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The weather called for storms again but when I looked at the radar they seemed far inland. I prepared my flag for shore diving and off we went heading to the second reef. I swam on the surface almost to the end of the pier but my legs started getting the stress from all the weight: camera, 4 pounds on the flag, 3 pounds on my ankles plus the regular weight. I figure I could dive to the second reef. Well, I got distracted like usual, and once again never made it to the second reef. We were in the middle of the two reefs in an area with rocky bottom and sand. I saw a beautiful clam feeding away I held it with my hand and took it to Steve for him to shoot. It had a beautiful transparent lavander color. It reminded a photo winners in one of the important contests. When I find the image I will add it for reference. Gently I opened my hand I let it go in front of Steve’s camera but the little critter would turn sideways, angle at which it is hard to appreciate its beauty. Then my partner and I split exploring the area. I saw some duskys, blennys, roughheads out of their home, a couple of eels. I followed some blue tangs with fair luck. I saw a big conch that most have been over one Hundred years old. It was so big. I saw a hole with three little lobsters. I moved some rocks over to cover them and hide them from the hunters around.Then damselfish was checking me out and blinking her eyes at me like it wanted to be photographed but every time I went to shoot it, It would go down behind a rock. It followed a pattern around a conch shell with a hole around a rock and back to the shell. It didn’t take me long to realize that It had laid eggs on the shell. I turned the shell around and it had 3 groups of different age eggs. Some off the eggs were about to hatch. The eyes and their bodies were perfectly defined. I think I saw a couple swimming off the egg. Then all off them started to hatch in front of me. It all happened in a couple of seconds before I even realized I was watching little fish coming to life. I missed the hatchling shot : (

The shell had different groups of eggs so I played composition with them. One group look like little yellow pinballs inside and the last one freshly lay and it was pretty transparent hard to tell. I took some close up to the eggs and the guarding damselfish to preserve the memory of what I had just missed.

We headed back and went over the first reef with all the coral around and saw schools of fish every where: A baby nurse shark, at least 2 huge tarpons, a turtle, a group of juvenile jacks with blue tails and one with yellow tails, a school of some sort of Pompano and many more. It was an amazing dive. I love nature. Before leaving I did an offering (I always do) to the ocean to show appreciation for letting me photograph it.

When we got back to the beach it was drizzling a bit, no one there. I guess it rained during our dive and the ocean was flat. I wish I had another bottle to do a night dive.

Flag notes: I need a hook to dig the flag in the sand instead of carrying the weight and that would be best to avoid the flag’s pull from the wind or current. It is too much weight when I am swimming a long distance and I rather use the energy to search for subjects than to carry the flag. Luckily there was a mild current going out. Also If I hooked a small reel to a snap it would make it smaller and more manageable.

Photo notes: My main strobe died before the secondary one which is pretty odd.

18ft 195min 86oF 100cc S 6Lbs in pockets and ankle weights. 4lbs on flag.

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