Dianne and I dive the Big Coral Knoll

Dianne and I got a late start in large part because I discovered a short in the strobe cord and had to replace it.  We got to the beach and descended on the reef about 9:00 am.  I tried to reach the Fish Camp Rocks, but ended up at the Swept Rock, so we toured the Big Coral Knoll.

 No turtles today, not even the Greens.  The strobe worked, though, and I got some good pictures.  For example, I really like this photograph of the French Grunt eyeing the Juvenile Yellowtail Damselfish   

 I also got some good shots of a Spanish Hogfish, who was following a Sharptail Eel who was hunting on the Knoll.  In fact, there were several fish, including a Slippery Dick, following the eel and hoping to claim some part of the eel's prey for themselves.

 Got several shots of this Queen Angelfish, who would swim off, but then come back to see what I was doing.

 The Scrawled Filefish was not as curious, but he did let me get close enough for some good shots.

 We swam over to the Fish Camp Rocks and found two Porcupinefish under one of the bigger rocks on the East side of the rocks.  He had an odd smile.   Also got a picture of a large Sand Perch while swimming back to the beach.

Dianne fell on the beach in shallow water, and even though I dropped my gear to help her, the life guard had to come down to help me pick her up.  Pretty sad that she and I could not get her back on her feet. The Life Guard was nice enough about it though.

Diving Solo on the Big Coral Knoll

 Dianne came over this morning to go diving, but her heart was not in it.  It took forever to get her into a plush skin Matt had loaned her.   When we got to the beach, it was one thing after another, so I took her home and then came back to make a solo dive.

There was a moderate East wind and some 3-4 ft breakers at the sand bar, but I got out easily enough.  Swam to the reef and descended over the old block.  Found a few blennies to photograph, but the connection had slipped on the hot shoe and I had no strobe.  Still, they came out pretty well.

 Caught a rather large Scamp trailing me and very curious about what I was doing.

 Swam up to a Purplemouth Moray Eel who was out hunting.  I got a couple of shots while he was still exposed, but he quickly headed under a coral head.

 I ended up on the Big Coral Knoll, even though I had thought I was headed due East to the Fish Camp Rocks.  Well, at least it was someplace I recognized. Found a juvenile Yellowtail Damselfish on the Knoll and got several good shots.

 I also ran into a Hawksbill Sea Turtle.  First one I have seen for a while.  The turtle was not concerned about me and we swam together for 10-15 minutes.

 I also spotted a large Green Sea Turtle on the Knoll, but never got close enough to get a good shot.

 I spotted a Giant Anemone with a Squat Anemone Shrimp on top, but by the time I got a shot, the shrimp had disappeared into the tentacles.

Ran into another Purplemouth Moray on the way back to the beach.  I was chilled after 86 minutes in the water.  I was wearing my rash guard, a sleeveless vest and some 1 mm shorts.  Still, it was nice to be out of the wetsuit.

Marc Langenol's First Open Water Dives

Marc was on time to the apartment, but Rita did not show.  We waited 15 minutes then headed to the beach.  Of course, when I got to the beach I noticed that I did not have my dive flag, so we headed back to the apartment for the flag.  When we got back to the beach, Luis and Leo were waiting for us.

 We geared up and got in.  There was a mild breeze from the East and some surf, but it wasn't too bad.  We swam out to the reef to descend. Visibility was about 3 feet over the sand and opened to maybe 15 feet on the reef.   Marc had a little trouble with his ears, but got it worked out.  We headed East.  

 Did not see the Little Coral Knoll, but saw a lot of familiar corals and rocks, including one coral that had been worked over by some Parrotfish.  We were close to the Knoll, but it didn't matter in our limited visibility.  We didn't see it.

 I could hardly see Marc in the haze.  We did see an octopus duck under a coral head.  He inked us and I got some shots of the ink hanging in the water, but I was too slow to get a shot of the octopus, itself.

 Marc was low on air before we got to the end of the reef, but we must have been close.  We turned and came back, again looking for the Knoll.  We didn't find it.  He was down to 800 psi and I had him use my alternate air source as we swam in.  He was having some trouble staying down, as well.

We were out for about an hour to warm up, then made a second dive.  I put another 4 pounds on Marc:  12 pounds.  Marc and I got in the water first to go through his skills.  He did fine.  Luis and Leo joined us and we headed East.

