Supermacro on the Big Coral Knoll

     The air temperature was warmer this morning that yesterday, but the water was colder.  It was only 1 degree colder at 66 degrees, but it really made a big difference.  I could not stop shivering this morning.  Yesterday, I could control it and my breathing.

       I put a +10 diopter on the 100 mm macro lens.  Since the workmen have been installing the supports for the beach, many of  the  

 non-territorial animals have left our beach.  While I enjoy the Porkfish and various grunts, I would really like to see some octopus or some sea Robins or some Guitarfish. 

The surf was a little taller than I expected, but not a often.  We made it out just fine.  The bottom is dug up, however. Holes and ridges.  Difficult to walk.

 Found a Seaweed Blenny who posed for me and let me get close enough to make use of the supermacro configuration. 

 He even came out of his burrow and posed for me. 

 I think this is either a Rosy Blenny or a Saddle Blenny, but I can't decide.  She posed for me, too.  Very calm and allowed me to fuss with my camera and the focus. 

This little Dusky Jawfish was busy cleaning his burrow and carrying the pebbles and other trash out in his mouth. 

     It was very difficult walking back onto the beach.  The holes were deep and the sand was soft.  I got stuck a couple of times and almost fell over once. 

Drifting North of the Knoll on the First Reefline

I headed for the beach early, despite surface temperatures in the low 50's.  I wanted to get a good parking spot and avoid the congested traffic on A1A.  Although the air temperature was 55 degrees at 8:30 am, the water temperature was 67 degrees and the air temperature was predicted to climb into the 70's by noon.  I took my time setting up, but got in the water by 9:30 am and descended over what used to be the Nursery. 

Taking the tank into the water actually increased the pressure in the tank by about 60 degrees.  Nice.  Well, nice for the first 30-40 minutes, then I had to focus on controlling my shivering.  Not so nice. 

The North current was fairly strong and certainly stronger than I had anticipated.  I got set North of the Knoll.  I spent the whole dive North of the Knoll.

Spotted several Purplemouth Moray Eels, including one who was hunting along the reef and  completely exposed.  I started taking pictures and the eel came towards me.  I wasn't certain what his intentions were and lifted up and back.  He stopped, still out in the open, so I dropped down for some more shots and he headed towards me again as soon as the strobe flashed.  This happened once more, then he ducked under a coral head.

Got a nice shot of a Christmas Tree Worm.  I was shooting with the professional 100 mm macro lens without any diopters, but the photo turned out really well, in my opinion anyway.  Maybe the work with the strobe is paying off and this picture is well lighted.   I found several feather dusters, as well, but was not able to get any good photos of them.  They are too timid and I take too long to set up.

As I left the reef and headed back to the beach, I ran into a Sheepshead Porgy.  These, too, are frequently quite timid, but this one let me set up for two shots before he swam away. 

As I passed over the Nursery and headed up the sand to the beach, I found a small school of yellow tailed fish I did not recognize.  I took  several pictures and went through the Humann/Deloach books, but could not identify them. 

This Cold Snap is Ridiculous

I got up at 4:00 am and checked the temperature:  49 degrees.  Okay.  I went back to bed until 5:30 am and then checked again:  47 degrees.  Where is Global Warming when you need it?

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.