Luis and I make two dives on the Big Coral Knoll and find some Reef Squid

      Luis and I had agreed to dive the Clipper Jacks on Sunday, but there was a foot race of some kind with lots and lots of people.  The highway was blocked off and, at least when I drove by, all vehicles were being shunted to the West on Sunrise Blvd.  Luis made it up to Tower 17, but could only park on the West side of the highway.  I opted to go home.  Between Lifeguards and events, diving is just not as easy as it used to be.  It's time to head South.

      Met up with Luis in back of Tower 17 on Monday morning, President's Day.  We geared up and got in.  Swam out to the blocks to descend, then headed up the gunsight to the Cigar Rock.  got some pictures, but there was nothing really new to shoot.  Missed the Gray Mid-way Rock, but ended up just SW of the Perpendicular Rocks, even though I tried to hold the bearing.  Headed to the Swept Rock and the Knoll, then over to the English Garden.  On the way back from the Garden, both Luis and I spotted three Caribbean Reef Squid.  They looked larger than they were. They were also pretty wiley. We could not get too close., though I burnt through a lot of air trying.  Getting low on air, I headed back to the Swept Rock and the SW from the Perpendicular Rocks  Missed two hours by about 400 psi.

      Took a little over an hour surface interval, then we got back in.  Made essentially the same dive except that when we got to the Knoll, I headed out towards the English Garden and found the squid.  This time we did not chase them, but came at them obliquely and slowly.  Got some good pictures:  about 167 of them.  Over 400 pictures in all.  Took quite a while to winnow them down to 50.

Below are just a few of the pictures of the Squid.  The best ones were from the second dive.

I also got a couple of good shots of a larger Hawksbill Sea Turtle

Got a nice shot of these two Christmas Tree Worms

and this talking Redband Parrotfish.