Ken Kurtis
Contributor
Roatan, & more
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Greetings from Anthony's Key in Roatan . . .
DIVE DAY 1 UNDER OUR BELTS - And what a wonderful day it was!!! Three dives overall. Water temp is running 83-84 on my gauge. Viz estimated at 50-60 feet. There's a little particulate in the water column but not annoyingly so.
The biggest issue here is the wind, which is blowing 20-30moph from the east (which is good for us). The direction is significant because we're on the north side of the island and on the west end so we get a lot of shelter from the island itself. We didn't have any diving issues today other than that it was a little choppy riding out to the dive sites. Tomorrow we would normally go around the west end and over to Mary's Place, which is another 12 miles away. But we think it won't be diveable with predictions of 5-6 foot seas there. No fun. The airport is on the south side of the island so when we landed Saturday afternoon, we could see how white-cappy it was. Plus there were long strings of sargassum all over the surface of the water on that side of the island so it looked like no fun.
I was joking with our DM John Carter - we used him each time prior that we've been here - that we expected a seahorse on every dive. Sure enough, he found a resident one on the first dive but then spotted a new one (yellow guy) on the second dive. Yahoo!!!
The third dive was mucho fun as John brought some sardines with him. There's a resident Nassau Grouper at the site (Gibson's Bight) and once John gave him a taste of fish, he became a constant presence throughout the entire dive. Followed us like a puppy dog.
So we're off to a good start and hope that will continue through the week. I'm posting a Daily Top 10 Pix on FaceBook each day so check those out if you're a FB person. But in the meantime, here's a few from today to tide you over.
PHILIPPINES 2026 TRIP IS ALL SET - We announced this last week and already have strong interest. Bear in mind that this is a two-week trip. The first week will be on land at Atlantis Dumaguete Resort (which seems like the Frogfish Capital of the World). The second week will be on Atlantis' newer boat Infiniti (which will have come out of drydock two weeks prior to our trip). On top of that, airfare from Manila to Dumaguete and back (Philippines Air) is also included in our package price as is the generous crew tip. The overall dates, including travel, will be September 10-27. Cost of the trip to Reef Seekers is going to be $6,499 (remember, this is for TWO weeks). Airfare LAX-Manila looks to be running around $800 or so. Because we're on a boat, we're limited in the number of spots we have so we can only take 11 divers (plus me). A $1,000 deposit will hold your spot and we'll do on-going payments every other month or so. If you're interested, either e-mail me here or call us at 310/652-4990. If you'd like to see some of what I saw last September - and I was only there for four days - here's a peek: DIVING DUMAGUETE.
HAVE A SAFE FOURTH ON FRIDAY - Have a happy and safe 4th of July at the end of this week and enjoy the 3-day weekend.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
