Last weekend of Sep dive report for Destin.

[Puffer Fish]

Well...what was a suspect weekend (with all the rain) turned out to be great off shore... one of the best weekends of the year.

Did Toadfish Reef and the main stack of the rubble on Sat, followed by the Liberty ship and my personal favorite, White Hill on Sunday.

Scuba Tec did their usual fine job...with a lot more local people diving (now that summer season is over).

On the first dive Sat, I did not take many pictures, as my dive buddy was learner to spear flounder.... which we did until we got tired of doing it, and then a somewhat agitated shark showed up...cutting the dive a bit short for me....still 30 minutes at 90 ft....only took a couple pictures:

Then it was off to the rubble pile... vis on the surface 10 ft was terrible for both dives, but below that, the water was very, very clear...at least 70 ft.

 

[Puffer Fish]

Bright sun and clear water are not your friend for taking pictures on the rubble, because all the Octo's will be hiding, and most of the good fish will be underneath slabs... so most of the dive was done crawling under things... and most pictures are turned upside down to look better:

I found the above two species of butterfly's under the same chunk of concrete... here they are in the same image:

Keep in mind they are actually feeding on the ceiling.

This guy, however, was right side up:

Was a lovely dive, with a 7 ft or so bull at the end to make it dramatic...

I nice relaxing 69 minutes at 67 ft.. with me taking time on the safety stop to shoot this:

 

[Puffer Fish]

While I was worried about the front that was to pass during the night, it was not an issue...

Sunday afternoon was a few less people, with everyone on a computer and almost everyone on nitrox... was going to be a very nice day of diving.

My dive buddy had new 120's.... Jay brought 100's... and I loaned another buddy my 133's.. and Terry my 100... so most people were going to have a lot of nitrox.....

The plan was to do white hill and then the liberty ship....but someone was on the reef, so we did the liberty ship....not a huge fan of the liberty ship... but one does usually get to see sharks... eagle rays and goliath group.....all of which were there.

I don't usually take many large animal pictures.. but the amberjack were so pesky... I did do this:

 

[Puffer Fish]

Was a nice dive... and the one where I finally got to try diving with dual gasses... using 33% for the dive, with a pony that had 53%... with the idea that the computer would give you credit for using higher O2 during your safety stop.....Sure enough.. as I assended, it told me to switch gasses.... which you have to ack..... and then began tracking my gas usage with the pony bottle....Total dive time for this 86 ft dive was 56 minutes, but I surfaced with the N2 level down three bars versus the usual one bar...

 

[Puffer Fish]

After a 45 minute suface interval.. down we went to White H. .....with great vis...

The three scorpion fish:

 

[Puffer Fish]

One of the things I love about this reef is that the fish will let you get closer... sometimes without you going to them:

 

[Puffer Fish]

There were mantis shrimp.... which I could not get to come out with the camera in front of them...

and some other stuff:

 

[Puffer Fish]

I saw the largest reef fish.. several times larger in fact than I have ever seen on any reef in the area:

and a new species (to me anyway):

and while not the best picture... here are several purple chromis... against the reef...

 

[Puffer Fish]

Great weekend....

 

[Puffer Fish]

Almost forgot... using that safety stop gas... well the second dive (after a 45 minute SI) was 83 ft with a total dive time of 51 minutes... the other person doing the same profile as me, had a 10 minute deco obligation.. while I still a a few minutes left....so yea, it worked.