Cordova Dive Blog

Sunday, 3 February 2019

Martha and I dive the Fish Camp Rocks

Triggerfish

Juvenile Gray Angelfish

Martha and I decided to go diving this morning but had trouble finding our respective neoprene garments. When we finally got sorted, we loaded the truck and I turned the key but the engine fired then stopped. I shifted gears trying to clear whatever sensor it is that is creating problems, but it took time to finally get the truck started.






Although I had formatted my compact card early this morning, I forgot to set up my camera and consequently forgot to load the camera in the truck. I thought of it just as we turned on 17th Street, so we went back to the house to set up the camera and load it in the truck. Then we drove to the beach.

Redband Parrotfish (Sparisoma aurofrenatum)

Traffic was heavy and someone had taken my favorite spot off Tower 17. Fortunately, he left shortly after we got there, so I backed up and took his space.



 We geared up and got in the water. We walked out to a sand bar where Martha finned up.  I waited until we reached the far side of the sand bar before I finned up.

Bluestriped Grunt (Haemulon sciurus)

We swam out on a 100-degree bearing. We descended just past the buoy line. I had taken 2 pounds off Martha so she was carrying 14 pounds. She had some trouble coming down but seemed to swim fine once she got down.




We headed East. We did not spot the blocks or anything else I recognized until we came to the Furry Rock, or at least the Rock formerly called Furry. It is now a bare rock with no coral on it at all.

Juvenile Creole Wrasse (Clepticus parrae)

We headed North from there but
apparently traveled East of the Fish Camp Rocks and ended up at the Big Coral Knoll, instead. We turned and swam Southwest until I located the Fish Camp Rocks in the 8 feet of visibility we had.

Juvenile Porkfish (Anisotremus virginicus)  cleaning
a French Grunt (Haemulon flavolineatum)

 I had trouble with my camera and strobe. The strobe flashed at odd times and there was a black bar on the bottom of several pictures. Other pictures were completely burned out. I turned the dive at about 1800 psi and we headed West towards the beach. I spotted the Gray Mid-way rock, the Cigar Rock and Irish

Thighs. Saw nothing else that I recognized, but surfaced very near the beach in 5 feet of water.

French Angelfish (Pomacanthus paru)

 As we were getting out of the water there were a few larger waves hitting us from behind and difficult step to climb. We met a Kiwi (Phil) and his wife (Helen), who were kind enough to lend Martha a hand she was getting out of the water and then gave me a hand, as well.

The dive was 69 minutes long. Our maximum depth was20.3 feet. Bottom temperature was 71.8 degrees. My SAC rate was 19.42 psi/minute and the RMV was 0.50 cubic feet per minute. My pictures from this dive are posted at the following link:  3 February 2019_Fish Camp Rocks