January 27 Video Project

Hello everyone.

Funny what a difference a day makes. Saturday the 26th the seas were 3-4ft and visibility was about 15ft or so. Sunday the 27th was COMPLETELY the opposite! No waves to speak of, and both vertical and horizontal visibility was as far as you could see.

We found ourselves once again on the way to "The Sea Emperor", this time on a job for my good friend and instructor Juliet from Addicted to Scuba Diving. She had arranged for some of her students to be on Parrot Island's "Fathoms O' Fun", so they could be videoed by me and have a souvenier DVD of their first trip into open water after certification! The really cool part was there was just the four of us on the boat! Lots of room to be sure.

After we arrived at the wreck, I jumped in and headed for the bottom to be able to video the guys coming down the descent line. I almost missed them because waiting at the bottom were two of the resident Goliath Groupers out swimming around and being sociable. I wave the guys over to see the groupers and while I am taping one grouper, "Baby" the moray eel swims through my shot and heads over to the pipes! The guys are really excited by all this animal activity and we follow the eel and the groupers around for a bit. Then, as always happens, it's time to head back to the boat. The student's excitement was electric on the boat!


After our surface interval, we have arrived at "Turtle Ledge", one of my favorite reefs because of the high concentration of fish life. Again the visibility was forever, and I was amazed at the truly clear water and the impact it had on what we saw. We descended to the reef near a 3ft Black Grouper, and saw school after school of Grunts, Squirrelfish, Chromis, and Spadefish. Throw in the occasional French Angel, Midnight Parrotfish, Rainbow Parrotfish and Banded Butterflyfish and you have the perfect drift dive!

Now more than ever I wonder how this can be called "Work".

The Video Dude