Boat Diving, Shore Diving, Night Diving...all diving....

During the last couple of weeks we did a few dives. Some from shore, some from boats and some at night. All great dives with excellent weather, good visibility and great buddies.
With my dive buddies Dario & Esteban we visited two dive sites; Trinity Caves and the Wreck of the Balboa during the day. Esteban, Tracy and I returned to the Balboa for a night dive expedition with all staff members from Don Foster's Dive Cayman www.donfosters.com . Plus Tracy and I dove Casuarina Point Reef.
Incredible marine life and great encounters with creatures big and small. Here are some pics!

Thanks for watching!

Squid Fest 2014

Another awesome dive from the shore at Don Foster's Dive Cayman.
Several pods of Squid, Silversides, Turtles, Angel Fish and more!

Squid are back!

More and more fish can be seen at the Casuarina Point Reef accessible from Don Foster's Dive Cayman.
Our dives were during the mid morning and then again late afternoon. A pod of squid have been hanging around by the shallows and it was really fun to watch.

The Wreck of the Doc Polson & Hidden Killer Pillar Coral Reef in Grand Cayman

The Cayman Islands has now 365 dive sites to choose from. It will take many years of scuba diving to be able to visit them all.
Doctor Polson was the Diving Doctor of the islands for many years and took care of many divers.
A barge was sunk to make a dive site during the early 90's and was named in his honor. A very popular wreck site located in the West Bay bight in about 50 feet of water. The wreck is adjacent to a very healthy reef and attracts great marine life.
Another beautiful reef is "Hidden Killer Pillar Coral Reef". This reef was kept as a "secret location" for several years. It was discovered by Don Foster's Dive staff ( www.donfosters.com ) while exploring new sites and it remained an "anchor drop" for a long time. The reef is located close to where the old Royal Palms Hotel and Don Foster's Dive headquarters used to be.
Both, the wreck and the reef are only accessible by boat. Do not miss them!!!

Close interaction with the creatures of the sea in their natural environment allows us to appreciate their behavior.
During the dive yesterday at Casuarina Point Reef ( www.donfosters.com ), a Tiger Grouper came straight to us, landed on my right arm and started to spin on her sides. My interpretation of this behavior was that she wanted to get rid of the sucker fish attached to her. However the remora did not seem to like my wet suit and stayed on the grouper. This behavior went on for several minutes. Thankfully my dive buddy (my wife!) managed to get some videos and photos.

Here is the result: http://youtu.be/uqqKoejl1vo

Martin, a dear friend, accomplished photographer and journalist for the Argentine "Week End" magazine, visited us during November.
We made many dives while he documented the beauty of the Cayman Islands under water (although visibility was not at its best).
We dove the Kttiwake Wreck and we also had a great encounter with a Trumpet Fish at the Turtle Farm Mini Wall.
We are thankful for his visit and we hope to see him back soon.
Here are some of his photos (photo credit Martin Mainardi)

Silversides are back!!!!

It has been about ten days since the Silversides are back at Devil's Grotto!
No good pics but lot of fun diving the caves!

In search of the Silver Sides

We know the Silver Sides are coming back. It is the season. We heard rumors of divers seeing schools of them but we have not found them yet. In a couple of coral holes we saw a few dozens but the giant bait balls are just not there at the moment.
Fish activity though was great. The reef was exploding with life. We found a friendly Tiger Grouper in a cleaning station. She let us practice our photography!
Sergio

Night Dive at Don Foster's Dive Reef

Great dive. We saw 5 octopus hunting, many lobsters walking and shrimp all over the reef. Two hours of plain fun!

Diving the Blue Heron Bridge - West Palm, Florida

Tracy and I had to travel to Florida for some appointments.The town we were going to was close to a dive site located on West Palm Beach. The site was recommended to us by our friends Leslie and Albert who live in Key Largo. We decided to take our dive and photo gear just in case we had time to visit the place. It turned out that we had some free time in between appointments so we gave it a go.
The site is called "Blue Heron Bridge". New to us but well know to the locals as one of the best shallow dives for small creatures. Sea Horses, Bat Fish, Eagle Rays, Sea Robins, Blennies of several kinds, Spade Fish, Barracudas and more abound in the area. The bridge has a "West" and  an "East" side that can be dived but only between an hour before and  after the high tide because of the natural currents.
To get local information and to rent our tanks we visited "Force-E" dive shop (very close to the dive site). There we met Mark Kosarin who gave us a map and verbal details as to how to do the dive. He was very informative, passionate about diving the site and passionate about photography too.
With this newly found wealth of information we drove over the bridge and entered the "Phil Foster Park". It was getting late and the tide had already turned. However upon looking at the water conditions and the fish we could see without even getting in the water, we decided to snorkel! We took our cameras and snorkeled along the beach and the west side of the bridge. We saw many creatures, fish and even Manatees. We were very excited!
We got familiar with the area and ended up scuba diving the place 3 times over different days. We took hundreds of pictures, we enjoyed diving in the current and putting our skills both as photographers and divers to test under different conditions than the ones we normally dive.
Our last dive we ended it after sunset as the tides were getting later and later every day.
I want to acknowledge and thank Mark from "FORCE-E" for all his help to make this dives so memorable for us. And I want to recommend to all divers if you happen to be visiting South Florida, take the opportunity to dive this site as you will be blown away by the abundance of marine life. Visit the guys at "FORCE-E" to rent what you need and get info (You can even hire a Dive Guide to point out more things and navigate the site with ease) and off you go to one of the most prolific sites on the planet!
Until next dive...
Sergio