My second two hour dive in 2014

      Got to the beach a little before 9:00 am but had some trouble with the strobe.  Actually, the hot shoe and the cable that fits it were just not connecting.  Got the strobe working, but it was slow.  Took 30 seconds to a minute to get ready for a second shot.  I think it was an old battery, but we'll see.

     I got in the water and dropped in about 12 feet.  Swam to the reef and found the rock pile, though I had to surface to do it.  Got set quite a bit to the North.  Took my 120 degree bearing and really worked at holding it, but I was up in a staghorn coral patch and knew I was not on the way to the Ledge.  I started looking around and just taking pictures, figured I was going on another lost dive.






Found this Fingerprint Cyphoma

A Yellow Jack,










and this Slender Filefish in some Staghorn Coral.






    Then I found one of the knobby coral heads near Shark's Rock; and then I found Shark's Rock and Shark's Rock East. I swam over to the Nipple rock and went West to the Ledge of Turtles.  By the time I got to the Ledge, I had about 1800 psi left.  So I got busy shooting.

As you can see, visibility was pretty good on the Ledge. Wish I had taken a wide-angle lens out.  I have one of the Canon utilities called Photo Stitch which will put several frames together and this seems perfect, but obviously I have a learning curve to deal with.

Found another pair of French Grunt going mouth to mouth on the Ledge.











Got this picture of a Squirrelfish,

This Golden Variation of a Yellowtail Damselfish












and this poor doctorfish with a Cymothois Isopod firmly attached under his fin.

     I stayed at the Ledge until I got down to 1000 psi, then I headed to the sand trying to hold my 300 degree bearing.  Seems easier going back, but I can't imagine why it would be.  Nonetheless, I came out right at the Rock Pile.  I was at about 96 minutes and still 750 psi, so I swam around at the edge of the reef until I was a 500 psi and then I slowly headed across the sand.  I got to about 10 ft and had 117 minutes, so I just sat at 10 feet until I turned 2 hours and then I swam in.  Ended up a 2 hour 3 minute dive, which is only the second two hour dive I have made since the weather turned cold.