Tuesday 23 July 2019 Martha and I dive the Fish Camp Rocks

Martha and I drove to our spot behind Tower 17 and geared up. We wound around some fishermen to get in the water without tangling ourselves in their fishing line. We swam out looking for the blocks and found them. I tried to establish an intersecting line but failed to take a picture, so I'm not sure that I will be able to find it again. Still, we started our dive at the blocks. Went up the gun sight to Irish thighs then the Cigar Rock and finally to the Gray Mid-Way Rock.


Got some pictures of a small school of Atlantic Spadefish, a number of grunts, Snappers and other common fish. We swam to the Big Coral Knoll, but there were no turtles there and not a lot of fish, either.








a French Grunt (Haemulon flavolineatum)

 A Caesar Grunt (Haemulon carbonarium);












A Bluestriped Grunt (Haemulon sciurus);












A Gray Snapper (Lutjanus griseus)












A Spanish Grunt (Haemulon macrostomum);









 A Schoolmaster (Lutjanus apodus);

 and a Small School of Ballyhoo (Hemiramphius brasiliensis).

We went looking for the smaller knoll to the NE, but I turned back without finding it. We headed back to the Fish Camp Rocks and then headed West to the beach.

Bottom time was 130 minutes, our maximum depth was 19.2 ft. My SAC was 14.41 psi/minute and an RMV of 0.37 cubic feet per minute.

Tuesday, 23 July 2019 4th Open Water Dive on the Fish Camp Rocks

During our surface interval, Johnny got lunch and we discussed the 6 table problems. He took and passed the table quiz and the table final. This was his 4th open water dive. We geared up using the same tanks we used on our first dive. Johnny had used my air on the alternate air source ascent, so we both had 1600 psi left. We swam on the surface past the buoy line and descended.

Schoolmaster (Lutjanus apodus) 

I headed due East hoping to catch sight of the Big Coral Knoll, which I did.  Not much life on the knoll, however, so we headed South to the Fish Camp Rocks, where we saw lots of French, Smallmouth, Bluestriped and Spanish Grunts as well as various parrotfish and Some Schoolmasters.

French Grunt (Haemulon flavolineatum)

Spanish Grunt (Haemulon macrostomum) 

Bluestriped Grunt (Haemulon sciurus) 

Gray Snapper (Lutjanus griseus) 

Initial Phase Redband Parrotfish (Sparisoma aurofrenatum) 

Johnny signaled that he was down to 800 psi, so I turned the dive and we headed for the beach. Johnny carried 8 pounds but was light. He had to swim to stay down and was blowing through a lot of air.

Spotted Goatfish (Pseudupeneus maculatus) 

 I signaled that he should use my alternate air source, which he did. He hung on my BCD and I picked up a rock to assist with our buoyancy. He was high and to my right, so we could each kick unimpeded. I watched my gas pressure fall to less than 200 psi as we got to the buoy line.

Hogfish (Lachnolaimus maximus) 

I signaled that we should surface and we did. We then swam to the beach on the surface.


Bottom time was  42 minutes with a maximum depth of 210.2 feet. My SAC was 23.34 psi/min and my RMV was 0.6 ft3/min, though those numbers were inflated by Johnny breathing on my tank for the last 5 - 10 minutes of the dive.

Tuesday, 23 July 2019 3rd Open Water Dive Off Tower 17

Johnny met me on A1A behind Tower 17 at 7:00 am. It did not take long to gear up, but we had a 25-minute surface swim to get to the Eastern Ledge of the First Reef line. When we got to the Ledge, I went down to secure the flag line, which I did by wrapping the line across a flat bit of rock and catching it under a rock lip at the ends. Johnny came down slowly and kept his ears equalized.

On the bottom, I indicated that he should signal that he was out of air and needed to share air, that he should hold the strap on my BCD, and that he should use his breathing to control his buoyancy. He signaled as he should and took my alternate air source. He also grabbed onto my BCD strap. Unfortunately, we went nowhere for the first 2 minutes then we swam to the surface. He simply could not use his breathing to become positively buoyant. The total time for the ascent was almost three minutes.

At the surface, I let him know that we needed to increase our ascent speed for the CESA. I signaled that he should watch me as I took 2 deep breaths in and out then took a deep breath in and dropped my regulator's second stage. He did fine except that he thought we were going up and I needed to settle him back on the sand. When we did swim up, we did so in under 35 seconds from 32 feet, which was perfect. I went back down and freed the flag line and Johnny met me at about 20 feet and we swam back to the beach.

Bottom time was 44 minutes, including the ascents; maximum depth was 31.9 feet; my SAC was 19.02 psi/min and my RMV was 0.49 ft3/min somewhat distorted by Johnny's breathing with me on the alternate air source ascent.

Monday, 22 July 2019 Solo Dive on the Yankee Clipper Jacks

Took Mia for a walk at 5:00 am this morning and the weather was good. Light wind. Warm air. I decided to go diving. Martha has not been cleared by her doctor to dive yet, so she stayed on the beach. I took the camera and the flag. Decided to go to the Jacks and to swim underwater to them.




I descended in about 8 feet of water and tried to hold a 100-degree bearing. I thought I was adjusting for the current, but when I got on the reef I surfaced to find I was almost to the Bahia Mar. I swam South over some larger rocks that seemed familiar to me and ended up on the Jacks just past the reef and in 25 feet of water.

Rainbow Parrotfish (Scarus guacamaia)

I took too many pictures of Rainbow Parrotfish and a Hogfish who paid little attention to me and allowed me to get close.

Hogfish (Lachnolaimus maximus) 

Intermediate French Angelfish (Pomacanthus paru)

Caribbean Spiny Lobster (Panulirus argus) 

Spotted Goatfish (Pseudupeneus maculatus) 

Red Grouper (Epinephelus morio) 

Southern Atlantic Stingray (Dasyatis americana) 

Bluestriped Grunt (Haemulon sciurus)

I think this Bluestriped Grunt is looking for one of the smaller fish to clean the parasites from it's mouth. Looks funny.

Bottom time was 128 minutes at a maximum depth of 24.7 feet. My SAC was 14.98 psi/minute and the RMV was 0.39 cubic foot.