Every Friday night Big Cat Reality departs from her base at Scarborough for a weekend dive trip. Big Cat Reality is a 25m long catamaran, with a massive 10m wide beam. She has 24 bunk style beds for passengers, and 6 for crew, but is in fact surveyed to carry 220 passengers for day trips. When not taking divers she is available for river and bay cruises and also corporate functions and training.
The vessel is fully air conditioned, has two lounge areas, a bar and a large covered ‘party deck’. The wide back deck is perfectly set up for diving, with individual tank racks and plenty of room to stow your gear.
After boarding and meeting our fellow divers, we were given a safety briefing by the master of the vessel, and a dive briefing by the divemaster. Departed Scarborough, the bar was opened, supper served and a video played as we headed across Moreton Bay to our overnight anchorage near Moreton Island.
Early Saturday morning the anchor was lifted and we headed out to our first dive site, Gotham City, a recently discovered pinnacle north of Flinders Reef. Unfortunately, there was a strong current running, with only a couple of divers completing the dive, the rest of us waited for the next dive.
We then headed over to LG Bommie, south of Flinders Reef. The dive here was brilliant, with clear water and extensive gardens of hard and soft coral in depths from 12m to 25m. We encountered green turtles, fusiliers, lionfish, surgeonfish, angelfish, wobbegong sharks and anemonefish darting about in their anemones. At one point we were surrounded by a school of samsonfish, that circled us several times before departing.
Returning to the boat the first of the copious amounts of food was produced. After every dive there was fresh fruit, pizza, or something else to nibble on to replenish your energy.
Although it dawned a prefect day, the easterly wind and swell was increasing, which limited the selection of dive sites on the eastern side of Moreton Island. Luckily Flinders Reef provides excellent diving and shelter from most conditions. The crew moved Big Cat Reality to the western side of Flinders Reef and tied up to one of the moorings that have been placed here to avoid anchors damaging the delicate corals.
The crew of Big Cat Reality are very safety conscious, with each diver signed off and on the boat for every dive. They also have an ingenious tag system, with each diver allocated a numbered tag, which fixes to your dive gear. This tag is collected when you return from your dive, and you must sign the dive log before the crew will move the boat to the next dive site.
Prior to the dive at Flinders Reef we were watching several pods of humpback whales breeching around the area. Just as we were gearing up two whales surfaced right next to the boat. Once in the water we could hear the whales singing, or maybe moaning, for the entire time we were underwater. It sounded so loud we had to keep looking around behind us just to make sure the whales weren’t there.
The dives at Flinders Reef were magic. Clear water, over 25m viz., beautiful coral gardens and dozens of turtles to be seen, you could have been on the Great Barrier Reef. The fish life is abundant, helped by the fact that no fishing is allowed around Flinders Reef. Reef fish were everywhere; butterflyfish, angelfish, goatfish, wrasse, morwong, sweetlips, parrotfish, damsels and lionfish. We also encountered stingrays, spotted and ornate wobbegong sharks, a brown banded catshark and a few crayfish.
One of the best things about diving Flinders Reef is the wide range of invertebrate species. We found clams, hermit crabs, feather stars, sea stars, brittle stars, molluscs, tubeworms, cleaner shrimps and over a dozen species of nudibranch, including a large Spanish dancer.
The next couple of dives, including a night dive, where done around Flinders Reef. Big Cat Reality then moved inside Moreton Bay for the night, as the forecast predicted the winds would increase.
Sunday morning the winds were blowing 25 knots, however sheltered behind Moreton Island the wind was only light and it looked like we were on a pond. The first dive of the morning was a drift dive at The Pines.
This site is a coffee rock reef, dropping from 6m to 22m. The soft coffee rock is riddled with caves and home to lionfish, moray eels and lots of spotted wobbegongs. Although the visibility was only 8m there was plenty to see, and a surprising variety of reef fish. The highlight of the dive was a massive school of yellowtail and pike that swarmed around us for much of the dive.
After breakfast we anchored at one of Brisbane’s most famous dive sites, Curtin Artificial Reef. Dozens of old ships have been sunk at this site by the Underwater Research Group of Queensland dive club to form a reef that now attracts a multitude of species.
We dived the wrecks at low tide, and although the visibility wasn’t the best, around 8m, there was still plenty to see. Moving from wreck to wreck we observed batfish, parrotfish, gropers, wobbegongs, moray eels, morwong and many other reef fish. Exploring the wrecks is always exciting, dropping into large holds or open cabins, or just swimming along the side of a large ship.
The final dive of the weekend was a drift dive on the wrecks. Zooming across the wrecks was fast and fun. Unfortunately in the low visibility finding the next wreck was a bit of a challenge, and a few of us ended the dive staring at the clean white sand!
Heading back to Scarborough we reflected on a wonderful weekend. We didn’t get to dive many of the exciting dive sites on the eastern side of Moreton Island, however still enjoyed brilliant diving around Flinders Reef and Curtin Artificial Reef. The beauty of Big Cat Reality is that you can do as little or as much diving as you like, the main thing is to enjoy yourself and the wonders of the Moreton Bay Marine Park.