Tuesday, 2 April 2019
Martha and I dive the Swiss Cheese Reef
 |
| Add White Grunt (Haemulon plumierii)caption |
Martha and I woke up about 6:00 am. I took Mia for her walk then set up the camera. I forgot to shim the mount where the arm attaches to the strobe, so it continued to shake in the water. I also forgot to remove the lens cover when I set the camera in the housing. I discovered and fixed that problem on the beach.
 |
| Two Porkfish (Anisotremus virginicus) |
Workers have closed half of the big parking lot South of Bahia Mar, but we got a great parking space just at the Northern most entrance to the lot. Workers also set up a flat plastic roadway across the beach, apparently for the Tortuga Festival coming on 12 April.
 |
| Red Grouper (Epinephelus morio) and a Blue Tang (Acanthurus coeruleus) |
Martha and I geared up and made our way across the obstacles and down to the beach about an hour after high tide. The water was cold. 75 degrees. We swam out the buoy off Tower 4and I got some pictures of small Sergeant Majors in the coral community growing on the bottom of the buoy.
 |
| Juvenile Highhat (Pareques acuminatus) |
We swam East to the Wrap Around Ledge and I got some shots of the usual grunts, porkfish and surgeonfish, including the Red Grouper and Blue Tang (above).
We continued East to the Rockline and headed North to the tire. There we changed our heading to due East to the Cresent Moon Rock, which is now about buried in sand. Got on the rubble still heading East and found the Barrel Sponges so we adjusted our heading to ENE. Unfortunately, we did not spot the staghorn coral.
 |
| Bandtail Puffer (Sphoeroides spengleri) |
I was having some trouble with the aperture setting, so I decided to try shooting a video. I turned the button, but I could not get the live view to appear so I could focus or compose my shots. I tried to switch back to still pictures but was unable to do so. I closed the camera up and just enjoyed the dive.
 |
| Sand Diver (Synodus intermedius) |
We floated across the Staghorn Coral and among the juvenile grunts, and snappers up to the sectioned rock where we turned North and followed the edge of the reef. Good visibility and could have gotten some good shots if the camera were working.
 |
| Gray Angelfish (Pomacanthus arcuatus) |
We turned the dive at 1500 psi. Surfaced just past the buoy line at 99 minutes, maximum depth was 20.3 feet, bottom temperature was 75.2 degrees. Might have made 2 hours, but I was cold and annoyed that I could not take pictures. My Surface Air Consumption rate was 17.36 psi per minute and the RMV was 0.45 cubic feet per minute.
My pictures of this dive are available at the following link: 2 April 2019_Swiss Cheese Reef
No comments:
Post a Comment