Michaelmas Cay - "Now I can PowerDive"!

On our last afternoon at Michaelmas Cay I (Ryan) went to dive school with Dad. It was awesome! We saw loads of clams and fishes. I had to wear a weight belt like Dad. We tested me with only one weight, but I still floated so I had wear two weights - each one was one kilogram.

We swam around the reef checking things out from a fish's perspective. There were Bat Fish and Parrotfish. I saw a whole group of at least two dozen Parrotfish munching away at the coral and you could hear them eating it like, Crunch, Crunch, Crunch, Crunch etc etc etc!

The coral was great, but I really liked finding a turtle and swimming slowly with it under water while taking this picture! It eventually swam away from us.

You have to be careful when you use the PowerDive or things can go wrong. Dad told me the key rules are:

1) Always dive with someone with experience;
2) Never dive too deep;
3) Clear your ears on the way down;
4) Breathe normally underwater; and
5) Never ever come up faster than your bubbles!

The strange thing about diving was that it was warmish up near the surface and cold down near the sea bed. I hope we can go diving again soon...

Michaelmas 'Sand Castle' Cay - Another sand cay appears at low tide...

As the tide dropped one day we noticed a small sand cay appear on the horizon approximately 3 nautical miles away from Michaelmas Cay so we decided to up anchor and have a look.

Emily named the transient island 'Sand Castle Cay' after we built a small structure near the high point to see if it would survive the night. Unfortunately the high tide wiped out any trace of our castle! 

The reef around the cay was pretty similar to Michaelmas Cay with plenty of giant clams, soft corals and red fans.

However, we found more Clown Fish around 'Sand Castle Cay' than Michaelmas. Some of the Clown Fish were happy to come out and play while others preferred the shelter of their anemone homes...

We even found a gaggle of Garfish in the lagoon which reminded us of North East Herald Cay!

Michaelmas Cay - Underway life remains pretty cool...

We stayed a few days anchored behind Michaelmas Cay and enjoyed the snorkelling on offer. The underwater visibility varied dramatically depending on the tide and wave conditions. But there was always plenty for Eric to see.

The fish on some of the coral bommies to the north of the cay were pretty friendly and there were plenty of red fan corals on the deeper drop-offs.

The variety of textures and colours to be found around the cay was great and we all enjoyed seeing turtles again!

Michaelmas Cay - Lots of tourists, but still nice coral...

Michaelmas Cay has really changed over the years. What was once a relatively quite little sand cay covered in birds is now inundated by large numbers of tourists who arrive on mass at around 1000 each morning aboard sailing catamarans. The majority of the cay has also been roped off and there is a no access period that runs from 1500 until 0930 the next day.

While the changes are pronounced the giant clams of old remain plentiful on the reef around the island and the coral is quite nice with a good variety of hard and soft corals.

Sam really liked the abundant yellow flat soft coral and the hard lace corals so we decied to stay awhile to explore...