Diving Tower 17 with Luis

On our first dive, Luis and I entered in front of the lifeguard tower and headed out at 100 degrees. We dropped to the sand in 8 ft of water to look for the weight packet that Dianne lost yesterday. We did not find the weight packet, but we ran right into the fish camp rocks. No large shark, but we got the rocks. Spent some time photographing reef fish, then headed back to the beach.






On our second dive, we entered in front of the Tower but swam out at exactly 90 degrees. We were South of the Big Coral Knoll, but we found it. Looked for turtles, but did not find any. Still, we got some good shots of local reef fish. On the way back to the beach, Luis spotted a large Cushion Sea Star like we saw at the Blue Heron Bridge.


We left to fill tanks and meet with John and Jake, who wanted to dive in the afternoon.

Dianne Loses her Weights

Dianne and I met Luis at the beach. We went in in front of Tower 17 and swam out at 100 degrees. We missed the rock with a man's head but ended up at Fish Camp Rocks, where we found a large Nurse Shark with a Shark Sucker on it. The shark turned around and fled when we started taking photographs. Got some good video, but cannot seem to upload it to Blogger. Then we headed off at 30 degrees hoping to find the Big Coral Knoll, but found a Green Turtle and swam with that. Then I was lost. We headed back.





Luis had to leave after the first dive, but Dianne and I stayed to make a second dive. Dianne apparently lost one of her weight packets swimming out to the reef. She had trouble getting down and staying down. I thought she was just having trouble with the flag. She said nothing until over an hour into the dive. By that time, our frantic searching was useless. We tried to find the Fish Camp Rocks again, but could not. We did not find the Big Coral Knoll and a Green Moray Eel, a Striped Burrfish and a Goldentail Moray Eel. Then we swam in to the beach. We never found her weight packet.

Diving Tower 17 with Luis and Dianne

Dianne and I met Luis at the beach. After failing to find the Big Coral Knoll or the Fish Camp Rocks this morning, I wanted to dive the area again and try to find these things. We swam out and found several of the Jellys I saw this morning, so we descended to photograph and pick our way through them. We found the rock with a coral head and I headed NE but Luis came to tell me that he found something to the SE. Whatever it was was gone when we got there. We found a small Queen Angelfish that was not quite as shy as most of the Queens and she posed for a few good photos. Dianne spotted a small Hawksbill turtle and we swam with her for a while. We came to the Eastern edge of the reef and I headed North. Somewhere we lost Luis, so Dianne and I went up to find him. We spotted the flag to the SW but could not swim fast enough against the current to get there. Finally, Luis came up, waited for us and we re-descended. Immediately upon getting down, I spotted some reef squid and chased them for some pictures. Then we were on the Big Coral Knoll and swimming with an older Hawksbill. Dianne tapped me to show me a large Green Turtle ahead, but she spooked it by swimming right at it and it took off. I doubled back and found Luis still photographing the second Hawksbill and I joined in. I got some shots of Dianne and the turtle, but the turtle was swimming close to the bottom and it was difficult to get a good angle. I spotted some Spadefish and swam with them then found Luis and we headed SW and ran into the Rocks. By this time I was very low on air and we went back to the beach. There were no jellyfish in the water as we came through the surf.

Diving Solo off Tower 17

I was diving solo, so I could methodically search for the rock with a head, the Big Coral Knoll and the Fish Camp Rocks off Tower 17. I really want to understand the relative positions of those sites and be able to reliably find them. I entered the water North of the Tower and found some odd Jellys in the water. They were not the Portuguese Man-of-War, but a bell shaped Jelly with red or brown dashed stripes and a bright red mass. I swam to the buoy slightly North of the tower, then headed East and ran into the rock with a head. From there, I angled NE, but did not find the Big Coral Knoll. I did find a small knoll, but it was not what I was looking for. When I got to the Eastern edge of the reef, I went South a bit, then West. I did not find the Big Coral Knoll or the Fish Camp Rocks. I did see and photograph some reef squid and a smooth trunkfish.

