|
After another fabulous meal at Chico’s where
we met the guests and introduced ourselves,
we went back to the boat to be fully briefed
and get underway for the marine reserve. All
of our guests except 2 had been on the boat
before, so they knew what to expect from the
crew, and all were happy with the changes we
had made to the boat. We arrived at Bat
Caves for our first two dives. The
visibility had dropped over the weekend, and
would prove to be disappointing (for some)
for the entire trip. Many cool things were
spotted, however, including goliath grouper,
red and blacks, hogfish. This trip would
prove to be a trip for macro divers,
however. Since the vis was so low, much time
was spent spotting the little guys instead
of looking for the big stuff. Little
critters included butter hamlets, Sailfin
blennies, mantis shrimp, and coco
damselfish. We moved for the afternoon to
Dragonfly, where the combination of low
visibility and low relief hardbottom made
navigation a challenge. There was big stuff
to be seen, including a loggerhead turtle,
blacktip reef shark, a tiger grouper, and
lots of little critters too, including
basket stars (sea rod basket stars—very
cool!), brittle stars, corkscrew anemone,
and fireworms. For the day, vis was about 40
feet, seas were calm, winds variable at 5,
water temp 82, and air temp 110.
Monday morning found us at Dante’s
Inferno, the guest’s new favorite. We stayed
there all day, except to move out of the way
for the Playmate to dive the site. I didn’t
have the greatest dive, but it is a funny
story. I went exploring a coral bommie that
was just visible to the east of the main
dive site. I knew that I had to go west to
get back to the mooring. As I crossed the
sand between the reefs, I felt the presence
of something big in the water, but couldn’t
see what it was. When I got to the other
rock, I continued east until I came around
the point. I looked at my compass and I was
still going east. I swam around the next
point, and was still going east. I was
mildly freaked out by then, and gave it one
more shot. As I went around the next point,
I was finally going west, back towards the
mooring. When I crossed the sand gap back to
the first reef, I felt Melanie grab my
thigh. Then she grabbed my butt. I couldn’t
imagine why she was holding on so tight, so
I reached down to hold her hand, and she was
about two feet long and slimy. Whatever big
was in the water had scraped off its
remora’s on me. Now I was really freaked,
low on air, and had two remoras who really
wanted a ride. I finally brushed them away,
and they really looked like their feelings
were hurt. I found Melanie, the mooring, and
the boat, and was very happy to be out of
the water. The divers saw bunches of goliath
grouper, blacks, reds, gags, and tigers,
angels of every type, grunts, crabs, and
lots of tunicates. The current came up at
night and cancelled the night dive on us,
but it was a great reef. Vis was 40 feet,
water temp 82, air temp 110, seas calm,
winds variable at 5.
Tuesday morning we dove at Black Coral
Rock. Black Coral Rock (BCR for short) has
some healthy stands of….Black Coral. It is
also the research station site for the north
reserve. BCR had goliath grouper, blue and
midnight parrotfish, red and tiger grouper,
yellow goatfish, and purple Reeffish. The
visibility was the worst of the week at
about 30 feet, but it was a nice dive
nonetheless. After BCR, we moved to
Mushrooms. Navigation proved to be a
challenge here as well. Critters spotted
included lobsters, hogfish, red and black
grouper, and divers swimming to the boat on
the surface. We also saw a hawksbill,
loggerhead, and bottlenose dolphins at the
surface. Visibility was 50 feet, seas 2
feet, winds to 20 from the east, water temp
83, air temp 89.
We got underway Wednesday morning early
for a drift dive at Tailend. This site has
spur and groove formation, lots of little
fish, Reeffish, goatfish, chromis, blennies
were spotted, as well as some big lobsters.
There was no current, but there was a dirty
cold water layer below 90 feet. Water temp
82, vis 50 feet, seas 2 feet in 15 know
winds.
The last dive of the trip was a drift
dive at Coalbin. A large goliath grouper was
spotted, but would not come out to play.
Pete saw a large school of doctorfish, as
well as harlequin bass, a porcupinefish,
Pederson’s cleaner shrimp, and a whole bunch
of blennies, chromis, and other small ones.
As Pete says “a wonderful dive to end a
wonderful week.”
Capt. Frank
M/V Spree
Stock Island, FL |
