, trip back to Cairns. In the morning, after pictures on the bow, everyone said goodbye. Thanks for a great trip everyone!