Date: July 29th	TI: 1550	TO: 1635	Max Depth: 17m
Divers: Sharman, Michel, Orla

Date: July 30th	TI: 1015	TO: 1105	Max Depth: 22m
Divers: Kitty, Jen, Carol, Stacey

Date: July 30th	TI: 1230	TO: 1315	Max Depth: 20m
Divers: Sharman, Michel, Heather, Dolphin

Date: July 30th	TI: 1430	TO: 1530	Max Depth: 22m
Divers: Sharman, Carol, Jen

Date: July 31st	TI: 1100	TO: 1145	Max Depth: 10m
Divers: Kitty, Dolphin, Carol, Stacey

Date: July 31st	TI: 1215	TO: 1300	Max Depth: 15m
Divers: Sharman, Orla, Michel

We dived several reef patches around this area and found some of them to be incredible. One patch in particular looked like a carefully sculpted garden of corals – Acropora, Montipora, Porites, Galaxea, Diploastrea, Astreopora, carefully placed and nurtured to create a three dimensional vision of how a coral reef should grow. It felt like diving in a fantasy world. What was extraordinary about this particular site was that the area of dense (up to 100%) hard coral coverage was sustained over a long stretch of the reef.

Blue green chromis scattered over the tops of table Acropora formations, groupers stretched languidly over boulder formations and a hawkfish perched on top of his castle of massive Porites. Pickhandle barracuda and chevron barracuda cruised over the sand a little deeper.  One of the barracuda visited three cleaning stations along the coral slope. Sea cucumbers vacuumed the sand below the corals, giant clams flourished between the corals and a rainbow of fish flew over them. What a spectacular area, coupled with continued sightings of dwarf minke whales around the ship!

Date: July 31st	TI: 1500	TO: 1545	Max Depth: 20 m
Divers: Sharman, Heather, Michel, Carol

Date: August 1st	TI: 0900	TO: 0945	Max Depth: 20m
Divers: Kitty , Sharman, Dolphin, Stacey

The pinnacle rises from 40 metres to the surface. It is a popular dive site with several private moorings around it. The most common corals were Acropora, Montipora and Galaxea. There was a high diversity, tightly packed and particularly large colonies of Echinophyllia, Echinopora and Montipora. One very large grouper had four fishing lines hanging out of his mouth. There were giant sweetlips,whitetip sharks, jacks, barracuda and some of the more delicate reef-fish represented by lionfish and pipefish.

Date: August 2nd	TI: 0830	TO: 0915	Max Depth: 15 m
Divers: Heather, Kitty, Stacey, Carol, Jen,

Date: August 2nd	TI: 0930	TO: 1000	Max Depth: 15 m
Divers: Sharman, Michel, Orla, Dolphin

This patch reef, set back from the long stretch of Ribbon Reefs, was a stark contrast to our recent dives further north. The coral has turned to rock and rubble. There is some new growth – Acropora, Pocillopora, Montipora, Tubastrea – but very little and mostly in the shallows. The fish life was, unsurprisingly, sparse.  We discovered from a meeting with the Undersea Explorer that the cause was a severe crown of thorns infestation several years ago. 

Date: August 3rd	TI: 0900	TO: 0950	Max Depth: 24 m
Divers: Sharman, Jen, Stacey, Dolphin

This reef patch had a high hard coral coverage on the top with fields of branching Acropora dominating the scene. Corals were very healthy on the top but descending down the windward slope, rubble increased with only small healthy colonies appearing. Fish schools included blue and gold fusiliers, three lined fusiliers and the white margin unicornfish. Big eye trevally were also observed and one whitetip reef shark.

Date: August 3rd	TI: 1115	TO: 1200	Max Depth: 24 m
Divers: Carol, Michel, Jen

Date: August 3rd	TI: 1430	TO: 1515	Max Depth: 26 m
Divers: Heather, Michel, Orla, Carol

Date: August 4th	TI: 1030	TO: 1120	Max Depth: 30 m
Divers: Heather, Kitty, Orla, Sharman

Date: August 4th	TI: 1145	TO: 1230	Max Depth: 20 m
Divers: Kitty, Michel, Stacey, Dolphin

Date: August 4th	TI: 1545	TO: 1630	Max Depth: 15 m
Divers: Sharman, Michel,

Date: August 4th	TI: 1830	TO: 1910	Max Depth: 20 m
Divers: Carol, Sharman, Jen, Stacey

This is another famous dive site located at Ribbon reef # 3. On the morning we arrived two other dive boats were in the area. Dive operators moor directly over Steve's Bommie providing easy access to this exciting dive site.

The shallowest point of this bommie is at 4 m and although it is only about 5 m across there is already an array of attractions at this level. Hard coral cover is up to 80% and very diverse, Pavona and Montipora dominated throughout the site. Soft coral, anemones, feather stars, basket stars, urchins, nudibranchs, sponges, leather corals, sea fans and sea whips keep you entralled every moment.

The fish here are definitely used to divers, showing little sign of concern at very close quarters. Schools of big eye trevally hang on the fringes of the coral wall and it seems there are always schools of jacks, tuna and barracuda coming out of the margins. Schools of fusiliers, chromis, anthias, unicornfish, goatfish, snappers, bigeye and red toothed trigger fish were seen on all our dives here.

Lion fish are perched at various locations decorating this already dynamic site. The titan triggerfish was observed in his attack on rubble and coral.

The greatest excitment was the discovery of a tassled wobbegong Eucrossorhinus dasypogon hidden deep within a crevice. This curious creature is a member of the shark family. During the night dive we were able to inspect him more closely.