Looking for Fish Camp Rocks

Luis called about 7:45 am and we agreed to meet at the beach at 8:30 am. We entered at the Tower and swam due East until we came to an odd looking rock with a coral head on top of it. There, we headed more ENE and found the Big Coral Knoll. We poked around and took pictures then headed West and ran into the Fish Camp Rocks, where we got to photograph some midnight blue parrot fish.

Dianne and I made a second dive. I was hoping to find the Big Coral Knoll at 270 degrees, but ran into a turtle, got some pictures then raced off to get Dianne since the turtle seemed not too concerned. Unfortunately, I could not find the turtle again once I got Dianne. Worse, I completely lost my bearing and had no idea where I was vis-a-vis the tower. We swam around and got some more photos, but nothing special and we did not find either the Fish Camp Rocks or the Big Coral Knoll.

Diving Tower 17

I met Luis at the beach. We geared up and were ready to go in when I first noticed that the flag was not in the back of the truck, where I always leave it. I now think that we must have failed to put it in the truck yesterday. So I went to Matt's to buy a new flag, but the kind I wanted was not in stock, so he gave me a loaner. I drove back to the beach and we went diving. There were plenty of Portuguese Man-of-Wars, but we managed to avoid any nasty accidents. We swam out and found a Little Coral Knoll and explored that some. We found a juvenile Yellowtail Damselfish and got some nice shots of common reef fish.









On our second dive, I had students out for their 4th and final open water dive, so I did not take my camera, even the Intova. Of course, we just reached the Reef when I spotted a baby nurse shark and could not get a picture. We then swam to the Coral Knoll and saw a turtle after we had been there a while. This was a Green Sea Turtle and a young one who did not enjoy spending time with us. On the way back to the beach, though, we encountered a Crab I had not seen before. Of course, I could not take pictures, but I got a shot of the crab and the baby nurse shark from Luis.

Diving with Man-of-Wars

We entered the water near Tower 17, deciding that the Big Coral Knoll was North, not South. As we entered the water, there were a number of Portuguese Man-of-War jellyfish and I dropped down to try to get pictures, which was very difficult in the chop and so close to the surface.

We swam due East to the edge and found what I think was an Indigo Hamlet on the ledge. Got some good pictures of that.

The second dive was much like the first except that we did not see the Indigo Hamlet on that dive. We did find a Green Sea Turtle who was calmer than most and let me get some good shots.

We decided to continue exploring to the South of Tower 17. We found a baby Yellowtail Damselfish, some anemones, a Green Sea Turtle, some Atlantic Spadefish and finally another Green Turtle on the way back to the beach. We did not find the Big Coral Knoll.

Our second dive was colder, despite warming up during our hour surface interval. We headed back to where we had seen the turtles, but they were gone. Saw some butterflyfish and doctorfish with Isopods, but nothing really interesting.

Luis and I dove off the beach near Tower 17. I was looking for the Big Coral Knoll. We went in South of Tower 17 and my camera battery died on the first photograph. Luis got some pictures of a small nurse shark, a Blue Hamlet and a Sharptailed Eel. I swam along wishing I had brought the Intova, too.

Changed batteries in the camera and got some pictures, but no sharks or eels this dive. Just the usual reef fish. We went back in the water even further South but did not find the Knoll.

Diving Tower 17 with Dianne

Dianne and I went to the beach late in the morning. The wind was maybe 5 knots and seas were building but easily manageable. We swam East from Tower 17 looking for the Big Coral Knoll and ran into a Green Sea Turtle who appeared to be wrapped in fishing line or net. As we got closer, the turtle started swimming away and we discovered that it had been breakfasting on a Portuguese Man-of-War. I shot video and got some good still pictures as the turtle was swimming relatively slowly, trailing jellyfish tentacles far behind her. After a bit, I stopped following her and Dianne and I continued our dive to the edge of the reef. We ran into the same Green Sea Turtle a little later and I shot some more pictures. On the way back to the beach, we encountered some of the perfect circle amphipods, which I have still been unable to better identify. Chilly, but a good dive.


The wind and surf were both up on the second dive. Dianne got knocked over twice on the way out, but we did get out. This time we entered a little more to the South. We did not see the turtle again and not much else other than the usual reef fish. I got some good pictures of a Smooth Trunkfish and a Scamp.