Gustav August 29th 2008

I took this this morning as I moved Miles's car up onto higher ground. They ave picketed the mosquito planes ready for the hurricane. Gustav is about 200 miles away at the moment but its still heading right for us.

I have moved some stuff up a few feet so I am hoping that we dont get too much water damage. Miles (my new house mate) was flown out to Miami yesterday so he could still work.

Facebook | My Photos - Dawn and Sharon at the Ritz (Dawns last day on GC this year)

Facebook My Photos - Dawn and Sharon at the Ritz (Dawns last day on GC this year)

Piccies of Pippa

Hakuna Matata: Hammerhead seen on the North Wall

Hakuna Matata: Hammerhead seen on the North Wall

www.bsac.ky

Hammerhead seen on the North Wall

We saw a HAMMERHEAD..We saw a hammerhead! Not only did we see it, we hung out, for a good 10 mins as she cruised the top of the wall at Black Forest...what a joy. You could hear our hearts beating faster, the oxygen surged through the bronchioles as we witnessed something majestic. A perfect example of evolution, a top predator.
Okay, now we are calm we can also talk about Tarpon Alley, it seems that the Black Tip Caribbean Reef Shark has made this his territory. We (like Peter and Ron on their last dive) pretty much dropped onto him. The vis was good at first and then regressed as the tide rolled in, however the big pelagics seem to favour this, so we should too.
We pottered along to the next dive destination, enjoying a small boat population, and having Jack all to ourselves. Which is to say, that we let Jack do all the work whilst the chics gossipped!
Black Forest was awesome, Sharon and Pippa spotted the Eagle Ray at the wall, Shaz signalled to her buddy, however all she could see was a pair of legs wiggling around in the water column, as he was face down in the coral photographing something random. When Jack did emerge he saw a beautiful Eagle Ray, as did Laura. She left us, and then returned to the top of the wall to forage. It was lobster city down there too, much shaninigans were going on for sure, within the Lobster Community. It was like the election for the next American President, with Lobsters vying for positions, and territory, not to mention the other power plays that were taking part between those of opposite genders....
The shark came along as we all headed up for our safety stop. First a grey ghost and then a manifestation of a pure killer. She hung around a long time (unlike the Black Tip) she came in for a good look too, extremely curious. There was one time where she turned to face us, with her teeth bared..I was not frightened..all I had to do was to stab Jack, take his camera (well, its expensive) and reach for the surface whilst he got eaten!
Jack got some wicked shots of her, at one point we had the hammerhead and an Eagle Ray both in our sites! We were all mega excited at the safety stop, Pippa less so as she had dived with shoals of Hammerheads in the Cococ Is..yawn) but it was a great day. "We do not remember days, we remember moments" this was one of them.

Shore diving Babylon Reef w. Eileen

We did this at about 3.00pm Thursday. The best way to get out is to tow your gear through the surf zone, have a snorkel in and I put training shoes on to get over the rough coral. Its a good 20 minutes swim out, we took back bearings off the car as we lost the bouys in the swell occasionally, it was fun though. There was a little surface current, however I think this is normal for this area.

Having reached the bouy, we had a breather, discussed escape plans and descended into the deep blue. I tied my Nikes onto the bottom of the mooring bouy, hoping that I would be able to find them on the return!

The reef here, every diver knows, is awesome, Eileen and I took our time and dived along the wall some 120ft on Nitrox 32, then emerged at the top with well over 1500psi in our tanks. We were encouraged when we saw the first mooring bouy, and then the seconcd one with a pair of Nikes still tied to it! Such is Reef life that a litle Damselfish had already claimed the shoes as his house and was very upset when I started untying them, attacking my fingers all the while.

We had taken a bearing from the bouy back to the shore, and knowing that Eileen had just fisinished her advanced course, one dive which, was on Navigation, I handed her the compass to lead us back into the shore. Little did I realise that she would attack this challenge with gusto, as she raced off, eyes glued to the compass.....it was all I could do to slow her down :)

The nav was spot on and we just had to negotiate the surf zone. I got mashed up a little on some coral outcrops ( wear a full body wetsuit!) but it was a fantastic dive.

We eneded a great day with red wine, corona, a roast chicken from Hurleys with bread and a greek salad. We stopped off at Durty Reids, then got wrecked playing pool at the Country and Western...awesome!

Memorable moments and friends.

Orland Rugby Tour, we lost badly but won the boat race. Abobe, Pippas birthday bash at Compass Point. Great fun!

Ben, Sian, Jenny and myself .
The shark we saw on our dive March 23rd. She was out patrolling (us!)


Left, Peter and Uli trying to look as if they know what they are doing! It is Ulis catamaran though. We had a lovely morning on this "shake down cruise.

Eco weekend

North Wall dive sites

We had a somewhat bumpy ride around the headland but it was well worth it as we all geared for a our first dive on the North Wall this year.

Blue Pinnacle is a beautiful dive with a panoromic swim through into an azure blue abyss. A gyre of horse eye jack circled slightly above us as we then headed East down the wall. The vis was excellent, as we spotted a lobster that would feed at least four people and a large crab that would probably do the same. A 5ft green lobster layy exposed at about 70ft for us all to see. The top of the wall was teeming with spawning parrot fish and creole wrasse. Four eyed butterfly fish fought for territory.

The surface interval was longer than anitcipated, we tucked inside the reef at Stingray city moorings and listened to diving stories (nightmares?) as told by Terry and Adam (Gibbons) so it was 1.35 mins before we eventually got back into the pool at Eagle Ray Pass. Almost immediately we saw an Eagle Ray above us, Ben raced to get a shot. Julia, Rhonda, Terry and myself watched as the Ray almost decided to come back towards us, change her mind and headed out over the wall again. We saw her again (I think) later on in the dive. We saw three turtles, one huge girl, who had 2 remora under her and some big barnacles on her back. At the top of the wall there was a slight current but this only brought more fish out to feed onthe plankton, especially the Bar Jacks. It was all good.

What a lovely way to start the Easter holidays, 2 great dives with ya mates..cant ask more than that, except of course, if we had ALL of our friends with us this day..Get well soon, Jenny and Sian. Peter and Jack...step away from the household chores! Pippa, "wha'appen in Cuba girl?"Happy Easter everyone