Lot of Diving to finish off the 2009!

Tracy and I have been diving a bit every time we could during the last 10 days of the holiday season. We dove the mornings, we dove afternoon and evening too.
We have seen new things in each dive, we have seen the same things but closer and in more detail. We observed new fish behavior and learned of new habitats for the marine creatures. And with each dive, with each new encounter, with each "new to us" creature we are astounded to realize that after 35 years of diving and over 20 of those here in Cayman, we "haven't seen anything yet". We still have more to discover in 2010. I end the year having to say so long to my very good friend of 34 years Daniel. Danny, we dove together many times, working, teaching and for pleasure but we never dove as close together as we are going to dive now. I am going to take you in my heart in every dive!
Have a great 2010!

Twilight Snorkel; Creature's Paradise

Snorkeling between 5 pm and 6 pm in the shallows surrounded by turtle grass and old engine blocks that serve as moorings, was a blast! Lot of shelter for juvenile fish. Predators starting to show up. Nocturnal creatures starting to become active. In just one hour snorkeling we found 5 Purple Mouth moray eels, one spotted moray, one Porcelain Crab, two Flounders, one Scrawled File fish and two Lion Fish! Not too bad for an "after work" shore snorkeling.
Until next one!

Saturday afternoon and Sunday early morning. Two magnificent dives of two hours each.
Pike Blennys, mating Porcupine fish, lobster, Pigmy File Fish, Furry Sea Cucumber, Moray's, crabs and more. Very active reef. Snappers were hunting around and the barjacks were on a rampage over the sand mounds after the garden eels.
The soft current was carrying nutrients and amongst these we found a very tiny nudibranch no bigger than a grain of rice!
A healthy Eagle Ray showed up from the shallows, swimming mid water at about 25 feet. The anemones were out again. Some of them pretty big in size. Many different tips: blue, purple, white and green.
Two very small flounders were found close to conch territory.
Very exciting time on the reef!