13th January 2025 – Blue Water and Backwards Current at South!

With conditions easing a little SoWild loaded up and powered out to South Solitary Island for today’s diving.

First up our divers descended on Buchanans Wall, exploring both the wall and Cable Trail areas where despite a dirty upwelling there wasstill plenty of warm blue water and an abundance of fishlife! Schools of Stripy’s, Bannerfish, Moorish Idols, Lunar Wrasse, Blue groupers, Black Cod and all kinds of Damsels were mixed into a massive continuous “cloud” of fish stretching from Buchanans Wall mooring all the way around the corner at Cable Trail. Aside from the mass of fishlife, macro was the flavour of the day around the wall, with Banded Coral Shrimp, Ambon Cleaner Shrimp, Glass Shrimp, Peppermint Shrimp, Spanish Dancers and Nudibranchs being seen (most notable of the dive being a Verconia alboannulata).

For the second dive our divers dropped in at The Gantry for a drift to South Boulder, an extremely unusual direction to drift! Highlights of the dive included numerous Green & Hawksbill Turtles, Spotted Eagle Rays, a transitional Emperor Angelfish, a pair of feeding Blue Spotted Stingrays and more Nudibranchs (most notable was a Miamira flavicostata).

Congratulations to Abi and Summer on completing their PADI Open Water Diver course today!

Conditions:

Water Temperature: 21-26°C

Visibility: 10-25m