Cordova Dive Blog

Thursday, 17 January 2019

A Second Dive on the Swiss Cheese Reef with David Bennet

Martha and I first dove with David Bennet on the 8th of January, when we dove on the Fish Camp Rocks off Tower 17. This time, we decided to take David onto the Swiss Cheese Reef off Tower 4.  We typically leave for the beach at 7:00 am because traffic is light and the trip can be made in 10 minutes or less. We picked David up at the Hotel and got to the beach shortly after 7:00 am. We geared up and discovered that Martha had forgotten her paddle jacket. We left David on the beach with the gear and drove home to get her jacket.

 There was no discernible wind this morning. The water was incredibly calm and warm at 73.4 degrees. Visibility was only 15 ft or so, however. We geared up and got in the water. Swam to the buoy and descended. We swam East from the buoy over the blocks and to the Wrap Around Ledge, where I got photographs of a Terminal Blue Tang as well as a shot of a Juvenile Blue Tang, which is colored a bright yellow.




We headed South along the Ledge to a large coral head. I checked for Octopus, as they have frequently been found under this coral head. No octopus this morning.

We turned North and went back to the South end of the Ledge and I got a good shot of a Yellow Sand Ray who was headed across the sand flat to the Staghorn Coral and the Sectioned Rock, same as we were.



After we crossed the sand flat and reached the Sectioned Rock, we turned North to swim along the Swiss Cheese Reef. I was shooting into the sun. Should have stayed East of the reef line so the sun would be behind me. Nevertheless, many of the shots turned out just fine.

I like the bright blue and yellow coloring of the Juvenile Queen Angelfish which was peeking at us from under a coral head.

This Scampa came racing by and I was fortunate to get the shot. He was gone seconds later.

 The Red Groupers remind me of Golden Retrievers.  They are so calm and still but they see everything that happens.

The Sand Divers are like bullets when they swim. This guy came screaming by me as we reached the North end of the reef.

Hogfish change color when they are hunting and are this quiet white when they are not.

As I was taking the photograph of the Schoolmaster, below, David came by and signaled that he was down to 1,000 psi. We turned the dive and made a beeline for the sand flat. David ran out of air just as we crossed the sand flat. Martha and I surfaced just before the buoy line. It was a nice dive.



The depth was 19.5 feet. Bottom temperature was 73.4 degrees. Dive time was 92 minutes. My RMV was 0.50 cubic feet per minute. Check out all of my pictures from this dive by clicking the following link: 17 February 2019_Fish Camp Rocks