Solo Diving on the Big Coral Knoll

     The last time I was in the water was the 24th of February 2013.  We went out on a small, private boat and dove in 100 ft of water, then made a drift dive from a point somewhat East of the First Reefline to the Western edge of the Second Reefline.  The water temperature was 71 degrees, but the air temperature was 77 degrees.  The dives were short and although I got chilled, I quickly warmed up once back on the surface.

    Since then, the air temperature has dropped into the 40's and I have not tested the water temperature until this morning, when it was 67 degrees.  As you can see, however, the ocean was flat and calm and I just couldn't stay home any longer, even though the Windjammer webcam said the

air temperature was about 57 degrees.  The little girl guard was on today, so I got in the water well before 9:30 am and swam out to the reef before I descended.  The workers who are shoring up A1A and the beach have moved the Lifeguard Tower, so it is harder to find the concrete bocks and I missed them this morning.  I did find the castle sponge, however and made my way to the Gray Mid-way rock, where I turned North for the Knoll.  

     Visibility over the sand was poor, maybe 8 ft.  On the reef it opened up to at least 15 ft with some absolutely gorgeous moments when the sun was out and the water calm and you could see for 40-50 ft.  Went by the Bubble Rocks to the Perpendicular Rocks.  Lots of fish, but bigger fish.  Adults.  

     From the Perpendicular Rocks, I swam to the Swept Rock and then to the Big Coral Knoll.   Just past the Swept Rock, I found three Blue 

Tangs getting cleaned by a small Spanish Hogfish.  They were nervous, but I got an okay picture of two of the Tangs and the little Hogfish.

Made several trips around the Knoll looking for featherdusters and fireworms.

     I was warm and calm until around 40 minutes, then I started to shiver.  Got that under control, but I could tell that I was using more air than before.  Started counting my breaths in and out, which seemed to allow me to take control again.  

      Got some pictures of featherdusters and some really nice pictures of Christmas Tree Worms.   Spent some time working with the strobe.  First, I worked on lighting the subject, directing the flash to the subject, behind the subject or to the side.  Next, I tried changing the strength of the flash.   Problem is that it takes time to do this and most fish won't tolerate the delay.  The worms don't seem to mind, though some of them, too, disappeared before I could get completely set up for the shot.

On the way back to the beach, I found a small octopus on some coral and out in the open.   I tried to get this little fella to play, but he was not having any of it.  He inched his way around the coral, then down and underneath it. 

Diving the Fish Camp Rocks

This Was Javier's 3rd Open Water dive.  It was a calm, warm day.  Dianne, Javier and I swam to the edge of the reef and descended to 33 feet to make the three ascents. 

Javier was calm and comfortable for each of the ascents and passed without effort.  After the ascents, weswam back towards the beach.

 I had taken the camera with a macro lens and got some good shots of various fish.  I'm always amazed at fish with the attached cymothoid isopods. 

 We saw several lobster

 Balloon fish

 and Blennies.  When we got back to the beach, Luis met us and we were soon joined by Jennifer Moes, who also wanted to make the second dive with us.

 On this dive, we all swam out past the swim buoy and descended over the concrete blocks.  We then headed East, but got set to the North to the Perpendicular Rocks, where I spotted this Nurse Shark.

 Got a poorly exposed shot of a Yellow Fanworm

 and watched this White Grunt act like he was going to vomit for several minutes.  In retrospect, he was probably looking for a Goby or juvenile Spanish Hogfish to clean his mouth, but that's not what it looked like.

 Spotted a Green Sea Turtle,

 a Townsend Angelfish,

 a Midnight Blue Parrotfish

and a second Green Sea Turtle in the algae before the beach.  It was a pleasant dive.

My Solo Dive on the Fish Camp Rocks

The husband had a good nights sleep and decided to try a second open water dive.  Seemed like a good idea to me.  He had completed one dive yesterday and appeared to have just been exhausted on the second.  We packed up and headed for the beach.  I did not take a camera this time since the visibility was bad yesterday and I expected to be helping the husband much of the time today.  When we got to the beach, he wanted to sit out the first dive, so I went in.  It was an unremarkable dive, and not a particularly difficult dive.  Visibility was about the same as the day before, which was bad, but not so bad I couldn't navigate.  When I got out, the husband had reconsidered and decided not to dive.  Since the Lifeguards were on the beach, I could not dive without him, so we went home.  Somedays its like that.  

Open Water Divers in Rough Surf

 Had some cruise ship guests from the Bridge who wanted to learn to dive.  We went through the classroom work and the pool sessions and were ready for the ocean.

