Tag Archives: underwater

Pebble Beach

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I did another pair of dives at Pebble Beach yesterday, this time as part of the East Coast Divers shore dive. It was good to see Ken Apple, who was running the dive, again.

For me, Pebble is not a particularly edifying site because you have a fairly long swim over the sand to get to the reefs, and getting into the water over all the cobbles can be hard. It was a little easier the first dive since the tide was low enough that the water’s edge was right at the sand.

Mostly what we saw was crabs. Lots of crabs, big and small.

Crab

Crab

Crab in the kelp

Crab in the kelp

 

Sand Collar

Sand Collar

Last week, at Folly, I shot a number of pictures of this thing, which I was vaguely aware was some sort of egg casing. I didn’t know what had made it, so I turned to my friend Ralph Fuller, of Poseidon’s Web, who identified it as a “sand collar”, an egg casing left by moon snails. I was a little surprised, because it doesn’t look at all snail shaped, and because it’s bigger than most moon snails I’ve seen.

Well, now I’m certainly a believer, because I saw the biggest moon snail I’ve ever seen. It’s very easy to see how it could have created something like that:

Moon Snail

One of the biggest moon snails I’ve seen

I was diving with very new divers; Sam on the first dive, and Sam and Phillip on the second; both were newly certified. On the second dive, Philip managed to startle and grab a small lobster; he made his first lobster catch.

Philip's first catch

Philip’s first catch. (Not a keeper.)

Bonaire Pictures: Thursday

Gallery

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Hawksbill Turtle

This gallery contains 12 photos.

Thursday was a pair of boat dives, Pink Beach, and Paul’s steak dinner. We were about a hundred yards from the site called Rappel when a boat from another resort swooped in and beat us to the mooring, but almost … Continue reading →

Bonaire Pictures: Tuesday

Gallery

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Entrance to Weber's Joy/Witch's Hut

This gallery contains 18 photos.

Tuesday morning I did Weber’s Joy with the Hinzes and Alec and Nick, Tuesday afternoon, the Nolans, Henri Menco and I did Dee Scarr’s Touch the Sea program, and in the evening, I did a dusk dive with Jack and … Continue reading →

Last Dives

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Today was the last day of diving for this trip. You have to be done 24 hours before you fly.

This morning, Paul prevailed upon the boat crew to try Rappel, and unlike yesterday, no one swooped in and scooped it on us. We ended up doing both dives of the boat trip on that one site; the first heading north, the second heading south. During the first dive, we saw a green moray eel and a turtle; during the second, a squid. It’s a beautiful site, with lots of texture to it; the southern end has a lot of old broken coral while the northern side is more pristine. The mooring is right next to the shoreline; it’s a sheer cliff (hence the name) with an undercut; there’s lots of neat things to see under the overhang.

Moray Eel

On the way back, the boat captain suddenly made an S-turn; I was wondering why when suddenly I heard someone shouting “Dolphins!” There was a pod of dolphins gamboling around us. The pulled up along side us then fell behind; we stopped and they dropped under the water; then we turned around and they started up again. I tried getting a picture, but they weren’t close enough, and the camera has too much shutter lag.

We got back to the dock, had lunch, and soon it was time for our last dive of the trip. Alec, Natalyia and I headed north from the dock. The camera battery was exhausted, and soon the lens retracted and refused to come out and play again. We saw tarpon on this dive, plus a third bait ball of very small fish spinning around underneath one of the dive boats, plus a school of jacks spinning around underneath them. It was a good end to the diving.

For the end of the day, Paul took us on a tour of the northern end of the island. I switched batteries, and off we went. We went up to the nature preserve, through Rincon, and ended up at an overlook looking over the southern end of the island.

We went out for dinner, and now all that remains is to pack up, settle up, and endure the trip home.

Update: More pictures here.

 

Boat Dives and Pink Beach

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While it looked like it had rained overnight, today was warm and dry and sunny. We had our second set of boat dives this morning, and in the afternoon, Henri, Alec, Natalyia and I headed to Pink Beach.

Boat Dives

Paul had been pushing for a very nice dive site called Rappel this morning, so we headed north.

In order to protect the reef from anchor damage, there are a number of boat moorings all around the island. The dive boat ties up to the mooring, and doesn’t  have to drop an anchor on the coral.

We were literally about 100 yards away from the mooring, when a small dive boat from another resort zipped in and scooped it. Paul was utterly beside himself. There was an upside, though— as we headed for the alternate site, we saw a bunch of flying fish zipping along beside us. They pop up and glide about a foot above the surface for about two or three seconds. First there were a couple, then a few more, then suddenly a whole school came up.

We arrived at our dive site, Cali’s Reef, and went in. Almost immediately, I noticed a turtle deep underneath us. Originally, I decided it was too deep, but eventually I went down and got a picture of it.

