- Fairlight, Sydney Harbour
- JCJ and Chad
- 09:45 - 10:45 Sunday 04th March
- Tide dropping from an 08:30 high
- Vis good for site, maybe 6m
- Temp 22ish
Fairlight was the site of choice after looking at Fairy Bower and deciding it was far too lumpy. We jumped from the rock platform into water of above average clarity. Looked like it would be good. We headed over the kelp, a small psycho ray narrowly missing me as it came barelling towards me. There were a few small fish here and there as we headed over the rock wall. I don't gauge the vis of Fairlight until I drop over the wall and today it remained good, 5-6m. We could see the wreck, a small totally broken old wooden speedboat. We headed a little way along the wall to the left (eastish) and as we did we passed highlight 1, a boarfish, heading westish with a solo camera carrying scuba diving in it's wake.
We went over to the wreck, JCJ and Chad having a nose around while I hoverered above it in a school of baitfish that seemed to be happy to have me with them. Outside the wreck I found a numbray buried in the sand; I unburried it a bit with a few fin sweeps, took a look and followed the guys back to the wall.
As we moved along the wall I saw more fixed life than I recalled from earlier dives. Next highlight was a couple of banded coral shrimp clinging to a little hangover. There were loads of other shrimp and plenty of juvenille old wives, mado and stripey. There were blackfish and as we got to the largest slab of wall the fish life cranked up another notch. Lots of old wives, schools of big eye, plenty of grouper - including two large males - and even a yellowfin tuna. Looking up it was like being in an aquarium, far better than I think I have ever seen it before. I hovered there for a while, tried to get the largest grouper to come over (partially succesful) before we moved on.
The rest of the dive did not have the same volume of fishlife. We headed on, out a little to the flatter reef section and then, having lost JCJ, turned to head back. A journey on which I lost Chad, was found by JGJ and then JCJ and I found Chad. So, upon surfacing our buddy integrity looked intact. Ahem. Final highlight was a small, solid yellow nudibranch. No idea what it's called.
We headed back over the kelp, up the sand gully and to the rock platform where, after a quick look in the cave underneath it, we jumped out to compare notes on a very nice dive. I'll be back soon with a camera.
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