This time, we spotted the bucket, but swimming at 120 degrees did not bring us to the Knoll.  We did find some Staghorn Coral with White Grunts and several juveniles.

 I also spotted a Banded Coral Shrimp under a coral head and got a pretty good shot.

Marc and I turned back when he got low on air.  This time, however, I did not put him on my air until he was down to 500 psi.  We were still on the reef when we buddied up to share my air.  

 I got a good shot of an Intermediate Gray Angelfish, but swimming together, we could not get very close to the fish.

 We also found some lobster under a coral head.

Marc seemed to have better control of his buoyancy this time and we swam together pretty well.  We got to the beach about 20 minutes before Luis and Leo came in.    

Teaching Swimming

A friend and former student recently contacted Dianne and wanted to know if Dianne would teach her friend to swim so that the friend could later take the diving class with me.  Dianne asked me and we decided to give it a try.

 Dianne has been swimming forever and taught swimming for several years to children.  Children, however, are fearless.  Teaching adults is another matter.

 She spent some time working on buoyancy and breathing.

 Breathing out of the nose at the appropriate time is a lot more difficult than it looks.  This becomes more challenging when you cannot breath in through your nose.

Leonardo Paez Completes the Deep Diver Specialty Course

 I took a group of five students out on ScubaTyme Sunday afternoon.  The plan was to dive a shallow wreck, then we would make a deep dive on the back side of the 3rd Reef Line.  The current was ripping though the Sea Emperor dive site, however, so the boat changed the plan to two drift dives.  We went deep, instead.

 Although I took the Intova, I never took any pictures on the deep dive.  What you see here are from our second drift dive on Turtle Ledge.  The boat dropped us in the water, we grouped up and descended together.  Trisha had some difficulty, but we straightened that out and next thing you know, we are at 135 feet.

Victor Heras did not quite believe it.  There was still light and the pressure felt the same.  There was a current, however, and the flag pulled me.  Nick Holtzhausen took the flag while I times Leo and Victor.  They each opened their combination locks in about the same time it took at the surface, suggesting that neither of them suffered from nitrogen narcosis.

 We began our ascent when Victor reached 1200 psi.  We made 1 minute Pyle stops at 65 and 32 feet, then a 3 minute safety stop at 15 feet.  Then we surfaced.  The boat was away picking up other divers, but we were picked up within 15 minutes of surfacing.

 We made a 55 minute surface interval before our second dive.  The second dive was a drift dive over Turtle Ledge, which is a North/South running reef at 45 feet that falls off to 60 feet to the West and the deep Atlantic to the East.  We saw a lot of Initial Phase and some Terminal Phase Creole Wrasse.

 Leo took pictures on both dives.

 We also saw Blue Chromis like the one pictured here.

 Guillermo was not feeling well and missed the first dive, but joined us for this second dive.

 We also spotted an Orange Spotted Filefish.

 and some White Spotted Filefish.

Solo Diving off the Pelican Grand

 Luis could make only one dive and it was after 10:00 when we got to the truck, so I moved up to the Pelican Grand to get in the water away from the evil eyes of the life guards.  I spent some time fixing the camera and checking to see that the strobe would fire, then got in the water.  I swam out to the reef and headed South.  I got some shots, but again, the strobe would not fire.  I have no idea why.

 I set the camera up for natural light and got some pictures anyway.   I followed the edge of the reef South to my old marker for the Ledge of Turtles.  The railing is no longer there.  The red sponge is no longer there.  All that remains is the base of the sponge and a small pile of rocks where the railing used to be.  Its enough.  

 I headed out at 120 degrees and found a Pederson Shrimp on a Corkscrew Anemone just as I got on top of the ledge.

 

I was worried because I never saw the mid-way rocks, but then I noticed a small school of Porkfish to the SW and swam over to investigate and found the Ledge of Turtles.  On the South side of the Ledge I found a Giant Anemone and this Spotted Cleaner Shrimp.

 I also found a Rock Hind who was both curious about me and afraid of me.

There were two Green Turtles, a large one and a very small one.  I got some pictures, but they were spooked and kept me at a distance.

I went back to the beach at 300 degrees and found the mid-way rocks.  I was not far off on the way up, but in poor visibility, it was enough to miss them.