That’s a lobster under a rock.Dave successfully identified this as “Some kind of shrimp.” I believe him. At any rate, he liked being on top of that coral.I thought these looked like avocados, but I’m pretty sure they’re not related.Once again, I just liked the colors. This was at night, and the LED in my dive light makes this look very different from the big xenon in my strobe.Not the car wax, but it’s a pretty picture anyway.David and I were chasing this guy around the side of the ship. It turns out lobsters can move REALLY fast when they’re fed up. When he’d had enough he disappeared like a magic trick.There is disagreement over whether this is herbie the octopus from last year, or a decendent. Whoever it is, he came creeping up out of the Prince Albert while we were exploring it at night.Here he is all the way out of the ship.Herbie demonstrates his Predator camoflage.This guy was about halfway down the bow of the Prince Albert on our first night dive.This guy was on one of the posters in the clubhouse, but I can’t for the life of me remember what he is. Ed?This is after I got too close.This is before I poked my camera towards his face.He was waiting for us in about 15 feet of water. I stayed farther away this time.On the way back in, David swam through some of the underwater playground equipment in the front yard.Dave peering into the Prince Albert.On the Prince Albert. On a later dive, I swam through the passageway.I saw this guy swim into the wreck of the Prince Albert. As soon as I got over to the opening, he decided to come back out. He’s probably about three feet long, but he seemed bigger at the time.First one of the trip – by no means the last. We’ve seen numerous specimens on every dive.We lots of crabs digging in the bottom to feed. The little one kept getting pushed out of the way by the bigger one.We decided to take a re-familiarization tour of the “Front yard” for our first dive. We had no trouble finding the sunken DC-3.Settling in for the approximately 2 minute voyage to the resort. It literally takes longer to get everone on on the boat than it does to drive it across, but it’s still one of the highlights for us. Just look show happy the Bobs are.Bob and David looking for the van to take us to CoCo View
Day 2 – Sunday July 31
These are cool. this one’s about the size of a Frisbee.These were surrounded by a myriad (large number) of tiny fish, which showed up in the strobe a bit more than I was hoping for.I saw a number of these beasts hanging upside down like this under ledges on the seawalls.OK. This will be the last one, unless I see something pretty special.I know this is Elkhorn Coral, because before dinner last night, we had a lecture from some grad students who are here to study coral diseases. Later, David showed them his pictures in the bar and got them to identify a bunch of the corals.These both vanished into their tubes when I took a picture of them.Really, that’s what it’s called. I never saw him dive = he pretty much just lay there under some rocks.Unless you touch it.
Day 3 – Monday August 1
The Bobs descending for our morning boat dive.I said no more unless it’s something special. Here’s one on the end of a spear. Marco tried to feed this one to an eel, but the eel wasn’t interested. After he shook it off the spear, a red snapper ate it.
Marco speared another one, and he got the kitchen ladies to cook it for our dinner. It was about appetizer-sized for four.These are becoming my favorite fish.Coming out of a little canyon swim-through.Possibly the same one we saw last year. At least, he was in about the same place.David coming through a passageway.David having a “King of the World” moment on the bow of the Prince Albert.David stalking a lobster under the bow on a night dive.Here’s the lobster David was chasing. There were a bunch of them out tonight. We saw them all over.The last one of the Lobsterfest. This one ran right out in front of me when I was on the way in. He’s in about 3 feet of water. I was floating on the surface when I took this.
Day 4 – Tuesday August 2
Looking back into the compartment I just swam through.The kids chose victims from the audience to dance with them. Bob S. proved irresistable.Some kids from a local school came and performed traditional dances at the party.Ther was a party on Hawksbill Cay tonight, and a bunch of us bought Hermit Crabs to race. My crab didn’t really seem to know that there was a race going on.Bob exits the wreck through the forward hatch in the ceiling.Still following Bob M through the engine room.Mr. Bud is a fishing boat that sank some years ago. We dove on the site, and swam through the length of the boat. This is the engine room. Up ahead you can see a glimpse of the MacGreggor Wrasse.This guy kept moving between two openings in the wall, but never presented a good profile. Eventually, Bob S got close to the wall about ten feet below me, and his bubbles chased me out.These little punks are unbelievably good at hanging out where it’s impossible to get a decent picture of them. I think every good picture you’ve ever seen of a seahorse is faked.Joined by David, the Bobs assess the weather moving into the area. The unanimous verdict: it is a good day to dive.The Bobs prepare to go out on the Mighty Green Coco III for our morning dives. You can see the Mighty Red Coco IV next door. These are custom built 45 foot dive boats.
Day 5 – Wednesday August 3
THis one’s special because it’s at night.I don’t know if he’s really sleeping, but I’ve seen several of these guys at night tucked into tight little spaces like this.This was on Newman’s wall at night. These little suckers can move really fast when they want to.There are lots of little holes in the overhangs where you can look up and see the surface. Those waves are about 50 feet away.Bob S. saw me workign my way along the Coco View wall taking these pictures, so he hid in a little cave. When I came by, he lurked out at me using his hands to simulate monster teeth. The funky side lighting thing even makes Bob look creepy!This is about a five square inch section of a coral head, really close up.I started messing around with extreme sidelighting at really small apertures. The results are variously cool and creepy.This one went a little heavy on the mascara.That’s NOT the official nameIt took me five minutes to work my way back into a liitle cranny where I could get this picture without touching any coral. If you touch the coal, the picture doesn’t count, and you lose points for form.Looking like a shark should look.This one looks like she’s been chewing on the anchor chains of moving ships.Today I went on the shark dive. Guess what? There were sharks. There was also a guy shooting video. Not me, I mean this guy was a real professional.
Day 6 – Thursday August 4
Early on our morning dive, we were suddenly surrounded by hundreds of these guys. They were about a foot and a half long, and they acted like some kind of salt water piranahs. They zipped and zoomed within inches of usfor about five minutes. The divemaster was thoroughly amused, and kept taking out his regulator to spray bubbles at them. This is the best shot I managed to get.On Menagerie’s ReefThis coral head was taller than me! I messed around taking pictures of it for a few minutes, and then decided to go for a tight aperture backlit look. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out – this is one of my favorite shots of the day.Another Indigo Hamlet. Again, I used the small aperture – I think around f20. This is about the best shot I’ve taken of one of these guys for showing the actual color as they appear under water.This reminds me of an architectural shot. I like the tall sponge rising above the coral.This made me think of a spooky old tree on some lonesome hill somewhere.David swims through the side passage of the Prince Albert.David taking a picture of a small flounder on the bottom during the 3 minute / 15 foot safety stop after the afternoon drop off dive.
Day 7 – Friday August 5
Day 8 – Saturday August 8
We stayed for a bonus day, to dive after most of the other people left.
