Verdes and I dive the Little Coral Knoll

 Verdes stopped by the apartment yesterday and asked if he and a woman from the Bridge could come diving this morning.  She apparently wanted to take advantage of the deeply discounted price for Bridge guests.  Verdes came by at 7:30 am as agreed, but his friend failed to appear.

Apparently, she just decided to stay in bed rather than come diving.  Why didn't she just say she was lazy and not interested?  It's like the people who approach me at the beach and want a business card.  They say they want to learn to dive, but they never do anything to make it happen.  

I got gear for Verdes and we drove to the beach.  The wind was not bad, but from the East, so there was more surf than we have had lately.  We got in without any trouble.  I took the Canon 5d Mk 2 with a 100mm macro lens.  We headed out looking for the Little Coral Knoll.

The swim buoy was no longer, so I headed East from the middle entry.  We swam a long way, but I found nothing I recognized, so I headed back a little SW and found a rectangular concrete block that I recall was due North of the Knoll.  I headed South and sure enough, there it was.

The Little Coral Knoll was a little disappointing, though.  There were a number of French and White Grunts, but not a lot of other life.  We saw Sergeant Majors, butterflyfish and Angelfish.  We saw no turtles.

 Lots of Juvenile Cocoa Damselfish, but they darted around frenetically.  It was very difficult to get a good shot of them.

 Got some shots of a Neon Goby on a coral head.  The picture I entered in the Underwater Photography contest at underwaterphotography.com has garnered 25 votes, but it was a photo of the goby in mid-water with a well blurred background.

 I was hoping to find some Midnight Blue Parrotfish, but none were around. I did find a nice Stoplight Parrotfish, who let me get a few good shots.

 I like these Sand Divers.  They are so patient, yet deadly.

I found this Scrawled Cowfish on the sand on the way back to the beach.  I like the way they change colors.  It was a fine dive and pretty good visibility, too.