Snorkel South Sound & Wreck of the Pallace

We explored the Sound and the wreck. Water a bit green but over all clear enough. Abundant life especially by the wreck's remains. We were not disappointed with our findings. Tracy found a big Doris (Flat Worm) white with black dots that was the high light of the day. However we also saw several Pygmy file fish, Porcupine fish, box crab, small eel ands a nice school of Needle fish. The grunts as always, were under the wreck in big numbers. Very entertaining afternoon with many photo opportunities.

The Beauties and the Beasts

Saturday 8:30 am we started gearing up for our dive. About 9 am we were in the water heading north towards Devil's Grotto. We noticed a weird current was bringing some thimble jellies, turtle grass and debris. Vis was on the low side over the shallows but nice and blue over at the Grotto. We were greeted by the school of Jacks. Over a hundred of them (I attempted to count them)! We stayed over the sand patch and let them swim by us over and over again. The Snapper was out again also, braver and more curious than before. He kept on bumping my strobes and hanging so close to the lens that any attempt to get a good picture of him was not successful. The caves had a lot of Tarpons in them. After one hour and fifteen minutes we returned to shore with some more pictures, good memories of the new interaction with the creatures and ready for our early lunch.

Great weather is back!

After seven cold fronts that brought rough seas on the west side finally, the East- North- East winds are back, strong but from the right direction! We have done several dives in the almost 30 days since the last post. In each dive we saw something new, a different behavior from known fish or introduced someone new in the world of scuba diving.
Arika took up on diving for the first time. She is a natural and we managed to get some photos and saw turtles, squid and a nurse shark. Unfortunately we saw how discarded plastic debris can badly affect the environment and the creatures that live in it. One Squirrel Fish had swam into the plastic loop from a bottle and this loop got stuck half way into its body length. As he is growing the plastic is digging into his body (dorsal fin and belly sides).
With Dario we did a few photo expeditions including a day with strong NE winds that brought swarms of Warty Jellies. With a purple bumpy bell on the top and long tentacles, these jelly fish are mildly toxic however when they show up in such quantities divers have to be very careful.
Dario and I had great sightings of Tarpons, Turtles, Squid and a big school of Jack.
We can not wait to go back and take more pictures. The reefs are very busy right now with all the food carried with the winds are currents. Until next one!