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.