Thursday - Day 4 – Lockhart River Area

Thursday - Day 4 – Lockhart River Area
Thursday started with a live drop at Nature窶冱 Way Wall that allowed the divers to float along the wall and then across the sloping coral gardens in the incoming tide. The coral was in pristine condition and lots of flamboyantly coloured nudibranchs were located, including their intricate ribbon like egg spirals. Our safety stop was spent watching the Cuttlefish mimic their background with tentacles up and spread out to look like the branching corals they were hiding in. Very soon the tide turned and started running out so we live dropped onto the incredible coral formations that cover the north western face of the reef. There were huge vase and foliose corals growing underneath delicate branching corals that had sprouted through plate corals in their search for sunlight like plants in the rainforest. After lunch we headed through the open ocean swell and arrived in the shelter of the Southern Small Detached reef for two afternoon dives on the deep walls of Auriga Bay and a new site that we named Angels Playground. The 400m deep walls were covered in gorgonian fans and large colourful soft coral and in the shallow sandy ledges created on the edge of the drop off, Giant Sweetlips, Red Bass and Diagonal Lined Sweetlips collected together to fill the space with fish. As it reached high tide and the wind creeped past the 20-knot mark the conditions became unfavourable for a night dive so once all the divers were safely on board Spirit of Freedom headed north overnight to Wood Reef and the Great Detached Reef Area.