Hey! Sorry for the gap in posts. We've been crazy busy and I haven't had time to sleep, so the thread got kinda neglected. Anyway, we've had pretty fair diving lately. I have a bunch of pictures from all the dives we've been doing, but I didn't make any notes about where they were taken or what the diving was like on that particular day, so I've just been throwing them up on the business website in the photo gallery.
I do remember what the diving was like on Sunday though, so here's the report.
BDC Sunday, 26 August, 2007.
Seas were calm, the sun was shining, it was a good start.
We started out on the south end of the reef at Clubhouse. Vis was a bit off, maybe 45 or 50' with pretty big particles suspended in it. The current was mild and to the north. Water temps were warm, I showed 86 on my machine. A couple of folks were lobstering, but I don't think they found very many. I only saw one, a big one, but I left him alone.
A big lobster on Clubhouse. He was blue!
Next we did the Gazebo ledge, up on the north end. I think the vis was actually a bit better up there. This is a very active part of the reef. The current remained very mild and it was quite a relaxing dive. I see pretty many moray eels at work, but let me tell you that on this dive I found a for-real giant green moray. His noggin was about the size of a German Shepherd's head and his body was as thick as my thigh.
The giant moray from Gazebo. He was not at all scared of me or my camera and sat there patiently about 3" away from my lens. He actually seemed quite curious.
In the afternoon we headed back out, and jumped down on the Castor. Seas were still flat and the sun was still shining. I dropped in to tie off and was surprised to find almost zero current. Vis at depths below 70' opened up to about 60', and there may have been a half degree of so thermocline. As usual, Goliath Grouper were all over the place.
Now, I'm not a guy who complains a whole lot, but I have to say that I got kinda upset when another dive boat pulled up dropped divers on this wreck while we were on it. I think it's just a crappy thing to do to the customers of both boats involved, and I personally don't do it. Unfortunately, Captain Larry of the Manta doesn't feel the same way and plopped a bunch down on us. Thanks Larry.
Luckily I recognized some of the divers and went back up to the boat, grabbed a bunch of business cards and passed them out down on the wreck. Anyway, enough of my bellyaching.
There were probably about 40 big grouper on the wreck, and they packed themselves into every nook and cranny they could fit into, which are mostly big nooks and crannies. I have one shot of five grouper heads staring out form the lower engine room hatch, but it had alot of backscatter, so I'm embarrassed to put it up. I got an okay shot of one of them though.
A Goliath Grouper peers out from the lower engine room hatch on the Castor.
The last dive we did was Castle Ledge to Lynn's. Current was still at zero when we started out, but started just barely trickling south about halfway through the dive. We pressed onward to the north because it was so slight, it wasn't worth turning around and covering the same ground twice. Unfortunately, my batteries were dead, so no pics from this one.