At last, the sun came out! We were now comfortably warm the rest of the week.
After enjoying the captions below, you can view larger versions of the photos by clicking on them. You can see even larger versions of the photos by viewing the slideshow in full screen (F11). You can also view the photos on a map.
Mr. Bud was our first dive on a wreck. The visibility was good, and there were interesting things to see on the reef around the wreck. I saw a ray slide away as we descended. There was a large moray eel hiding inside the ship, but otherwise, the wreck was too new to have much life on it. There was a pretty good current that we had to work against at times.
Our man Ted was back with us today.
Lori, Bill, Denise, and Steven seize a photo op |
Black grouper |
Lori and Mr. Bud |
Steven relaxes at his safety stop |
As does Denise |
Denise is still relaxing |
I loved the dive at Gold Chain Reef. The viz was good, the dive was long (67 minutes), and there was lots of staghorn and elkhorn coral at the safety stop that reminded me of the diving in Australia.
Denise found some cleaner shrimp in the sand and spent the entire dive enticing them to come out and clean her hand, or photograph other people doing so. The rest of the week, Ted offered to show her other sandy areas.
Denise spends the entire dive playing with cleaner shrimp; here she introduces them to Lori |
Giant anenome |
A frisky damselfish is unafraid of divers |
Trumpetfish |
There's sometimes a surprise waiting for you inside the barrel sponges |
I haven't seen staghorn coral like this since I dived in Australia |
A damselfish in distress |
Indigo hamlet |
Zen mediation, Steven style |
I haven't seen elkhorn coral like this since Australia either—great stuff! |
Lori poses behind the elkhorn coral |
Stoplight parrotfish |
Magnificent feather duster |
Juvenile stoplight parrotfish |
Lori outside our villa, named Fuchsia |
We returned to Mary’s Place for a night dive, Lori's first! There were tons of basket stars out. And luminescense. We also found the elusive sea horse. This was the first dive that we had other divers with us.
Giant basket star |
Cute little yellowline arrow crab |
We often saw the southern teardrop crab in the vicinity
of a basket star |
Denise found the elusive longsnout seahorse (which was
trying very hard not to be seen)! |
The giant basket stars came in many forms, and again
accompanied by the southern teardrop crab |
The sponge brittle stars also come out at night |
Sponge brittle star |
Banded coral shrimp |
A Caribbean reef octopus is discovered |
The octopus quickly turns on the camouflage |
The giant basket stars are everywhere at night |
Heading up to our safety stop, I spotted a nurse shark resting in a sand channel! Unfortunately, it bugged out before I could turn on my camera. (At least, I think it was this dive—I didn't write it down!)
We spent our surface interval at CoCo View. Rich, who used to be a divemaster there, gave us a tour of their dive operations, including their several boats that could each take out 30 divers. 30 divers! It made me very happy to be on Barefoot Divers' boats with 4 or 6.
Lori and Bill relax before heading out for the dive |
The first of a couple of invasive lion fish we would see |
A naughty sponge |
A family of feather dusters nestled in a head of coral;
the two largest are the split-crown and the
magnificent |
Some nice beachfront homes sprout up as Roatan is “discovered” |
Denise, Ted, and Lori enjoy the sun |
It’s unanimous, a comb-over is not for Ted! |
Captain Rich |
The Fantasy Island and CoCo View resorts |
The CoCo View bungalows on the water are pretty cool |
A glimpse of the Fantasy Island resort |
The Valley of the Kings was a light drift dive with lots of life. It was one of our favorites.
|
||||
Some very cool reef structure and gorgonian corals |
A bejeweled clam |
Pederson cleaner shrimp |
||
Yellowline arrow crab |
Ted’s favorite, a brain coral that looks like a
helmet |
And it’s got a neck! |
||
|
Lori and coral |
Schoolmaster |
Bermuda or yellow chub |
||
Denise shoots |
Steven and Ted enjoy a laugh on the ride back |
What, me worry? |
||
Lori, Denise, and Steven are still laughing |
Barefoot Cay by sea |
The Barefoot Cay marina |
||
The palapa |
||||
Ted was scheduled to instruct some dive students, so we dived with Giaco for the first time on our last dive to the Prince Albert wreck. The wreck was teeming with life. For the benefit of a couple of others that joined us who had already seen the wreck, we also dived a wall before we encountered the wreck. This proved fruitful as I saw a nudibranch and Denise saw a scorpionfish.
Another alien-looking tube sponge |
A spotted scorpion fish that I did not spot—but
Denise did! |
Scorpionfish detail |
||
A black-spotted nudibranch |
The Prince Albert wreck |
Bearded fireworm |
||
Yet another yellowline arrow crab |
Sponge brittle star |
White speckled hermit crab |
||
|
||||
That evening, we were treated to a native African dance performace and were invited to participate.
The Christmas Eve festivities including dancers
in native African costumes with a sense of humor |
Denise and Lori and Bill join the dancers |
| < Back to Rain | On to Off-gassing > |
|
Copyright © 2009 Bill Wohler Last modified: Sat Jan 2 09:30:29 PST 2010 About photos |
Free DNS |
