I make a solo dive on the Little Coral Knoll and then a second dive with Luis and Ray Lawson

The first non-handicapped space was open at Tower 15, but the guy behind me, whose name turned out to be Donovan, had parked in the middle of his and my spaces.  I went back and asked him to move back so I could avoid a ticket while I dived, and he did so.  Then he started talking about The Father's glorious sunrise and I suggested that the colors resulted from water and gases in the atmosphere that acted like a prism and that despite vigorous protests from the religious wing nuts of the period, the flat earth hypothesis as well earth-as-center-of-the universe hypothesis had long ago been discredited.  He me about my belief in things I couldn't see and I used radio waves as an example, saying I believed in them because I had evidence of their existence, not just faith in their existence.  It was an amusing conversation, but I was late and needed to get in if I was to meet Leo at 8:30.  I swam out to the swim buoy and Donovan watched as I descended.


Once in the water, I swam  to the Big Rock and got some pictures of Juvenile Cottonwicks.  I then headed out at 150 degrees to get to the knoll.  

Along the way I spotted a Sailfin Blenny doing his morning ritual and tired to get some pictures.  Only a few of them even came close to what I wanted.

I also spotted these Christmas Tree Worms on a Great Star Coral.












On the Knoll, I also took pictures, including this picture of what I think is a Graysby with some cleaner shrimp in its opened mouth;

this portrait of a White Grunt;

this picture of a Juvenile Dusky Damselfish,

this portrait of a Sand Diver,

and this shot of a Yellowline Arrow Crab.


I left the Little Knoll with 1000 psi.  I found the Big Rock and breathed the tank down to about 300 psi and headed to the beach.  Dive time was 133 minutes.  


Both Luis and Ray were at the beach when I got back. Leo had sent me a text saying that he would not be coming this morning.  So I kept the camera and we all got in for a second dive to the Little Knoll.  Swam out to the swim buoy and descended.  Ray carried the flag. We found the Big Rock and took some pictures there, then headed off at 150 degrees, but the current had picked up some and we missed the knoll.  We wandered.  Finally, I surfaced to see that the swim buoy about 50 ft to the West and I went back down.  Using this new information, we swam over to the Big Rock and took another shot at the Knoll.  We missed it for the second time.  Luis complained that his compass was not working.  I think it was the bad visibility.  Doesn't matter.  We never found the knoll.

Ray ran out of air and got on my alternate air source and we just cruised on back.  He's really good about holding my tank or my shoulder and staying connected but out of my way.  As we were headed back in, a small school of Tarpon swam by and I got some pictures.

Dive time was 98 minutes and I had 624 psi left even after sharing air with Ray.