Diving Cobalt In Cayman Islands: White foot shrimp quest.

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4^thdive. It was our last dive with the Turne’s. Everet and Essi like to dive early so we broke out sleeping in routine and met at the Cobalt coast at 8 am. Everet drew a site map by hand and its regular sightings by areas. We could explore the area for every day for a long time and not be able to see what they have in the last years. It was a windy day and a lot of surge caused by the 5 ft waves at the shoreline so we headed straight to the wall where there was no surge, just a bit of current and the viz was great. The water was so clear and so blue that it was a treat. Everet showed me a super tiny 2mm flamingo tongue and a different pattern I have never seen before. I only took one shot before it turned away from me so I played with a bigger one. Then Everet took me to a sponge with lots of white shoe red shrimp. Perfect! This is exactly what I wanted to see since I read A. Mustard’s article about them. Each shrimp had its own hole and each was hanging out at the edge like looking out of a window. What a perfect photo opportunity. Unfortunately I haven’t gotten the hang of the Dyron close-up lens and not sure at the time I wrote this if the photos were sharp. I am posting a couple that I like. On the way back I saw an aeolid and a black flatworm but to surgie to take a shot.

54 ft 103 min 14 lbs 80ccAL 250 psi left 84oF

5^th. Dive. As soon as we got in. Next to the ladder I saw a big long horn blenny. Stunning! Stunning! Stunning! but impossible to photograph. If you are ever in the Caymans diving the Cobalt in a day with no surge: explore the shallows by the access ladder. I guarantee you will have the best dive of your life. We headed straight for the wall. I found a piece of broken coral with 2 purple tritonias on it. Pretty big and fun to protograph. Then I went back to the sponges to try to get a better shot of the white claw red shrimp but they were not hanging at the edge of the wall so maybe some other time. I saw secretary blennys on a pretty coral that I couldn’t resist.

51ft 109 min 14 lbs 80AL 500 psi

6^th Dive. Night dive at Cobalt. Other divers warn us about the current. It was almost full moon and we didn’t think it could be any stronger that at a strong day under the brigde. We went in and it was no current but still surgie in the shallows. So we headed straight for the wall. Not much happening. We visited the shrimp in the sponge but they were all inside. Steve found a beautiful transparent orange nudi on a bright purple coral. It didn’t like the flashes and kept turning away from me so I didn’t get a shot but I will never forget that it could have been the perfect shot. He also found like 5 aeolides on a sponge but like the other one kept turning away from me.

57 ft 97 min 14 lbs 80Al

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