SuperCAT.......Sunday 6th June 2010
 Waking up to a lovely Brisbane Winter morning we headed to Newport Marina to board Super Cat, with Rob our newest Open Water student and Natalia.
As we motored out to Flinders, we were greeted by breeching whales right beside the boat, a stunning sight.
First, we headed to the new mooring on the ocean side of Flinders in 23m, with a maximum of 27m on the site. As Rob had a nap on the sun lounge upstairs, Natalia and I dived the supposedly first dive on the new mooring. As we descended to 22m, we were greeted by Trevally and many tropical fish with a stunning brain coral right by the mooring. The most amazing and surreal experience on this dive was being constantly surrounded and bait balled by about 70 Kingfish.
Next up, we headed to Flinders mooring 2 where Rob had his first experience in the open water, completed his skills with great finesse, and we continued our swim spotting a juvenile QLD groper, a school of snapper and wonderful colourful coral as Flinders always sports. Still no rust though, bugger.
After the usual great lunch of roast chicken and ham rolls with a selection of salads at Yellow Patch, we headed for our drift dive at The Pines. Today, it really turned it on, with the best vis of the day at 20m, Wobbegongs, Mosaic Morays, schooling sweep, batfish, young and old, a lovely green turtle, topped off with a dugong, a lovely finish to the days diving with Rob putting on a great display of a text book air sharing ascent.
We motored back to Newport with smiles all round and another lovely day on the water over.
Thanks to the crew of SuperCat and Rob and Natalia for another great day out.
Steve
Ocean Cat................... Sat 15 th May 2010
 Just got to love these autumn days, dawning bright and cold with almost no wind and a flat sea. The 8 Blue Zone divers headed down to Newport and were ready and waiting when George tied up, everything stowed we headed off towards Henderson’s Reef 1 ¾ hours steam away.
The sea was relatively flat although there was a bit of southerly swell still making a few divers a bit green around the gills. We settled on the Pinnacle for the first dive and after George put the pick right on top of it we geared up. Wilma was happy to swap the deck for the sea so with her buddy Sue off they shot followed quickly by the boys. James and I jumped in next and were keen to get wet again – been on dry land too long. Jacky followed us up with Caesar and his camera!
Viz was actually ok at 10-15mtrs which was good enough to quickly see the large grey nurse cruising around through the large school of yellow tails under an overhang. After watching her for a few minutes we swam off to look around the rock and in the gutters for some more. Fish life was prolific with damsels, snapper, lionfish, old wives, butterfly fish, pipefish, and some brightly coloured wrasse. Happy to see a couple of Clown trigger fish and also the large and beautiful blue angel coming for a little peep at us. My favourite though was the large number of Blue Tang’s (or No. 9 fish) with their iridescent blue that seemed happy to dart around the coral together.
We saw a couple of turtles and Jacky saw an eagle ray shortly after hitting the bottom. It was a fantastic dive and all agreed it was well worth the time spent getting there.
After the morning tea the swell seemed to be dropping off further, we evicted Big Cat off of Cherubs Cave and after finishing off the lovely sausage rolls geared up for the second dive. Several years since I last visited and so did not find the cave this time but had a good look around. It’s a great dive with heaps of fish and loads of interesting nooks and crannies. James and I found a small swim thru coming out near some lovely white fern like coral. I could spend all day there.
I watched two trumpet fish perform a very exotic dance of courtship - or at least I think that’s what they were doing... No more grey nurses but no doubt they are out there or coming back soon.
Off we went to Bulwer for a great lunch in the sunshine. What a fabulous day! Thanks’ George, Ross and Dave for your help and to the other divers for their companionship in the water.
Nicky
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Dive trips each Saturday and Sunday on Supercat and spaces are normally available on reques
