Easter Holidays on Big Cat -- April 2012

by Jo Boniface

Easter presented itself for an awesome long weekend of Big Cat diving, with warm sunny weather, great divers and crew, we were bound for the ocean wonders and seeking out some less seen sites. After starting out at Flinders Reef due to some bumpy seas, we then found our way out to Big Cat Bump, Middle Mountain, Mary’s Lair (with Mary on board to dive it ), China Wall, Henderson’s Rock, a quick trip down to Straddie for Shark Alley and Shag Rock, Cherubs Cave, LG Bommie and beautiful Kim’s Castle rounded off our weekend with a spectacular final dive.

Over the weekend there was sightings of turtles, big fat Wobbegongs, Octopus, Squid, a beautiful big Grey Nurse at China Wall, Tawny Nurse sharks hiding with Wobbeys at Shag Rock, a Leopard shark, a Shovel nose shark and a Manta teasing us on the surface at Shag who refused to dance with the divers underwater. There were Eagle Rays, Gropers, Schooling Barracuda & Kingfish, an Indian fish, a cute cuttlefish was found hiding under a Turtles fin, Squid and there were a couple of huge prehistoric decorator crabs found.

We scored a fantastic full moon weekend, which bought about some great night dives and a little full moon chasing. Some divers managed to get in a drift dive, while others found the boat was just around the corner and figured it was just as easy to come back to the boat. After a yummy roast dinner by Big Cat Crew on Easter Sunday, Snorkel Safari staff provided an evening of entertainment with Jeremy leading a staff sing-a-long on the dive deck. The weekend provided celebrations of many varieties; the Easter Bunny found us with divers waking on Easter Sunday to find Easter eggs tied on their tanks, Jeremy celebrated his birthday (even tho he hoped to hide from it out at sea!) and he shared his cake with Reece and a BIG congratulations go out to Nick for completing his 100th dive and Frank on his 200th dive on the trip. A big thanks to all divers, crew and marine life that made Easter a fantastic dive trip!

Annual Mug Hunt at Moreton Island

by Suzie Bodey

When Eirin turned to me and said, “Hey Suzie, as part of your traineeship you have to organise a Mug Hunt….” I was worried. Having no experience or organisational skills I thought the best start would be to get some mugs. After a few weeks, a lot of mug numbering, staff co-operation, food buying and marketing, we had our Mug Hunt ready to go! The day turned out to be a huge success
with 70+ people, families and friends eager to get wet. 49 out of 50 mugs were found in the time allocated, with Kara Mortimer coming out of the water with Mug number 2 after only 5 minutes!

Congratulations to our major prize winner Warrick Osbourne, finding mug #1 and scoring himself a Titan LX regulator. Once the hunt was over we had our BBQ professionals working hard to make some awesome snags and rissoles for us to feast on. After our bellies were full and bodies rested there was more snorkelling to be had. I’ll be the first one to say I had a great time chasing some fish and Wobbegongs around the Bulwer Wrecks. We even spotted a small shark hiding near the R1 boat! Almost everyone went home with a prize as well as with huge smiles on their faces.

Thank you to everyone for your support and for making the Annual Mug Hunt such a success. We
raised a fantastic $1000 for our chosen charity, Care Flight. We are all look forward to doing it again
next year. Hope to see you back then!