Unfortunately, the waves were 3 - 5 feet and breaking on the sand bar.  They were intimidating, but not terrible.  The wife quit on me before we even left for the beach.  The husband and I went diving.  We waded out as far as we could then finned up and swam the rest of the way.  We descended before the reef and the husband held onto my tank in the 3 ft visibility as we swam out to the reef.

  Once on the reef the visibility started to improve, but never got better than about 8 feet.  Still, that was enough for the husband to swim unassisted and he was getting the hang of buoyancy.

 He was a little light or, more likely, he was anxious and holding his breath.  Either way, he had to swim to stay down and that meant he quickly sucked his tank dry.

We swam West to the beach and surfaced in 5 feet of water on the sand bar, then just let the waves push us onto the beach.  The husband was slow to get his fins off and was toppled at the beach by a wave.  He had to crawl out. 

I got lucky and rode a wave up onto the beach, where I landed with both feet.  We sat out for a long surface interval before deciding to try a second dive. 

I put another 4 pounds on the husband and he panicked getting out through the breakers.  As soon as we got outside, he wanted to go back in.   He was adamant, so that's what we did. 

He did better getting out this time, but collapsed at the edge of the beach and jsut lay there resting.  I was getting a bit concerned, but could see that he was breathing and had good color, so I left him alone.  He got  up in a bit and we packed up and went home. 

Solo Diving the Big Coral Knoll

I got to the beach about 6:15 am.  The tide was higher than usual and there was very little surf when I went out.  It promised to be a good day of diving, except that I forgot to put a card in the camera.

I had a 2 GB card in my case, so I installed it, set up the +4 and +2 diopters and went diving.   Swam East, but got set to the North and ended up at the Swept Rock. 

 Shooting small stuff:  Dusky Jawfish, Smooth Flower Coral,

 Yellow Sponge Zoanthid,

 and a tiny Red Striped Hermit Crab in a tiny shell.

 The 2GB card filled up pretty quickly.

and I was cold by the end of the dive.  Between the chill and the full card, I went home. 

Solo on the Fish Camp Rocks

I got to the beach a little before 7:00 am.  The fellow I had met in the Shop who so badly wanted to dive, was no where to be found.  I suited up and got in.  The surf was a little rough but manageable.

  I descended just past the swim buoy.  I had a +10 diopter on the 100 mm macro lens, so it was a supermacro dive.   

There was a lot of surge, however, and holding and focusing the camera was very difficult.  Spent the whole dive swimming out to the Fish Camp Rocks,  Got some good shots, but lots of backscatter.

Took off the +10 diopter for the second dive.  Just too hard to shoot.  Couldn't hold the camera steady in the surge.

  Swam out to the reef before descending and swam out to the Fish Camp Rocks, again.  Finished by swimming over to the Big Coral Knoll and then heading back to the beach.

Spotted this Smooth Trunkfish on the sand on the way back in.  Not a bad shot, but could have been better. 

Dianne Completes the Rescue Exercises and We Dive the Big Coral Knoll

Dianne and I got to the beach and Ray Lawson pulled up behind me.  I got him a tank and he made the dive with us.  Dianne wanted to complete the rescue exercises. 

She started with the missing diver exercise.  Ray took the flag and stayed with her.  She watched me go under, but came out too far East to find me.  By the time she found me, I would have flat lined. 

We then swam back closer to the swim buoy and I was her victim for the rescue scenario.  She found me on the bottom, determined I was unresponsive and brought me to the surface. 

She then blew up my BCD to make be buoyant, but she had to do so manually and it was a problem.  She checked for breathing, looked for assistance then administered 2 slow rescue breaths and towed me in while providing one breath every 5 seconds. 

Ray wanted to make the second dive with us, so we returned to the water and headed to the Fish Camp Rocks.  We descended on the reef at the concrete blocks and headed out at 90 degrees.  I took my camer and was shooting with the 100 mm macro lens. 

 We got set to the North and ended up on the Big Coral Knoll, where I shot many of these pictures. 

Ray left for the Dania Swap Meet and Dianne and I made one last dive.  We were both a little cold and certainly tired. 

We got out quickly and swam to the reef where we descended near the concrete blocks.  That was about the last thing I recognized.

I was shooting macro and looking for the Fish Camp Rocks, but never saw them.  I apparently drifted North as we came up well North of where I thought we were. 

 

 It was an interesting dive and I got some nice pictures, including the following two pictures of a flounder, which Dianne had not seen before.