divesergeant 3 years, 10 months ago.Day 7 was a dry day.
We slept in a bit and then headed out for a circle of the eastern end and Rum Point. After a nice leisurely drive around East End and then to Kaibo/Rum Point, we doubled back to East End where we had lunch at Eagle Ray bar and grill at Ocean Frontiers. Like anything OF does, it was excellent. We had what was arguably the best coconut encrusted shrimp we’ve ever had. They were epic in their goodness!
We returned to George Town where Mrs DS wanted to shop. I bailed out, left her the Jeep and walked back to the apartment for a nap. She found an unusual jewelry store; one that was not high pressure. It seems like more and more the shops have notched up their sell, sell, sell attitude. It has kind of turned Mrs DS off. She is happy to have an associate welcome us to the shop and offer help, but when they follow you around like stray dogs waiting for a handout, constantly asking, “Would you like to see that?”, it gets a bit old. Leave us the bleep alone; we’ll ask when we see something! Anyway, she snagged a good deal on some silver earrings and is happy.
Day 8, Saturday, was a shore dive day.
We loaded up and drove to Turtle Reef to dive at Ollen Miller’s shop. Sundivers has always treated us well and today was no exception. The staff are friendly and helpful and the dive is always enjoyable. We did one dive, had a surface break, and then jumped right back in for another.
The following pictures resulted from these dives.
See this guy here? Not the arrow crab in the upper left…
This guy, now with his wings exposed. We found this lemon ray napping under an overhang…
We’ve not seen too many trumpet fish this trip. Don’t know why. This guy we’ll call Herb, as in Herb Alpert, not the herb he looks like he’s been smoking…
Mrs DS spotted this scorpion fish. Good eye, huh?
We found this Nassau grouper resting under a ledge. Sleeping off a big meal I think. Check out his belly! Hopefully it was a lionfish…
We happened upon a big turtle munching on a sponge with an angelfish getting the scraps. The turtle headed up for air and I got this shot of the angelfish. The turtle came back down but didn’t like us there so it left. I love the expression on this ones face; he’s saying, “dude, I get royalties for all pictures”…
Just before the dropoff at the start of the dive, we came across this smooth trunkfish. Pucker up for a trunkfish smooch…
We found this saddled blenny hanging out by its favorite coral clump…
I hate fire coral. I don’t know if brittle stars eat it, or if this guy is just hanging around on it. I hope it is the former…
While pics of specific critters are cool, I also like taking shots of generic underwater scenes to show the different colors and textures, Here are some examples…
One of the nice things about the Turtle Reef dive is the after-dive on-site restaurant. As is our custom, we rinsed, dried, changed and then ordered lunch. We both had salads which came shortly after our shared appetizer, a conch sampler plate which was enjoyed with a Macabuca punch for her and a red stripe for me…
On the way back to the apartment we ran into a traffic backup on the bypass. Yep, it was Batabano. We got around and ahead of it in time to get back to the apartment and watch the spectacle as it passed. Not a bad show, all in all.
There were not really ‘floats’ so much as trailers with speakers and dancers. Well, I don’t know if they were actually dancing, but there was a lot of gyrating going on and more pelvic thrusting than at a Rocky Horror Time Warp dance party. All in all, it looked like the start of a righteous island-wide party.
Again we ate dinner in. Butter and olive oil sauteed scallops over pasta with some Blackbeard’s mudslide for dessert.
All for now, cheers!
Following a bit of sleeping in, we packed up and drove to DiveTech’s Lighthouse Point.
Feelings are mixed on the owners of DiveTech; some take offense to some of the things they are said to have done in the past, like allegedly vandalizing the shop at Turtle Reef when their lease there was not renewed. Regardless, they have an excellent operation going. We’ve dived with them in the past and found their people capable and enthusiastic. So, we went to Lighthouse Point for shore diving. We were met by Sarah, a fellow Michigander whom we have always liked. She gave us the geographical overview of the dive site and off we went.
First thing of note is the recently placed Guardian of the Reef sculpture just at the drop off at the first wall…
Help, does anyone know what this little feller is…?
