On the last day of 2007, my wife and I took 5 people diving. We did two dives, the first at a deep reef named Gails Grotto, the second on an artificial reef named Badger which is located at a wreck site named Papa Doc.
Gails Grotto ranges in depth from 55 feet at the crest of the reef, to 72 feet to the sand at the bottom of the canyons formed by the coral.
Badger sits at 45 feet on hardbottom, with bits and pieces of an old wreck scattered around the area. There are also coral heads all around creating a sculpture garden.
On the first day of 2008, we took five people diving, not all the same ones, to Pygmy Caves, another deep reef. At this site, the canyons of coral have grown up so much that they have grown together at the top to form arches, tunnels and rooms under the coral. Some sharks cruised over the top, along with groupers, snappers and huge numbers of Creole wrasses. Underneath the profile, I shared a room with a tiger grouper and one of the larger Cubera Snappers I have ever seen.
The second dive was to Shark Junction, where we were surrounded by Caribbean Reef Sharks giving the photographers in the group lots of opportunity for close-up pictures. There were also a couple of lion fish at the site, one of them hunting a school of yellow goat fish.
The visibility was about 100 feet. Water temperature is 77. Air temperature was about 80, skies partly cloudy and the sea was glassy calm with just a hint of roll. The holiday boaters were making much bigger waves than anything nature was providing.
All in all, a great way to bring in the new year!
