It was hard to determine if the weather was going to hold out today, so we, Rudy, Ahmed and myself, headed out to find out. At the boat ramp we noticed a very heavy fog with visibility down to about 40-50m. We left the boat ramp with running lights on and lost site of the ramp before we hit the first channel marker. I follow a track on the GPS and kept an eye out for other boats and also the channel markers. A small tinny flew by, no lights and disappeared into the fog. We followed a track past the container wall and past the mid channel marker opposite Bare Island and over Minmi trench and I noticed a boat which looked like it had no people on board. I motored over and a guy stood up bailing out water. He had lost his bung and was taking on water. I found a spare bung and gave it to him and we headed out to sea. Just as we passed Cape Banks the fog cleared revealing a beautiful day. As we got closer to Long Bay the fog closed in again, then it cleared as we rounded Magic Point. There were 6 Grey Nurse Sharks in the cave with a giant Bullray. Many of the sharks had hooks in their mouths. Visibility 10m
After a cuppa in Long Bay we headed to Bypass Reef. Ahmed had not dived here and the conditions on the surface were fantastic. We descended into a very large swell on the bottom which made the dive a little challenging. We were anchored on the second reef so we headed north into a mild current to take a look, then back south past the anchor and to the southern reef, only one Seahorse remains. Ahmed, right on deco, ascended and Rudy and myself spent 5 more minutes around the cave and found a small Cuttlefish. Visibility 12m
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