I thought that the computer transmitter had a dead battery, but I finally changed it and none of the batteries I had made it work. I even tried putting them in changing polarity. Nothing worked. So I switched from the Oceanic to the Suunto. I continued to take the Oceanic computer along on my dives, but it no longer has any tank pressure information.
Vaughn De Agrella has been wanting to begin his Divemaster course for a while now. One of the prerequisites is that he have 40 logged dives, and as of this date, he has 39.
The wind is light and out of the SSW, so the ocean is pretty flat. The air temperature is about 78 degrees. I set up my Canon 5d Mk II with a 100mm macro lens and the dome port, which is often the setup I use diving. We swam out and descended just to the West of the Jacks. Almost like I knew what I was doing, though, of course, I did not. There was a single Jack just South of where we descended. We swam a bit East and found two more, then more and more. Finally, we were on the wall.
Soon after we started East along the Jacks, I spotted a small Nurse Shark. I tried to get really close, but he was so timid.
Had a little Balloonfish stop and pose for me.
Then a Gray Angelfish came along and seemed to want some attention.
The Jacks are full of Trumpetfish like the one to the right.
Spotted a couple of Atlantic Spadefish cruising along and got the picture to the left.
This
Almaco Jack hung around for a bit, probably trying to decide how likely it was I might kill something really big so he could pick up scraps.
I haven't seen many Scrawled Cowfish this year, though it seemed they were everywhere last Summer.
The picture to the right is a Trumpetfish but this guy has a blue variation for just his face. Seen him a couple of times on the Jacks, but this is the first good picture.
Just left the Jacks on the way to the beach when I spotted this hogfish. They often turn so I can get a good shot, but this guy wasn't having any of that. Still, its not a bad picture.
At 60 minutes, Vaughn signalled that he was down to 1000 psi, so we headed back. While we were still over the algae, he started using my alternate air source. We breathed my tank down to 200 psi before I called a halt to the dive and we surfaced to swim the rest of the way in.
Vaughn and I warmed up a bit in the sun, then got in for a second dive. I switched from the 100 mm macro lens to a 28 - 105 mm zoom, but I set it at 50mm. Got some good shots of the Jacks.
The pile is about 10 feet high and goes on for quite a ways. Swimming slowly, it takes about 30 minutes to go from one end to the other.
Vaughn hanging above the Jacks. Need to get him to adopt the horizontal attitude. He spends a lot of time "standing" up underwater.
Vaughn over the sand immediately before the beach. This dive was better from an air-use perspective. He didn't need any of my air, but just made it to the beach for a 69 minute dive. I still had 1300 psi in the tank.
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