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Dive 1. Shark ledges

Hugh my Divemaster instructor took me on South Florida Dive Headquaters to check out some of my skills so I wasn’t allowed to bring a camera. I felt naked. I don’t dive for diving I dive to take photos otherwise I would go kiteboarding or do something else. The current was 2 knots. There were 2 options for the first dive: Capt Dan wreck at 110 ft or a 60 ft reef. I wanted to do bottom time and since we didn’t have nitrox we decided to do the reef and have a fun dive. No camera. So I tried to be a good girl and not do anything a DM wouldn’t do like dive alone or with no flag. I took the flag at the beginning but I was being dragged by it because the strength of the current.

48 min 59 ft 100cc S 8 lbs in my pockets plus my ankle weights. I didn’t need the pocket weights and I found that later on the second dive.

Dive 2. Shark Ledges

We cruised around another area of the reef. It had gorgeous ledges. We saw a big Golliat grouper right under the ledge but very shy. The current was still strong to do my navigation exercises but we got to test my air consumption rate. I dove with the same 100cc and started the second dive with about 2000 psi and ascended at 500 psi. I blew 200 psi ascending. At the surface we had to wait a little bit for the boat and that is when I noticed I was a little heavy. Next time I would remember that the steel tank is neutrally buoyant and I don’t need weight to compensate.

35 min 54 ft 100 cc S 8 lbs plus ankle weights.

Dive 3. Night dive at BHB with Little Deeper.

Susan M organized a night dive from a boat. We were a group of ten photographers: Sharon, Anne, Linda, Diane, Judy, Deb, Steve, Susan, Jim and Me. There was a little rain at the beginning and a few of us were concern about lighting but it never got close. It was wonderful to be the only ones under the bridge. Thanx Susan for putting it together.

I was the second one in the water and as soon as I jumped off the boat I was drifting so fast that I only had time to tell Deb to hand out my camera before I couldn’t return to the boat. I dropped to the bottom and I couldn’t move for another 20 minutes. I found a patch of caleurpa under the boat and I decided to search there for a while. I saw a tiny lobster about 2 “ big. So cute. Maybe like the one that Linda found the day before. I saw a bunch of baby scorpion fish and shot a few different colors. Lots of Dondice and Learchis everywhere but I wasn’t having luck with them. I saw my second Flying Gunard with extended wings I wish I knew how to use the video mode. Then I found the find of the night: A bottle full of hydroids with skeleton shrimp with tons of babies in the back. The skeletons were all mothers. I tried to take a shot but it was a mission. And I knew it was going to take a while. I saw a light approaching. It was Anne. She showed me a small black sole pretty rare. Then I took the bottle to nudi world to show it to the rest of the group. I found Jim and I was so happy because I knew he had the gear to film something like that. Later on I learnt he got awesome video. I can’t wait to see it. When Jim posts the video on their blog I will ad a link to it. Next to the bottle full of skeleton shrimp with babies I saw a red leg spider with big round eggs but I couldn’t find the face. I think the spider’s head was covered by a tiny shell. My last subject was a pretty cardinal fish swimming over red sponges that could have made a great background but it was 1030 time to get back to the boat.

Photo notes: I tried the video function but soon enough I found out that the recording button is the button I use for focusing so I have to change that If I want the camera to focus. I would be nice to find other focusing options for the video mode.

14 ft 165 min 100ccS 14lbs in pocket plus ankle weights.

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