Posts Tagged ‘Dolphins’
11.16.09 - The “Sea Emperor” and Abbey Too Reef
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
Hello everyone!
Monday, November 11th finds the Video Dude, along with Faboo dive buddy “Hall of Famous” Joanie, aboard Scubatyme III heading out to the ever-popular wreck of the “Sea Emperor” for a relaxing morning of diving. Captain Bob is at the helm and Divemaster Goddess Amanda is assisting everyone on deck as we head out on flat seas to our destination. Along the way we see a pod of Dolphins cavorting and jumping our wake. Captain Bob makes a couple of circles so we can see the dolphins and to give them a nice wake to play in. It was a great start to the morning and a good omen of things to come!
We arrive at the “Sea Emperor” and after Amanda ties off the descent line, Joanie and I head for the bottom. I nearly landed on the resident Stingray, who was out and about already. I had several face-to-face encounters, with the stingray occasionally brushing my camera and once even hitting it head-on! I always love to watch the grace of a “flying” stingray, they make it look so effortless! Captain Bob gave me some crackers to feed to the fish, so I went over to the sand and started feeding them so everyone could get pictures. We also found one of the resident Green Morays, and I found a 6ft Nurse Shark over amongst the pipes next to the wreck. We also came across a sick-looking Midnight Parrotfish who seemed to be having trouble just moving it’s fins to stay in one spot.
After our surface interval, we head over to Abbey Too Reef. Visibility on the bottom was much improved from the day before, but the east/west surge was stronger. We did see about 7 Lobsters all total though. No other critters besides the usual Grunts, Squirrelfish and Chromis.
So that’s about it. Good seas, Faboo dive buddy, better visibility and still warm water temps, plus a cool stingray encounter and a fish-feeding made for a great morning!
Still diving in Paradise (even in November!),
The Video Dude
Tags: Abbey Too, Chromis, Dolphins, Green Moray, Grunts, Joanie, Lobster, Midnight Parrotfish, Nurse Shark, Scubatyme, Sea Emperor, Squirrelfish, stingray, Video Dude
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1.11.09 - “The Tracy” and “Sunkist Reef”
Sunday, January 11th, 2009
Hello everyone.
Sunday, January 11th finds the Video Dude and Scuba Goddess Terri once again aboard “ScubaTyme III” heading out to dive a wreck and a reef. Enzo, Captain Dave and Amanda welcome everyone aboard and get us situated on the boat before heading out. It’s another beautiful day on the water under sunny skies and with very little wave action. We’re a little crowded today as the boat is full (a good sign for the local dive industry), but everyone is happy to be out diving and, a good omen for the day, on the way out to our first dive site we get a pod of about 20 Dolphins riding our wake and jumping out of the water!! Way cool!!
Captain Dave gets us out to Dive site #1 - “The Tracy” fairly quickly and DM Amanda jumps in to tie off our descent line. She comes back up to report a bit of a current on the bottom and nice visibility. Terri and I jump in first since we will be penetrating this wreck and I need to get some video footage before the crowd shows up. We get down to the wreck and head inside, poking around in various areas, shooting video along the way, then we head outside the wreck for a tour around the exterior. This is where I find the Spotted Eel just sitting there posing for my camera. Very cool!! Then it’s back up to the boat and get ready for the next dive.
Dive #2 is on “Sunkist Reef” - a beautiful reef we have been on many times. It always has something amazing every time we’re on it though, so it never gets old. Almost immediately after reaching the bottom, Terri finds a nice-sized Cowrie shell, and a few moments later a lobster snare. She was relieved to find that because she had just lost mine the day before and was gonna have to buy me a new one. The one she found was in new condition, so it is now mine!! I also found a deep-sea fishing reel in decent condition and along the drift dive we saw a free-swimming Green Moray, White-spotted Filefish, and a Giant Anenome. Then it was time to get picked up by the boat and head back to the dock.
Yet another in a series of beautiful dive days here in Paradise!
The Video Dude
Tags: Cowrie, deep-sea fishing reel, Dolphins, Giant Anenome, Green Moray, Lobster, reef, Scuba Goddess Terri, Scubatyme, Spotted Eel, Sunkist Reef, Video Dude, White-spotted Filefish, wreck
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