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Carib Dancer Captains report July 14 21, 2012
Water Temperature 79-84 F
3 or 5 mm Wet Suit Recommended
This was a very special trip for the Carib Dancer. We had John Ellerbrock, President of Gates Underwater Products and assisting John was David Ulloa of Valeo Films Inc. John had several underwater video units for guests to try while diving the beautiful dive sites of the Exuma Islands. Both John and David spent their time giving guests and crew hints and helpful informative presentations to help us as divers take and enjoy shooting better underwater images. I would like to thank these gentlemen for helping us have a little extra fun diving the Exumas this week.
Saturday afternoon after everyone boarded, the Carib Dancer and its guests - Jenny, Dee, John E, David, Jennifer, John H, Judy, Lada, Beat, Maria, Robert and Michael departed its home dock at Elizabeth On Bay and started the trip out to the Exuma Islands. On the way to the Exumas from Nassau theres an area called the Yellow Banks. The Yellow Banks is a very shallow area of spotted coral heads that should only be crossed during daylight hours. The Carib Dancer anchored for the night just on the outside of the Yellow Banks. It was a very nice night under the stars.
One thing I truly enjoy about being a staff member for the Dancer/Aggressor family is having the opportunity to meet, dive and enjoy many of the top professional in the dive industry. If you ever get a chance to sign on a charter that has these professional as guests, take the trip. You will enjoy the diving, equipment and some of the top professionals and nicest people in the dive industry.
Sunday morning early we pulled anchor and headed across the Yellow Banks for our first dive site Pillar Wall. The top of the reef on Pillar Wall is only about 40 feet and is covered with soft corals. While diving Pillar Wall we saw sharks, spotted eagle rays, mackerel and a schools of Atlantic spadefish near the mooring line. One of the nicest things to see on this dive was a yellow sponge brittle star on a reddish-orange volcano sponge, which made that little brittle star an excellent picture. Next we traveled to Jewfish Wall where we swam with large groupers, Caribbean reef sharks, a loggerhead turtle, schools of tropical fish, and lets not forget about the spotted eagle ray.
Mondays first stop was Blacktip Wall. We never go wrong on this dive site. Blacktip Wall seems to always offer lots of big and small creatures, such as eagle rays, sharks, turtles and beautiful angelfish that swim up close to you for a look. We could have stayed all day playing here with the marine life and lots of swim thrus, but more dive sites to see. And the next one on this list was Barracuda Shoals. Scattered low profile coral heads with an array of marine life to video or shot a picture or two. The highlight at Barracuda Shoals was the playful common octopus we had on the night dive. This little creatures wasnt shy, staying with diver for over 30 minutes when we shot pictures and video.
Tuesday first dive site was a place I havent been to in over three years called Up Jump The Devil. This is an awesome wall dive that is covered with swim thrus, canyons and a beautiful colorful wall. We will be back here again and next time well plan on staying longer. Dog Rock/Church Wall was next and is one of the crews favorites. Everyone enjoyed the swim thrus canyons and large colorful elephant ear sponges. Lots of soft and hard corals, spotted moray eels that swam within a few inches of my video camera and we spotted an eagle ray just on the edge of the wall.
Wednesday morning we headed south to the Exuma Land & Sea Park area where all the marine life is bigger because the park is a No Take Zone. Amberjack Reef was our first dive site and as we pulled up to the mooring the sharks swam up to the Carib Dancer. The coral here is high profile with lots of little creatures inside the reef. While doing our safety stop we had schools of snappers, jacks and a few large black groupers next to us. Its always fun being around sharks and big groupers and now with a new underwater video system its even more fun - if thats possible. Jeep Reef was next and is still one of my favorites. Jeep Reef is shallow, colorful and has lots of marine life. That means you can have lots of time underwater shooting lots and lots and lots of underwater images.
Thursday we started making our way back up north and stopped at a dive site called Cracked Coral Head. We enjoyed lots of swim thrus, a large colorful wall and just off the mooring line we discovered a large brain coral head that was over 6 feet across and in excellent condition. As always, the marine life, swim thrus and the wall made Cracked Coral Head an excellent dive site. Hammerhead Gulch was our next shallow colorful dive. At Hammerhead Gulch we spent time in the grass area looking for small creatures and played around the coral heads with schools of fish.
The night dive on Hammerhead Gulch was especially fun because John Hott of Ocean Technology Systems was vacationing with us and had extra underwater communication systems. This took diving to the next level. Now we were shooting underwater video and talking with everyone topside about what we were shooting. It was fun listening to divers underwater talk about the loggerhead turtle they were seeing just under the boat or about playing with the octopus they just encountered. Just a little different way to enjoy the night dives on the Carib Dancer.
Friday came all too soon, but The Blue Hole is always a fun dive. Though we didnt see the schools of sharks like we have been seeing the past several weeks we did see schools of fish, along with turtles and stingrays. It was a very nice last dive to end out charter with.
Crew for this Charter was Captain Dennis, 1st Mate Craig, Engineer Gareth, Instructor Brian and Chef Robert.
