Another Solo Dive on the Little Coral Knoll

Got down to the beach about 6:00 am and geared up.  Still took until 6:27 to descend.  I made my way slowly East to what I thought was the Big Rock, but it was on the other side of the wave runner channel to the North.  Current must have set me.  I swam South and found the Big Rock.  From there, I swam up to the smaller rock and then headed off at 120 degrees, but I got set again and ended up on the backside of the knoll.  I spotted the comfortable rock and swam up to the knoll.


There were two green turtles on the knoll and neither ran off.  This one was stretched out waiting for the smaller fish to clean him.

The other had been sleeping under one side of the tipped coral head on the Northeast end of the knoll.  They both came and left throughout my dive.


This Blue Tang posed for a portrait.













This Juvenile Creole Wrasse and four other just like him were swimming with the juvenile grunts.  I tried to get their pictures as part of the school, but they were constantly moving.  They left the knoll and went to a small stand of staghorn coral and I got this shot.

This little Sand Diver didn't appreciate the strobe, but he didn't move, either.












This Queen Angelfish was quite timid, but really wanted to get closer and see what I was doing.



I stayed on the knoll, but I did wander the perimeter looking for squid, just didn't find any. Headed back at 700 psi and tried to follow my bearing exactly and check on landmarks.  Hung out at the smaller rock for a bit, then moved up to the Big Rock and, finally, at 300 psi I headed to the beach.  Got to 167 minutes and still had some air, but hard to know how much was left. Dive Time was 167 minutes; RMV was 0.33 ft3/minute.