Never just a typical day on Illusions!

Since I last wrote things have pretty much been standard. As they say "nothing to write home about". Sure we have seen dolphins, loads of turtles, but I haven't captured anything exciting on camera due to bad timing and technical issues.

I still get excited when I see nudibranchs, gorgeous little yellow boxfish and puffer fish!!! And tremendously excited when I found an Anemone Shrimp, while pointing out a small family of pink anemones to a group of divers. Unfortunately non of them managed to get a photo for various technical reasons.

The wet season came and went and wasn't as bad as expected. Thank goodness no cyclones. Though a few storms did slow things down a bit.

We have been having absolutely glorious weather of late, the months just seeming to fly by with whale season to look forward too. So I will be dusting off my camera and keeping my eyes open.

The other big news is that on Anzac day 25th April, Illusions was run into by another vessel which caused some damage to her. Click for link to article in Whitsunday Times. She has been out of service for over three weeks but should be back in the water shortly. There is a photo of the bow damage on our Facebook site.

Big Fish and Strange Creatures

Yesterday Josef brought in this huge Spanish Mackerel. Took ages to bring in! What a great catch.

"Quick, take the picture. This is really heavy!"

Yesterday I saw a cuttlefish. Today a really bizarre nudibranch. Unfortunately I didn't have the camera with me but it was like this one, from Sea Slug forum.

Check out the link to see more Phyllodesmium crypticum.
Or maybe it was a Phyllodesmium longicirrum, also from Sea Slug forum.

And More Whales

What an amazing dive

The last couple of days have seen amazing diving with lots of things to get excited about. Check out the turtle, the Blue spotted ray, the huge potato cod and some stunning coral!

Amazing whales and colourful fish

 

Whale with Airlie Beach in the background!

Mum and Calf mucking about!

Mum's back and the calf's tail!

Heard the whales today

Josef put the hydrophone in the water today after being able to hear the whales while diving. The sound on this video is what we recorded. Just before we stopped recording the whales appeared in the distance! Amazing.

Whales whales and more whales

Whale watching on Illusions

It's a tail!

Playing around!

Torpedo?