Luis and I dive the Big Coral Knoll

     It was raining on Thursday morning and so I decided not to dive.  On Friday it was cold:  in the 50's.  I was eager to get back in the water on Saturday.  Luis and I arranged to meet behind Tower 17 that morning.  I got to the beach a little early to set up gear and discovered the capped tank I had chosen had only 1200 psi.  I don't understand this, but it has happened several times lately.  I may need to service the valves or I may need to catch the drunk in the back messing with my tanks.  Anyway, the 3rd tank I got had 3050 psi in it so I set up and we got in the water. The surface temperature was in the 60's, so by the time we reached the blocks and descended, I had over 3100 psi in the tank.





     I got a nice shot of both of the Blue Gobys that live just East of the concrete blocks













      I also got this shot of these three Juvenile White Grunts just as we started onto the reef.













     Luis found this little hermit crab in a small shell and we both got some pictures.







      We went up the gunsight to the Cigar Rock.  I looked for the octopus, but he was gone.  Then we headed to the Gray Mid-way Rock but ended up at the green mountainous coral head just SW of the Perpendicular Rocks.  I have no idea how that happened, but there we were.

Found several of these Juvenile Puddingwifes all over the reef.

At the Perpendicular Rocks, I watched this small Porkfish check various White Grunts about a mouth cleaning.

    I got this shot of a Sergeant Major on top of the Swept Rock

     This is an Initial Phase Puddingwife and I got this shot just South of the Knoll.  There were a few of them on the reef.








    I took a detour to the English Garden and got this shot of a Christmas Tree Worm.

      I got this shot of a Spanish Hogfish just East of the Knoll, where I found Luis when I got back from the English Garden.   We headed over to the Fish Camp Rocks.

On the way, I got this picture of a Spotted Scorpionfish.

I took some pictures at the Fish Camp Rocks, but nothing significant.  We also went over to the Columnar Coral just south of the FCR.  It's in terrible shape.  It used to have long waving cilia on all the corals.  Now most of the corals on South side are gone and only bare rock is left.  Pity.

      Found another Initial Phase Puddingwife on the way back to the beach.







      I did okay on air, but not good enough to make a 2 hour dive.   The water temperature was colder and I shivered, and that was enough to make the difference.