We’ve not seen many lionfish. This is a small one that lacked the vibrant colors of the adults…
Here’s a reef scene with blue stripped grunts…
These butterfly fish always move around so much it is hard to get a good profile of them…
Here’s a white spotted filefish that happened along…
On a clump of coral I spotted this brittle star. Look close and you can see the coral polyps open in a star-like fashion…
Queen angelfish are another that are hard to get good shots of due to incessant moving. I got lucky here ‘cuz it was chowing on a sponge…
Here’s some more fire coral hosting a clump of something frilly…
Here’s another arrow crab. I included it because it shows to good effect its blue claws…
At the end of the last dive, this turtle-dude showed up. He was quite photogenic and swan alongside Mrs DS for a minute or two. Which I filmed. Which ran me way short on air…
Then, as we ascended up toward the entry/exit, Mrs DS spotted this flounder. See it?
Back to the apartment, rinsed gear and selves, took a drive around the west bay area, then had dinner.
Again, we ate in; leftovers for main course, popcorn and wine for dessert. Yum!
Cheers,
DS
North yet again. We’ve been fortunate this trip with calm waters, so back north we went.
First stop was Mainstreet. As always a great dive. We had two advanced open water students on the boat and we watched them do some of the course stuff after coming out the first swim-thru. They cracked a few eggs open and the eggs stayed together, with the yolk and white forming one ever-changing mass. It was cool to watch. A curious snapper touched nose to one and kind of mouthed it wondering what in the heck it was, and if it was edible. He ended up passing on it.
With the egg show all ova, we finished the dive shallow and I spent more time checking stuff out and not much time photographing.
Next was Black Forest. The dive started with an eagle ray flyby over the deep. Too far for any hope of a picture, though. Mrs DS and I hovered near the wall hoping it would return. No joy, though.
As the group turned around, Casey spotted a large nurse shark resting under an overhang.
Here are some pics from today.
Another sharp-nose puffer. Hopefully the blue eye-shade mascara job shows on it. I knew a gal who did the partial blue mascara thing. Kind of hot in a trashy sort of way….
And another flamingo tongue picture, this one a closeup. Sorry, but I just love their patterning and colors…
And here it is from a wider perspective showing sponge in the fore left and the sea fan the thing is actually on…
Here’s the afore-mentioned nurse shark. They’re pretty benign, more like a big catfish than a killing machine…
On the safety stop I noticed this little thing hanging out with me. It is only about an inch or two in total size and almost transparent. This is the best photo out of a dozen or so. The camera has a heck of a time focusing on these. I think it is a pelagic tunicate of one sort or another, but I’ll be darned if I know more than that. I’m pretty sure it isn’t in the jellyfish family…
After drying off and hanging gear, we headed up SMB for some shopping at Funky Monkey (nice stuff but kind of pricey), Kirk Freeport (girlie bits and bobs) and Foster’s (groceries).
Dinner was Rackams again. As always it was great, both food and atmosphere.
Cheers
Man are we lucky. We had good weather for a pair of afternoon dives so we loaded onto Neptune’s boat and off we went; quite ably crewed with Stuart driving and Niall diving.
We dived Leslie’s Curl and then Roundabout. We’d been to both before and were pleased to revisit them. Roundabout is really cool. The mooring line is attached to a pinnacle around which you can dive. Hence the name, I guess.
Right at the start I found this porcupine fish. Normally shy, this one was quite photogenic…
A bit later we stumbled upon this green moray apparently at a cleaning station…
This barred hamlet actually was still enough to let me shoot a picture…
Mrs DS spotted this conch upside down. You can see its eyes peering out at me as I took its picture. I righted it after the photo…
Mrs DS was making frantic gestures at me at the start of the second dive. I figured she was either drowning or saw something in the blue. So I looked into the blue first. I was rewarded with several good shots of a passing eagle ray…
This damsel fish was quite territorial, actually nipping at my fingers when I waved them at it…
Finally, here’s an overall reef scene…
Earlier in the day we were downtown shopping. We stopped at the harbor and I got some fresh grouper from the fishermen there. What a great dinner. Baked grouper over rice for me and scallops over rive for her. A fish that was swimming earlier in the day makes a great meal!
Cheers!
