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Conditions

Winds: Southeast 15knots

Seas: 2-3 ft

Air Temp: 85

Water Temp: 82

Current: n/a

Visibility: 50ft

Dive 1: Flamingo Reef

8:43 PM

S: Matt and Ralph

A: 32%

D: 22’max

D: 60” plan, 58” run time

D: around the site

D: 40/1 30/1 20/1 10/1

PSI: 3200/1200

Special guest John Bailey came out on the boat to finish up Jody’s Dry suit class. In his truck he brought down the twins that Andrea named “Debit” and “Credit” to keep the theme name of the boat’s name “Depreciation”. Whether or not those names stick remains to be seen?

On the way out, the out going tide and incoming swells made for nastiness that I never seen before. The Tiara was pushing through serious water between swells and we were getting soaked! Ralph slowed and hugged the rock wall where the shallow water made for calmer seas. Once we were out of the inlet we were clear. The tide would make the rock pile poor visibility so we headed out for Flamingo Reef.

Jody and John geared up in full 200 gram to finish the class in 82-degree water. Ralph and I handed off weight and gave support. Jody was doing some synchronized swimming moves to adjust air in the suit and then recover the prone position. Its not as easy as it looks. John was great and shared some tips that I’ll lock away for future use when I get my suit.

We were anchored in the middle of the reef. This would be a good test of my M9 compass and my navigational ability. Ralph and I head out and found sleeping surgeonfish everywhere. The Ocean and Blue Tang take on an interesting color patter when they’re asleep.

After 15 minutes I reversed course and headed back to the anchor. At 30 minutes we didn’t find it and surfaced. Ops, the M9 doesn’t work for critical navigation as we were a ways off from the boat. I told Ralph he was in charge and we headed out back to the boat. After another 15 minutes, we surfaced again to see we over shot. The third time we hit the anchor line.

Then we put out a spool and Ralph ran the line while I shot the photos. I found a hermit crab that was in a friendly mood to pose. His picture is at the top of the report. We found 4 nurse sharks on the dive and this one was right under the ledge. The worms and creatures attracted to the lights made photography hard even though the water was clear.

To be fair, I took a picture of the anchor damage caused by our rode. It wasn’t much, but next time we’ll take some more time to make sure the anchor is in the sand and let the boat float back out over the reef.
 

–Matt