Shelly Beach/Fairy Bower 19th January 2008

Dive No. 290 10.38 am, 22 degrees, 73 mins, 7 max, 5.2 av
Another huge group at D2K, which was surprising as it had been raining heavily for days and the sea was still big after a southerly the previous Wednesday. JP was DM but a splinter group of Liz, Sharon G and Sharon S plus an American couple got in the water first and decided to head towards FB, partly because of the swell over the reef on the northern side of Shelly but mainly because Scott told us the dusky whalers were back at Fairy! We entered near the boat ramp and headed west, over the seagrass beds and exploring all the reefs and bommies on the way to Manly. Sadly no duskies today but the vis was surprisingly good, maybe more than 10 metres; we saw a boarfish, two giant cuttlefishes, a blind shark, an estuarine catfish, a rockcod, a lone stripey, schools of tarwhine, drummer, mado, bullseyes, yellowtail and another school-fish, maybe a type of drummer, almost circular with yellow fringes. There was also a couple of wobbegongs, one swimming briefly and plenty of small stingarees.