Turtle at Cali's Reef

Turtle at Cali's Reef

Overall, though, probably because I was dead tired, I felt out of sorts and didn’t see much that got my photographic sense going. I also managed to burn through my air pretty quickly. It felt strange to be the first one back on the boat.

That feeling continued through the second dive too. There wasn’t much big stuff to shoot, so I tried focusing on the small fish. The problem with that is that they move really fast. I did get a really good picture of a fairy basslet, though.

Fairy Basslet

Fairy Basslet

In addition, I was having problems with the strobe not firing. I tried plugging and unplugging the sync cable, and finally realized a dial was mis-set… right before it was time to come out of the water.

Pink Beach

Two years ago, I dove Pink Beach with Ralph Fuller as my last dive of the trip. I was determined to do it again this year. This year, I did it with Henri and Alec and Natalyia. It was almost as good as I remembered (no dolphins or rays this time). The nice thing about Pink Beach is that the sponges and coral are in better health than other sites, so there’s more texture and more variety in the sea floor.

Pink Beach has a very wide sandy area before you start to reach the reef, so we snorkeled out, then dropped down once we started seeing coral. We ranged along the edge of the reef headed south, then turned around. When I thought we’d gone far enough, I popped up long enough to get our position. We were nearly in position, and I took a bearing to get back.

After we were all back and situated, we decided we didn’t want to do another dive right then. Instead, I drove down to the south to take a quick look at the slave huts and saw some kite surfers flying across the water near the southern end of the island.

The No-Camera Dive

Henri wanted to do another dive back at the resort. She likes the variety of sea life there, and, I believe, feels most comfortable getting in and out there. We both decided we wanted to do a dive and just enjoy it as a dive, rather than try to take pictures. It was getting closer to dark, so we both brought lights. Since I wasn’t carrying a camera, I did a giant stride off the dark.

It was a really good dive. We went to the south, and since there was a current running, it was a drift dive for parts of the way out. Because of this we turned around relatively early. As we were coming back in, I felt, rather than saw, something go flying past me. It startled the heck out of me. I then saw it turn on dime, then go flying into a school of small fish.

Update: More pictures here.

Four Dive Day

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For me, today was a relatively unscheduled day. With no boat dives or visit to Dee, I was able to do the morning shore dives, and then do a couple of dives on the house reef. Unlike yesterday, the weather today was sunny and warm, with no rain.

Hilma Hooker

The first dive this morning was to the Hilma Hooker, a freighter that sank right off shore to the south of Kralendijk (the capital city). The story is that it showed up deserted one morning off the coast, and when it was boarded, the crew was gone, and the holds were full of marijuana, and then one night, it mysteriously sank right at a handy spot off one of the beaches, where it’s relatively accessible to divers swimming out from the beach. The ship is lying on its starboard side, right at the bottom of the reef drop off, There are mooring lines at the bow and the stern.

Paul and Alec and Henri and I surface swam out to the bow mooring, went over our dive plan, then descended.

It’s about 85 feet to the port side of the ship, and about 100 feet down to the bottom. We went to the edge of the port side at the bow, then traversed to the stern. It’s an awesome dive, since the ship is mostly intact.  We traveled along what is now the side of the wreck, and was originally the deck and wheelhouse, hanging over us. Cargo boom of the Hilma Hooker

You can see the freight booms, the wheelhouse, and at the far end,  the stern railings and propeller. Once we got to the stern, we turned around, and ran along the bottom of the ship.

There were a bunch of sergeant majors there, and I was glad I’d done Dee yesterday, since I was able to recognize the egg masses they were protecting. Once we returned to the bow, we ascended the slope the ship sank against, and returned to shore.

Salt Pier

After the Hilma Hooker, we headed south to Salt Pier. This is a big salt transfer pier from the salt pans on the island. We found out after returning to the resort that it was illegal to dive there, and we could have had our gear confiscated. Fortunately or unfortunately, we didn’t find out until afterwards, because it was an awesome dive. Lots of sponges, lots of fishes, including French Angelfish, Rock Beauties,  and Queen Angelfish feeding on the sponges, and a bunch of tarpon, probably looking to feed on the smaller fish. I spent a lot of time on the angelfish, and boy, are they hard to get– they move fast. The sun beams shining through the pillars of the pier was very pretty.

Rock Beauty

Rock Beauty

We then headed back to the resort, where I reduced the amount of lead I was carrying, had some lunch, checked the news, and then did a pair of dives on the house reef. We had two really good dives. On the first dive, we headed north, and saw an octopus out in the open,

Octopus on the Buddy Dive house reef

Octopus on the Buddy Dive house reef

and a turtle. The dive was so good, we decided to cram in a second dive to the south before dinner. On the second dive, I got some decent pictures of a small yellow fish I’d been trying to get, and we saw another turtle.