Water Temperature 79-84 F
3 or 5 mm Wet Suit Recommended
This was a very special trip for the Carib Dancer. We had John Ellerbrock, President of Gates Underwater Products and assisting John was David Ulloa of Valeo Films Inc. John had several underwater video units for guests to try while diving the beautiful dive sites of the Exuma Islands. Both John and David spent their time giving guests and crew hints and helpful informative presentations to help us as divers take and enjoy shooting better underwater images. I would like to thank these gentlemen for helping us have a little extra fun diving the Exumas this week.
Saturday afternoon after everyone boarded, the Carib Dancer and its guests - Jenny, Dee, John E, David, Jennifer, John H, Judy, Lada, Beat, Maria, Robert and Michael departed its home dock at Elizabeth On Bay and started the trip out to the Exuma Islands. On the way to the Exumas from Nassau theres an area called the Yellow Banks. The Yellow Banks is a very shallow area of spotted coral heads that should only be crossed during daylight hours. The Carib Dancer anchored for the night just on the outside of the Yellow Banks. It was a very nice night under the stars.
One thing I truly enjoy about being a staff member for the Dancer/Aggressor family is having the opportunity to meet, dive and enjoy many of the top professional in the dive industry. If you ever get a chance to sign on a charter that has these professional as guests, take the trip. You will enjoy the diving, equipment and some of the top professionals and nicest people in the dive industry.
Sunday morning early we pulled anchor and headed across the Yellow Banks for our first dive site Pillar Wall. The top of the reef on Pillar Wall is only about 40 feet and is covered with soft corals. While diving Pillar Wall we saw sharks, spotted eagle rays, mackerel and a schools of Atlantic spadefish near the mooring line. One of the nicest things to see on this dive was a yellow sponge brittle star on a reddish-orange volcano sponge, which made that little brittle star an excellent picture. Next we traveled to Jewfish Wall where we swam with large groupers, Caribbean reef sharks, a loggerhead turtle, schools of tropical fish, and lets not forget about the spotted eagle ray.
Mondays first stop was Blacktip Wall. We never go wrong on this dive site. Blacktip Wall seems to always offer lots of big and small creatures, such as eagle rays, sharks, turtles and beautiful angelfish that swim up close to you for a look. We could have stayed all day playing here with the marine life and lots of swim thrus, but more dive sites to see. And the next one on this list was Barracuda Shoals. Scattered low profile coral heads with an array of marine life to video or shot a picture or two. The highlight at Barracuda Shoals was the playful common octopus we had on the night dive. This little creatures wasnt shy, staying with diver for over 30 minutes when we shot pictures and video.
Tuesday first dive site was a place I havent been to in over three years called Up Jump The Devil. This is an awesome wall dive that is covered with swim thrus, canyons and a beautiful colorful wall. We will be back here again and next time well plan on staying longer. Dog Rock/Church Wall was next and is one of the crews favorites. Everyone enjoyed the swim thrus canyons and large colorful elephant ear sponges. Lots of soft and hard corals, spotted moray eels that swam within a few inches of my video camera and we spotted an eagle ray just on the edge of the wall.
Wednesday morning we headed south to the Exuma Land & Sea Park area where all the marine life is bigger because the park is a No Take Zone. Amberjack Reef was our first dive site and as we pulled up to the mooring the sharks swam up to the Carib Dancer. The coral here is high profile with lots of little creatures inside the reef. While doing our safety stop we had schools of snappers, jacks and a few large black groupers next to us. Its always fun being around sharks and big groupers and now with a new underwater video system its even more fun - if thats possible. Jeep Reef was next and is still one of my favorites. Jeep Reef is shallow, colorful and has lots of marine life. That means you can have lots of time underwater shooting lots and lots and lots of underwater images.
Thursday we started making our way back up north and stopped at a dive site called Cracked Coral Head. We enjoyed lots of swim thrus, a large colorful wall and just off the mooring line we discovered a large brain coral head that was over 6 feet across and in excellent condition. As always, the marine life, swim thrus and the wall made Cracked Coral Head an excellent dive site. Hammerhead Gulch was our next shallow colorful dive. At Hammerhead Gulch we spent time in the grass area looking for small creatures and played around the coral heads with schools of fish.
The night dive on Hammerhead Gulch was especially fun because John Hott of Ocean Technology Systems was vacationing with us and had extra underwater communication systems. This took diving to the next level. Now we were shooting underwater video and talking with everyone topside about what we were shooting. It was fun listening to divers underwater talk about the loggerhead turtle they were seeing just under the boat or about playing with the octopus they just encountered. Just a little different way to enjoy the night dives on the Carib Dancer.
Friday came all too soon, but The Blue Hole is always a fun dive. Though we didnt see the schools of sharks like we have been seeing the past several weeks we did see schools of fish, along with turtles and stingrays. It was a very nice last dive to end out charter with.
Crew for this Charter was Captain Dennis, 1st Mate Craig, Engineer Gareth, Instructor Brian and Chef Robert.