This is one of the best examples of some of the fantastic diving available locally. Everything and everyone seemed to line up in perfect unison; the stars, moons, fun people, comfortable hotel, marvelous restaurant, phenomenal visibility, flat calm seas, tropcial warm water and balmy air and the list continues…other than the traffic on Friday night, it was near Caribbean conditions all the way around.
In a conch (nut) shell,we saw three octopi, some garden eels, a gorgeous purple and yellow nudibranch, two Goliath Groupers, numerous Moon Jellyfish, large schools of Atlantic Spadefish, jumping dolphins, menacing mantis shrimp and just about every other indiginous Gulf of Mexico fish you can imagine.
Scuba Steve picked up a dead shell on the bottom and put it in his pocket. Upon surfacing and emptying his pocket, he found a teensy, tiny baby octopus inside his spare mask, which was also in his pocket. Relax, we put the baby back in his home shell and escorted him back to depth. Unfortunately for him, he now lives two miles away from where he was found.
The other octopi were very large and announced their whereabouts by the piles of shell carcasses stacked outside their home. Imagine how ticked off these creatures get when we humanoids keep taking the octopus’ trophies for our book shelves back home. The nudibranch was of a variety that I have never seen before. It was purple and yellow and all alone. Nature allows these creatures to be brilliantly colored because they are poisonous to anything that attempts to eat them. The fish swallow the nudibranch and then promptly spit them back out. Yuck!!!
And as you can see from the pictures, there was no shortage of baitfish to keep us company throughout both days. A diver could just hang on the down line and gaze for hours watching the flitting and swaying of the fish. Let us not forget the goliath groupers. They are huge and friendly but they know to keep their distance. Hopefully, all spearfisherman know it is a federal offense to shoot one of these giants let alone the fact that they are likely the breeders of the lot.
The three wrecks we dove on Saturday include the Accoceek, Mac’s Reef, and the hovercraft. Sunday’s dives took us to the Liberty Ship (a 400 ft WWII cargo ship), the Red Sea, and Bridgespan No. 12. Each one was better than the first so to say we were blown away is to be modest at best.
The divers who were fortunate enough to have been part of the experience include: Chuck, John, Cos, Russell, Wedon, Steve, Buddy, Drew, Jennifer, Justin, Daryl, Diane, Noreen, Julio, David, and Cindy with Peggy and Terry joining us for Sunday’s dives.
Know that this trip is planned for the end of May and the beginning of September each year. It is a package deal including two days of diving, air re-fills, dinner Saturday night and hotel accommodations Friday and Saturday night.
Join us next year. It’s never too early to make plans.
