Reef Shark fun on Molasses Reef

[CajunDiva]

Hi Scuba buddies. We were able to make an impromptu trip down to Key Largo, so I thought I'd share a trip report with the gang. Rainbow Reef Dive Center has just acquired their brand new 46' Newton boat, the "Tropical Odyssey"...and she's a beauty! She is currently being rigged out to begin running dive trips out to the reefs and wrecks. I am hoping that will happen before we leave here!

For the third straight trip down, the winds have been ripping and the diving conditions were certainly not favorable on Sunday, which was our first day here. Seas were reportedly 3'-5' and the visibility was poor. Yesterday we decided to go for it anyway (since I was prepared with plenty of medication to control my seasickness)

Conditions were slightly better with the seas maybe 2'-4' or less, and the visibility was surprisingly good. Our first dive was at Molasses Reef - Winch Hole. We saw several interesting subjects. The first was a coronet fish who had been mortally wounded by a barracuda. Dive guide extraordinaire Jesus tells us the story with his unique sign language underwater:

[video=youtube_share;JCA2id_YS_k]http://youtu.be/JCA2id_YS_k[/video]

Next was a large stingray who swam across our path:

[video=youtube_share;MdyjxHrUSxI]http://youtu.be/MdyjxHrUSxI[/video]

And last, but certainly not least...I had my best ever encounter with a reef shark. This little guy seemed to be curious and kept coming in for a closer look!

[video=youtube_share;NUBIWxrhqcM]http://youtu.be/NUBIWxrhqcM[/video]

After Winch Hole, we went next door to Fire Coral Cave and enjoyed another nice dive with decent visibility. My favorite subject there was this goliath grouper! The lighting was not right, but I got what I could get:

[video=youtube_share;ohmFV8pRb3M]http://youtu.be/ohmFV8pRb3M[/video]

The front is moving through this morning and the wind is terrible...so another morning of sitting out dives. Ocean Divers sent both of their dive boats out this morning, only to turn around and come back in. Just too rough out there :depressed:

But the great news is that tomorrow and Thursday are supposed to be great days and we hope to get out and dive some more!

 

[EL Pistoffo]

Looks like the squall line just passed you guys at this moment. Got a lot of rain over night up at my place. Forecast has 6-8 ft seas today. Tomorrow forecast to be much better, 2-3 ft.

 

[mikeb21072]

Great videos. The winch hole is one of my favorites on Molasses and Jesus always makes the trip exciting. The chances are pretty good that we have been on one of RR's boats at the same time. We are headed back down in a month to escape the cold and snow, so I hope the winds die down and the water warms up a little.

 

[deeper thoughts]

Thursday looks good ,thnx for posting the vids

 

[scubastingray]

Sorry about the rough weather. I was down a few months ago and got out one of the four days I intended to.
Some of the big boats will go out every day, but it certainly wouldn't be fun.
Enjoy the bayside. I wish I knew some decent small dive spots bay side for when the weather blows out. Instead we'd end up fishing and drinking - not a bad way to spend the time, but not the same as diving.

 

[CajunDiva]

Great videos. The winch hole is one of my favorites on Molasses and Jesus always makes the trip exciting. The chances are pretty good that we have been on one of RR's boats at the same time. We are headed back down in a month to escape the cold and snow, so I hope the winds die down and the water warms up a little.

Water temps should be much better by then Mike. I've been paying attention to Scuba buddies Reefman and TimG here on ScubaBoard. The water temps had gotten back up to 78 degrees a few weeks ago, so I thought I'd have it made! Just packed my dive skin and 3 mm shorty :shocked2:

Apparently Mother Nature had other thoughts...I guess a few cold fronts have moved through since then. But I'll be honest - it's nowhere near cold enough to keep me out of the water. Nothing I can't handle

I'm just happy we were able to extend our trip by a couple of days to wait for some decent weather to dive in. Love it here in Key Largo - the company is great, the new dive boat will be awesome, and the reefs are calling!!!

 

[mikeb21072]

Glad to hear you had a great time and got to go out on the new boat. We were last down in early February and lucked into a couple of sunny days, my computer had the water temp at 78F. We have already booked short trips for May, June, and July, so hopefully we can catch a run of good weather, because we definitely had a run of bad luck at the end of the year with 15-20 east/southeast winds and plenty of waves to go along. It did make getting back on the boat an adventure to try to keep from getting killed by the ladder.

 

[CajunDiva]

We have already booked short trips for May, June, and July

Hope to see you in June