20200915_Swiss Cheese Reef

Sunrise was at 7:07 am so Martha and I left the apartment at about 7:00 am to head to the beach. Although I had charged my camera battery and formatted a disk, I had not fixed my broken mask strap and I had not worked on the tank strap for my old and patched Zuma BCD. I spent some extra time on those matters before we actually got in the water.  

There was a mild North current to deal with as we swam out to the buoy line, but once we descended at 8:07 am, the current stopped being a problem. 

We swam to the Wrap Around Ledge, then headed East over the rubble to the Rock Line where we turned North and swam to the tire. At the tire we turned East again and swam to the Crescent Moon Rock. 

We then swam NE to the staghorn coral and swam among the grunts, like this French Grunt (Haemulon flavolineatum)  . I did not spot any Graysbys and just two Bar Jacks hunting on the staghorn coral.

I also photographed this Doctorfish (Acanthurus chirurgus) on the Staghorn Coral. From the Staghorn Coral we swam East to the Sectioned Rock.

We then turned North to swim the length of the reef. Got some nice shots of an Initial Phase Puddingwife (Halichoeres radiatus).

The visibility was poor for much of the dive, only 8 to 10 feet. The tide was going out and the water was milky.

We turned to swim South along the backside of the reef and I spotted some Caribbean Reef Squid (Sepioteuthis sepioidea)  and followed them for several minutes. 

We turned the dive at 1200 psi on my tank. Martha had a smaller tank and less air. We swam inside the buoy line and surfaced in six feet of water. 

The exit was steep, but I made it out. I left my fins, camera and weights on the sand and went back to collect Martha's fins and the flag. Should have taken her weights, too. I went back a second time for Martha, but she had already started to climb out and I was as much in her way as I was helpful. We collected our gear and walked back to the Jeep. 

Our dive time was 103 minutes at a maximum depth of 21.1 feet. 

My A/C was 24.17 psi/minute; my SAC was 15.95 psi/minute and the RMV was .41 cubic feet per minute.