I had friends from Canada come down for two weeks. they had not been diving in awhile but their skills came back quickly.
The first two days we had mostly partly sunny weather, good visibility, warm water. We dove with Living Underwater the 14th and 15th since Raul with Bottom time Divers was full. The 15th saw some winds so the port opened late at 9 am.
Living Underwater had Steel 95s (no 120s) for me since I normally dive AL 100s which meant I could take off 4 lbs of lead. The buoyancy of the tanks is different from AL 100s which become more buoyant at the end of the dive. Pepe the DM is very friendly. SIs were at Palancar beach club. LU uses the old Caleta (marina).
The weather here has had alot of winds and rain, sometimes heavy. Street flooding has been common. I feel a bit sorry for the ironman competitors Sunday especially for the bike race which meant slick roads.
After the 15th we started diving with Raul and Bottom Time Divers. Since Santa Rosa and San Francisco are closed, there are alot of boats on the Palancars. For these dives I brought my camera. My Canadian friend just bought an UW camera setup and finally got all the pieces and parts together. It was his first time with a bigger rig, strobes and such so I spent the first few days configuring the camera and going over it's use. Later this week I hope to get him started on shooting in manual mode.
I picked up a sore throat and congestion so I intend to continue diving later in the week. The winds are supposed to pick up today and tomorrow so the port may be closed tomorrow. The new port captain is a bit more liberal.
Raul found the seahorse and pipehorse. We did see reef sharks at a distance but not close enough for good photos.
The visibility dropped a bit in the last few days and the current picked up significantly so I have less photos. Cedral wall and Tunich had fast currents, still to the north but just a bit swirly. Slower currents on the Palancars and Colombia.
With overcast weather, currents and darker conditions underwater the backscatter picked up and for whatever reason my white balance went to hell at times.
We are seeing more eagle rays as singles.
There are alot of ocean triggerfish around.
There are alot of large green morays as well.
The parking at Fonatur marina is worse now as they are installing pipes along the north/south road so only one side is available for parking. If you arrive later in the morning, cars will be parked all the way to the roundabout to the north.
Moon at 6:30 am
Bandtail Puffer fish
Christmas Tree Worm
Chromis
Cubera Snapper with friend. Though this has the two fangs on the top jaw as a Dog Snapper would have, there is no triangular mark under the eye and this snapper is larger than an average Dog snapper. Therefore I think is is a Cubera Snapper.
Goldentail Moray Eel. There have been many more Goldentails in the recent weeks than usual.
Green Moray Eel
Seahorse (and small). First one I have seen in quite some time.
Peacock Flounder
Pipehorse
The first two days we had mostly partly sunny weather, good visibility, warm water. We dove with Living Underwater the 14th and 15th since Raul with Bottom time Divers was full. The 15th saw some winds so the port opened late at 9 am.
Living Underwater had Steel 95s (no 120s) for me since I normally dive AL 100s which meant I could take off 4 lbs of lead. The buoyancy of the tanks is different from AL 100s which become more buoyant at the end of the dive. Pepe the DM is very friendly. SIs were at Palancar beach club. LU uses the old Caleta (marina).
The weather here has had alot of winds and rain, sometimes heavy. Street flooding has been common. I feel a bit sorry for the ironman competitors Sunday especially for the bike race which meant slick roads.
After the 15th we started diving with Raul and Bottom Time Divers. Since Santa Rosa and San Francisco are closed, there are alot of boats on the Palancars. For these dives I brought my camera. My Canadian friend just bought an UW camera setup and finally got all the pieces and parts together. It was his first time with a bigger rig, strobes and such so I spent the first few days configuring the camera and going over it's use. Later this week I hope to get him started on shooting in manual mode.
I picked up a sore throat and congestion so I intend to continue diving later in the week. The winds are supposed to pick up today and tomorrow so the port may be closed tomorrow. The new port captain is a bit more liberal.
Raul found the seahorse and pipehorse. We did see reef sharks at a distance but not close enough for good photos.
The visibility dropped a bit in the last few days and the current picked up significantly so I have less photos. Cedral wall and Tunich had fast currents, still to the north but just a bit swirly. Slower currents on the Palancars and Colombia.
With overcast weather, currents and darker conditions underwater the backscatter picked up and for whatever reason my white balance went to hell at times.
We are seeing more eagle rays as singles.
There are alot of ocean triggerfish around.
There are alot of large green morays as well.
The parking at Fonatur marina is worse now as they are installing pipes along the north/south road so only one side is available for parking. If you arrive later in the morning, cars will be parked all the way to the roundabout to the north.
Moon at 6:30 am
Bandtail Puffer fish
Christmas Tree Worm
Chromis
Cubera Snapper with friend. Though this has the two fangs on the top jaw as a Dog Snapper would have, there is no triangular mark under the eye and this snapper is larger than an average Dog snapper. Therefore I think is is a Cubera Snapper.
Goldentail Moray Eel. There have been many more Goldentails in the recent weeks than usual.
Green Moray Eel
Seahorse (and small). First one I have seen in quite some time.
Peacock Flounder
Pipehorse