Martha and I left the apartment at 6:45 am and drove Federal Highway to Sunrise to A1A to get to Tower 15 by 6:55 am. Leo had advised us that the Little Coral Knoll was 130 degrees from the large rock to the NE of the buoy off Tower 15. We got in the water, swam out to the buoy, located the rock and descended at 7:27 am. A 130 degree bearing seemed about right so we headed out. As we headed out, a school of about 20 Tarpon swam by. It was majestic.
Not long after the Tarpon left, I spotted a Giant Anemone and took some pictures that included shots of some cleaner shrimp. A while later, I was getting some pictures of Spotfin Butterflyfish when Martha came to me and wanted to show me something. I knew that if I followed her, I would never get back on the bearing, but I went anyway.
She pointed to a small shell in a nook of a rock. I reached for the shell, but it would not come out. Instead, an octopus tentacle wrapped itself around the shell. I continued to pull and the Octopus did as well. I was hoping to pull him out of the rock, but he let go to avoid that.
I gave him back the shell. Took some pictures, but this was a small octopus in a dark hole and I had no strobe. We continued on.
Got some pictures of a Long-Spine Urchin, a Queen Angelfish and a few other critters when I spotted a Green Sea Turtle who was apparently just waking up. He swam out of the way but did not seem to mind if I followed him. He just did not want me getting in front of him.
We swam into another turtle and the first one raced off so I followed the second turtle. There is really something very calming about swimming. with a turtle.
We next ran into a Scrawled Filefish (Aluterus scriptus) who was floating head down and pretending to be a floating branch. I got very close to him and took a picture. He did not move until I touched him. Then he bolted.
My last shot was of a Red Grouper (Epinephelus morio) who had been patiently watching me with the Filefish.
The Dive was 134 minutes, maximum depth of 21.8 feet and a bottom temperature of 80.6 degrees. My SAC was 14.26 psi/minute and the RMV was 0.37 cubic feet per minute.
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