divesergeant 6 years, 8 months ago.April 14 started out as any day; alarm off at 6:30, make scrambled eggs and toast, sit on balcony with eggs, toast and orange juice, watch yoga girl on her sailboat… Who is yoga-girl I hear you ask. Well, there has been a sailboat moored just off shore and every morning while we eat breakfast the gal is on the foredeck doing yoga, including standing poses. Now, I can do warrior poses and even a not-to-graceful triangle pose without falling down most of the time. On a rolling boat, it’s not going to happen for me. She’ll be my hero if she can do tree pose on the boat.
Anyway, a gentle breeze from the east made for a nice day on the north wall, so we met Casey and Jorge (say, hor-hay) at the harbor this time. We did shore dives the last two days so we had not dived with them. Jorge said they were seeing spotted eagle rays every dive. What a kidder, I thought. Joke was on me. (Or, being Jorge, should that be, “Hoke was on me”?) We saw eagle rays on both our dives.
Anyway, descending into the depths on Lemon Drop Off (Lie-moan drop off, from Jorge!) we saw a spotted eagle ray heading to the west. It was a bit out of range so I looked down to adjust the zoom on the camera. As I looked down, I saw another one just below me headed east. And I mean “just’ below! Mrs DS estimates it passed about 12 to 15 feet below. I figured this was a better one to shoot pictures of, so I got with it and took several.
I have a modest example here, and notice that this guy or gal is missing the tail.
At the end of that dive, Mrs DS had the camera and another went by going east. She fired off a few pixels worth and got some good shots too. Here is one of hers…
Apparently this was ray day. Jorge spotted this large ray on the sand. Mrs DS still had the camera (give me back my new camera already, damn-it) and zipped off this pic…
Speaking of Jorge spotting stuff, these dives were packed with cool stuff like flounders, zillions of huge lobster and many small arrow crabs as well as the uber-cool stuff like the eagle rays. Jorge was great at spotting and pointing them out. We liked him, he was very aware of where his divers were, and still found time to find all sorts of critters.
Winding up the second dive I found a drum parading about his square foot of ocean. Miraculously, I had retrieved the camera from my spousal unit and was able to get some passable shots. I just about freaked Mrs DS out. I kept adjusting my strobe which is on a long arm. As I did so, I nearly brushed into a lionfish. That would have ruined the trip. Anyway, here is a picture of the cute little drum, showing to good effect the long streaming dorsal fin…
After drying out, we drove a bit and ended up at Pure Art for a second visit this trip. We had a good laugh with the owner. It turns out that she had been diving with Little Cayman Beach Resort last week also. Once we made the connection, we recognized each other. Anyway, Pure Art is a must-go-to shop. It has an abundant selection of unique, interesting art and souvenirs.
Tomorrow brings our last dive day, followed by the manic flurry of packing and pre-departure bustle. Look for an update tomorrow night…
April 15, 2011- Last day of diving. Waaa!
Today’s dive sites were again on the north wall. We started with White Stroke Canyon, just north offshore from Rum Point. This dive yielded the most current we had this time on Grand Cayman. The current flowed against the wind, current flowing to the east, wind blowing from the east.
No eagle rays today, but still lots of cool stuff. Turtles, lionfish, grouper, snapper and a whole flock, it seemed, of flamingo tongues. I eased up to get a shot of this flamingo tongue….
…and, as I checked where I was placing my hand on the bottom for steadying in the current, I saw this cool little Pederson cleaner shrimp hanging out in a hole with his buddy, Mr. Corkscrew Anemone…
The smaller stuff is always cool to get right up on and to work for a good shot. I worked on this little feller a while and got some good pics when he got used to be hovering about. I also really love seeing the textures of the corals and such like in this shot. I think the little fish guy is a yellownose goby…
After a short boat ride and once the surface interval was done, we jumped back in at a relatively new dive site called ‘Monet’s Garden’. It certainly made an impression… and yes, there were French angelfish here…
Anyway…
The reef teems with smaller fish. These often get shorted when it comes to camera time; they’re not as glamorous as the big stuff and not as intriguing as the smaller things. So, in order to help their delicate psyche from being damaged, I worked on this little fellow a bit until he allowed a halfway decent shot. It is a juvenile Blue Tang. Note the blue fringe on its fins…
At the end of the second dive we found more flamingo tongue and I took several more pics. I like the way this one came out…
After diving, we rinsed up and descended on the shops for some items. Then it was on to the packing. Dinner at Rackams and was the absolutely delicious curry shrimp for me and fettuccine alfredo for Mrs DS.
Bedtime now, gotta finish packing tomorrow and then fly home, wailing and gnashing our teeth!
DS
