Our penultimate day of diving.

Sunny again today but a bit windy, hopefully, that will calm down.

Today, we are going around the island. We are staying at the blue dot and we are going to go round Panaon Island in a clockwise direction.

We are going to dive sites that either are very little dived or not dived at all. Should be interesting.

There was discussion of a sea mount, we are even going to have an echo sounder on board!!

So, today I am 40 minutes early, and I am still the last of us four to be ready.

We are watching the crew and dive guides getting everything ready.

Looks like it’s eight o’clark… Always last on board.

And now we are off…

We headed off into the wind and towards the clouds.

Explorers on an expedition….

Oh, a quick hands up, who has upset Judy in the water…

Oh, double hands up if you swam too close to Judy’s good leg…

We rounded the top of the island…

Under the bridge…

Quite a bit of current as we go under the bridge.

Five minutes later we arrive. No waves and sunshine.

Here is the dive briefing…

Wot no pelagics?

Dive #1

Lilo-an Shoal

We were expecting a tiny pinnacle with a wall on one side and sandy slopes with coral out crops. Pelagics on the wall.

Turns out that the pinnacle is huge. We had sandy slope and coral.

No current.

No wall.

No pelagics.

Lovely dive though.

We saw:

• Different nudis
• Flasher wrasse
• Large blue frogfish

Surface interval, coffee, frootees and watermelon.

Looks like we shall be diving here somewhere…

Or here…

Oh, the fish finder is out…

Men and gadgets!!!

Dive#2

Lighthouse Reef (named by Richard)

Very interesting dive.

Quite brown when we got in. Lots of brown plant life.

We found lots of things to photograph. Lots of nudis and shrimps.

Then the topography changed, more sand and large pinnacles.

Swim throughs. Yes, I swam through.

A cathedral like cave. Yes! I went in!

Brilliant! Fun had by all.

Richard in the cathedral cave.

Lunch was another BBQ. Chicken, pork, rolls, coleslaw, sweet potatoes, rice and for pudding, mango and sticky rice cooked in a banana leaf. Try eating rice coleslaw with you fingers. Messy!

Lunch was followed by a swim and then followed by a dive.

Dive #3

Unnamed but I would call it the repeating BBQ dive.

Some very interesting topography.

Lots of ins and outs.

Lots to take pictures of.

One sad sight was a large turtle than had a spearfishing spear and line in it.

Ended in sand with coral out crops.

Lovely.

Relaxing post dive.

Some interesting scenery on our way back.

Now sitting in the sun, eating frooties with coffee strong enough to make your toes curl.

We are some very happy divers.

Richard relaxing in the sunshine.

It was a long trip back. Back at base just after six, as the sun started to set.

Tea was eaten about seven and this was followed by crib. Judy and I won again. That makes it 2-2.

Just one more dive day.

Good night.