I think the two pounds less I was carrying made a difference– it was a little easier to hover, and I could possibly take off more, but I’m leaving in two days.

For dinner, most of us headed out to a small restaurant called Cactus Blue, where Paul knows the owner. The food was good, but everyone was pretty tired, so it was just as well that we finished up pretty early.

Update: More pictures here.

Weber’s Joy and Dee

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Today started off clear and dry. Henri was scheduled to do a photography class this morning, so I did the shore dive with Nick and the Hinzes. In the afternoon, Henri and I did Dee Scarr’s Touch the Sea program with the Nolan’s.

Weber’s Joy

Weber’s Joy, AKA Witch’s Hut is along side the road leading north to Oil Slick and Old Blue. There’s an abandoned shack, with a turn in along the road, and steps leading down to the water.  The water’s edge is lined with dead coral cobbles; once in the water, there’s a sandy bottom until you reach the wall. Since Henri was doing her class, I tagged along with Jack and Jane Hinz.

We crossed the sandy area, and descended  the wall to about 80 feet, and swam alongside the wall to the south; gradually getting shallower as we went along. It was a rather quiet section of the reef,  I didn’t take too many pictures, and it looks like Jack wasn’t shooting much video.

We continued to get shallower once we turned around,  and found some more things of interest as we got shallower. After John Wall’s presentation the other night, I started looking more carefully, and found a Flamingo tongue snail on one of them.

Watchamacallit

Watchamacallit on the soft coral... also known as a Flamingo Tongue. It's part of the mollusk family.

Intermission

The timing of the dives was a little inconvenient. I was scheduled to meet Dee at the drive in at the drive in at 2:00; we came out of the water at quarter of eleven. Allowing for an hour’s surface interval, another hour of dive time, plus cleanup, plus drive time back left me very little time to eat, replace my tanks and be ready for Dee. I decided it was cutting it too close and decided to head back, despite the fact the group was going to Karpata, which I’ve been wanting to do. In hindsight, they got back at 1:30; I might have been able to do it, but it would have meant a lot of rushing around, which I hate to do. I hate the time pressure, and it makes mistakes more likely.

Instead, I went back to the resort, had lunch at the restaurant (since I had the time), bumped into Paul, who was taking the morning off, and had a nice chat and relaxed. I then went back to the room, got some chores done and got my gear ready.

Touching The Sea

We spent the afternoon with Dee Scarr, a naturalist friend of Paul’s who is on a first name basis with many of the denizens of the reef, and runs a program called Touch The Sea.

Dee begins by giving a short description of what we’re likely to see underwater. Then everyone gears up, and heads into the water. First we headed for some concrete mooring blocks, where she showed us how the various coral colonies on the blocks were either growing together (in the case of the same species) or killing each other (in the case of different species). Then she showed us a male fish protecting its egg mass. Along the way, a couple of French Angelfish came along, and she fed them. Later, she had Henri feed them, and they immediately took a liking to her. They kept coming back for more.

Henri feeding French Angelfish

Henri feeding French Angelfish

Other things Dee showed us:

  • A razor fish, which dive into the sand.
  • Sponges siphoning water, which she demonstrated by syringing vegetable dive onto them, and watching it be absorbed, then ejected out the top.
  • A pair of lionfish, which Dee tried to dispatch.
  • Cleaner shrimp in some anemones
  • Three (!) squid, which came close enough to look us over, but not close enough for a good shot
  • A moray eel in a rock, which I couldn’t seem to light with my strobe
  • A snake eel. When Dee tried to feed it, the French Angelfish which had been following us swooped in.
  • A scorpion fish
  • A very small eel buried in the sand., which she fed. I got one shot, but the flash didn’t fire. When Dee tried to get it to come back up, the French Angelfish swooped in.
  • A couple of baby French Angelfish, only half an inch or so long.
  • A very small flounder.

Overall, we saw a lot, but I was frustrated with my own performance today. I picked up 18 pounds of weights Saturday, and it was OK then, but the wetsuit has gotten waterlogged, and I’m staying down more easily, so I felt very overweighted. Also, the strobe kept failing, or the camera would time out and shut itself down, and not be ready when I wanted it. Still, I got a few good shots that look like they’ll come up quite nicely.

Night Dive

The last dive of the day was a dusk/night dive with the Hinzes. Jack was using a special black light that he was shining on the corals to make them fluoresce; Jane and I mostly kept our lights off for the better part of the dive. I was using my main light and the modeling light on the strobe. Along the way out, I found a nest of three lionfish. On the way back, the tarpon arrived, and started circling us. Near the end, we ran into a cloud of small minnow like fish, swarming the area around the dock. When we came out, Paul had his spaghetti supper.

Lionfish Den

Lionfish Den

Update: More pictures here.