April 27 - The "United Caribbean" and The "Sanctuary" Reef

Hello again!

After my action-packed morning of Divemastering, the afternoon finds me aboard Parrot Island Scuba's "Fish Food", along with my new dive buddy Joanie, heading out to a wreck dive on the "United Caribbean" and a drift dive on "The Sanctuary Reef". Weatherwise it was an amazing afternoon -sunny, very little wave action and nice top-to-bottom visibility.

Captain Mike gets us to the wreck in good time and, after getting tied off, we all jump in to find no current to speak of and about 70ft of horizontal visibility. The "United Caribbean" is pretty torn up these days -caused by multiple hurricanes- but it's still a nice wreck to visit. Occasionally, like today, you get to see some of the residents of the nearby "Sea Emperor" on the wreck. Today we only saw "Baby" the 7-foot Green Moray, but we also saw a big Nassau Grouper and a Lobster, along with the usual cast of tropical fish. It has been a while since I have seen the whole wreck in one dive and it was very nice to explore.

After our surface interval, Captain Mike dropped us off on our drift dive of "The Sanctuary Reef". After heading west to find the ledge, we had a nice north drift and saw that mating season was in full swing! We saw a couple of Puffer Fish in a Barrel Sponge, 2 big Burrfish doing the mating dance, another Lobster and lots of Queen Angels. I also found a golf flag (the kind you find in the hole on a green).

A beautiful dive day (and a long one!) with a good friend, and made a few new friends as well. Ah, Paradise!

The Video Dude