Big Cat Reality Trip Calendar

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Past Trip Reports

"Big Cat Reality" New Years Trip Report
27/12/20002 to 01/01/2003

The "Big Cat Reality" docked in Bundy around 1.30pm Friday. We packed, stowed and directed divers, as they arrived during the afternoon and evening. Everyone was in good spirits after Xmas festivities and looking forward to great diving and weather.
Divers from 4 dive clubs joined us for the 5days – Hugh and Chris; Alexi and Simon; Cathy and Paula; Chriss; Greg; Alan; Cartia and Nick; Rich, and Glen; Steve; Brendan and Kristian; Paul and Mary-Rose.
Dive Crew – Paul; Kelly and Trevor
"Big Cat Reality" Crew – Sabina; Donna; Darren and Peter
"Big Cat Reality" Captain – James
Uninvited guest – T.C. Zoe

The "Big Cat Reality" steamed out on time and ready for a fabulous trip. There was some swell and a little wind on the way out thanks to our uninvited guest! The plan was to steer North to Musgrave continue to Fitzroy then Lady Elliot on the last day.
We arrived at Musgrave Saturday morning 6.45 ready to dive. All divers were competent and able to handle the slight swell and chop. We dived around The Lady all day including Manta Bommie, which unfortunately didn’t produce too many Manta’s with only a few sightings, although there were numerous sightings of this amazing creature throughout the week both from the surface and underwater.

The next day we continued north diving Fairfax, Hoskyns, Llewellyn and Fitzroy. We arrived at Fitzroy after lunch on Sunday. It was divers’ paradise here, with huge coral walls down to 15 or so meters. Fantastic rocky terrain with caves and swim throughs (around 20-25meters) scattered all over the sea floor. Reef sharks, huge rays and turtles, big fish and macro everywhere. (upside down fish???). The variety of marine life was incredible.

We dived along the reef at Fitzroy for the next 7 dives including two night dives.
By the third afternoon the wind, chop and swell had dropped off to almost nothing, it was perfect diving conditions. Left Fitzroy Reef Tuesday morning after some fabulous diving. Every dive was different because you had the choice of so many locations while you dived. So much to remember!!!

The Big Cat changed course and headed south back down the "Bunker Group". Llewellyn first then Hoskyns. At Hoskyns most of the passengers decided to venture onto the Island. They were all ferried over via the tender; there was a short 20m wade before making the sand. Some of the passengers took mask and snorkel. To there delight there was a small lagoon which on closer inspection contained up to 30 turtles of varying sizes and 2 or 3 reef sharks….awesome!!! (A few divers mentioned it was their "highlight" of the trip).

Divers spent the rest of New Year’s Eve enjoying the Bunker group, while the crew busily set up the "Big Cat Reality" for the up coming party. A huge sound system, streamers, balloons, mirror balls and great food greeted the divers on their arrival for dinner. The evening went extremely well, with many group photos, a birthday and a gorilla dropped in to scare the _ _ _ t out of a few unsuspecting divers. Five divers were down on the anchor for midnight. Mother Nature didn’t disappoint either with a trillion stars out on a spectacular night. (at least 8 shooting stars were spotted)

Mother Nature picked up where she left off last night with a prefect day to greet us as we steamed to the dive sites of Lady Elliot Island. With not a hang over to speak of ALL divers were geared up and ready for our first dive at the "Blowhole". Can I tell you again that the conditions were PERFECT…as was the diving, Vis up to 25 meters. Next we dived "Hero’s Cave" and finished with the "Coral Gardens"…Absolutely Beautiful!
Sadly we had to head back to Bundy after lunch, when the conditions were "as good as you get". The trip back went fairly quickly, with plenty for the divers to do – eat, sleep, wash dive gear, watch videos & slides, fill in log books and of course talk about diving.

We arrived back in Bundy around 6pm. The week was a huge success, with most divers doing around 20 dives. One diver did every dive on offer including the New Years Eve dive, 24 in all. It was an exceptional week of diving, all on board went away with a bunch of new friends and a lot of new dive sightings and stories….