Diving again!

The summer time found Tracy and I exploring Utah, Wyoming and Montana. We fly fished, hiked, climbed and took lots of pictures of beautiful scenery's and animals.

Back on island at the end of September we got back into the working schedules. As the weather was not cooperating, we only got to do just a couple of dives with our cameras. We did see Eagle Rays, big green moray, octopus and some nice size groupers.

The main attraction though were a group of Jawfish two of them with eggs in their mouth. We noticed on our pictures that you could see the "just about to be born fish" eyes through the egg casings. Pretty cool!

Some of those dives we shared with our visiting friends. Mariela & Martin (under water photographer for the Week End magazine from Argentina) and also Leslie & Albert both accomplished videographer and photographer from the Florida Keys.

We had a great time visiting Sting Ray City and the wreck of the Kittiwake with them.

Until next dive!

Goliath Grouper and Eel

Turtle Farm Reef and Devil's Grotto were, once again, fantastic. Highlights were two Yellow Spotted Eels and a Goliath Grouper that took shelter in one of the smaller caves. We ran into the Grouper that was covered by the Silver Sides. She even tried to nible one of Tracy's strobes!

Great creatures! Enjoy.

Photo Adventure!

Today we show Melina's first time trying her recently learnt photo skills. As part of her PADI Advanced Open Water Diver class, Melina chose a Photo Dive. With basic knowledge on hand and lot of enthusiasm, we set to dive the Casuarina Point Reef on a late afternoon. Here is some of her work.

Photographer: Melina

Camera: Olympus E 620

Housing: Olympus

Strobe: Olympus UF2

We have been doing a lot of shore diving and practicing photography skills (not much improvement to speak of...). The Devil's Grotto Caves are packed with Silver Sides, Tarpons, Jacks and Groupers. It only happens a couple of times a year for only a few weeks and it is a dive not to be missed!

Enjoy the Photos. Until next dive!

Great encounter with a Mantis Shrimp

The week end saw us diving twice the Turtle Farm Mini Wall and Don Foster's Dive Reef for a night dive. We found a Pipe Fish along the mini wall, several Scorpion Fish and a beautiful painted Blenny. But the most entertaining creature was a Dark Mantis Shrimp that we found on the sand, away from any obvious protection. We attempted to close in on him for macro pictures that in the end they don't do justice to how detailed this shrimp was. I can see through my camera's lens that he started swimming toward right up to me. After facing the lens port, he proceeded to walk around my housing and seemed very comfortable there. We took advantage of his comfort and took several pics.

During the night we dove the reef right in front of Don Foster's. We saw many interesting creatures and fish behaviour although our night photography skills were not up to par :(

More Decorator Crabs!

We visited the area north of Casuarina Point again in search for the crabs. Tracy found two more of them in a near by location for a total of four on the same coral head. Also a big Barracuda was mixing with the Horse Eye Jacks and allowed us to get real close.

We did a total of four dives in two days for more than five hours of bottom time and over 250 pictures taken!

Until next one

Sergio

Decorator Crab!

Very hard to see and difficult for our cameras to capture a good image. Tracy found two beautiful decorator crabs on an island of coral, north- west of Devils Grotto. We spent a long time watching these creatures do their thing.

Saturday Dive

Photo Dives: Friday with Tracy; Saturday with Dario Puebla.

Location: North side of Casuarina Reef/ South of Devil's Grotto

Water Temp: 80 degrees surface/ 78 degrees at 52 feet

Visibility: 70 feet

Winds: East North East

Turtle Farm Mini Wall

Today we headed toward the left of the mini wall. The Tarpon Cave was very populated with huge Tarpons facing the light west to east current. We had a close encounter with a good size Turtle feeding on a sponge while an French Angel and Queen Angel were taking pieces of sponge from the Turtle's mouth. We found a pretty good size Golden Tail Moray being cleaned by Gobies and the sandy bottom at 55 feet was covered with baby flounders and Garden Eels.

Fish were very active as there were lot of creatures floating by with the current to feed on!

Friends in low places!

Our Friday Photo dive took us to the south sand patch of the Casuarina Point Reef off Don Foster's Dive Cayman.

Conditions were excellent, no current, great visibility and lot of fish activity.

Our starting focus was on looking for high outcrops of corals with sponges, fans and fish that allowed us to shoot upwards into the natural sun light. However soon we were distracted by the activity close to the sand and low to the ground. An aggregation of barracudas almost touching the bottom, with a very clear camouflaged tone to conceal themselves, were waiting for unsuspected pray. Further down, the elusive Pipe Fish was meandering along rubble and sand. Then a Hermit Crab was moving along pretty fast from mound of sand to mound of sand, feeding.

Razor Fish were diving in and popping out of the sand by the dozens. It is amazing how much activity we can find in a few square feet of sand!

My Dive Instructor visits Cayman!

It has been over 35 years since i finished my Open Water course and over 30 since I last saw Guillermo Bellomo, one of my dive instructors. Now with some gray hairs and a 23 years old son, decided to come and visit us and the Cayman Islands. We did a bit of a refresher in the pool and a Discover Scuba Diving class for his son. Then right into the ocean for our first dive. They continued with a two tank dive and Sting Ray City dive next day. Monday they explored Eden Rock and on Tuesday was the turn for the Wreck of the Kittiwake.

We also took the "Cayman Helicopters" and we were able to see all these dive sites from above. Incredible!

The weather was in a bad mood for a few days having some on shore waves and lower than average visibility but the fish were all there to entertainus.

Until next dive!

Sergio

Snorkeling South Sound Reef

We prepared to dive the West Side of Grand Cayman but the weather had other plans. The morning revealed choppy seas, not so good vis and conditions deteriorating. We changed the plans to go explore and take photos of the many creatures within the South Sound reef and the Wreck of the Pallace. We started our snorkel adventure over the pilings of and old dock surrounded by Turtle Grass. Right there by the shore: Spotted Moray; Green Moray; three Flounders; Lion Fish and juvenile French Angel Fish. Further toward the reef and under a boat, a Great Barracuda. Over the shallows by the wreck, beautiful soft corals and Gorgonians. Under the wreck, big Balloon Fish, Glassy Sweeps, Bristle worm and giant schools of grunts. Back over the Turtle Grass bed we found two big size Pygmy File Fish. We spent three hours snorkeling and taking pictures and we are already making plans to go back again!

Until next dive,

Sergio

Kitti, Kathy & Linda!

The new year brought a new wreck to the Cayman Islands diving scene. The Kittiwake was sunk at the beginning of the month. We did one exploratory dive a few days after the sinking. We spent about one hour diving the wreck. It is spectacular, offers great photo opportunities and it will take many dives to get to know her all.

Kathy and her friend Linda came for a visit. I have dived with Kathy in the past and was looking forward to dive with her again. We dove Trinity Caves, Oro Verde Wreck, Great House Wall and Wild Life reef. Several tunnels, black coral and lots of fish, including a big green moray and also lobsters, furry sea cucumber and more. It was a pleasure to guide Kathy. Kathy is passionate about diving and improving her skills with each and every dive. She is going to Wakatobi next and I can not wait for her stories!

Linda came with few expectations and the idea of "trying" Scuba for the first time. She enjoyed so much that ended up diving every day including shore and boat dives. I admire her openness to a new challenge and now is on the way to get certified. I hope to have the opportunity to guide them privately again soon!