Unfortunately, this was written 9 years after the event so details are sketchy. However, the story is that Deb, Lori, and I managed to talk Lori's brother Steven into diving off of a liveaboard with us and caught up with dive buddies past and future.
After enjoying the captions below, you can view larger versions of the photos by clicking on them. This will open a new tab in Google Photos. Use its menu to start a slideshow, or select a photo and press the Info button to view captions and maps.
Lori is done with red-eyes |
Lori is done with the paparazzi too |
Surrounded by white sand and warm water, Lori is herself again |
Hanging out in the Ocean Club West Resort |
The nearby Club Med where Dan Heller and I spent a fun week in the 80s |
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This dock that I used to board a boat to go snorkeling while at Club Med decades ago is no longer in use |
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Our crew |
Our bunk for the week |
I wanted to get my feet wet before bringing the camera |
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Steven goes in |
Deb is happy to be back in the water |
Nice corals and blue water |
Sponges begin to take over The Dome |
French grunts enjoy the protection under The Dome |
French grunts and a lone graysby school under The Dome |
A school of horse-eye jacks |
Yellowtail snapper |
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Rob, Deb, and Alizee bid us adieu |
Arrow blenny |
A well-decorated shortfinger neck crab |
Giant anemone |
Arrow blenny |
Some sort of ribbon worm (Nemertea) |
Brown garden eels |
Spotted moray |
Stoplight parrotfish |
Brown garden eel |
Lori below the boat |
Lowel and Deb admire Lori's giant stride |
Lori and horse-eye jacks check out the wall |
Looking inside a giant sponge |
An ever-moving fairy basslet is hard to photograph |
Blue chromis |
A longfin damselfish takes cover in a giant sponge |
Coral, fish, and water surface |
Steven just dives |
A school of horse-eye jacks |
Yellowtail snapper |
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Detail of soft coral |
King helmet |
Lori dances to the music (in her head) |
Spotted moray |
Undersea still life |
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The divers pay rapt attention to the dive briefing |
Rob preaches to the choir |
A pair of great barracuda |
Spotted scorpionfish |
A yelowhead jawfish peeks warily out of its hole |
A hawksbill sea turtle cruises over the reef |
Whitespotted filefish |
A pod of Caribbean spiny lobsters |
Lori dives at night |
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This sponge looks like a piece of pottery |
Hello, can I help you? |
Brown garden eels |
A patch of variegated feather dusters |
This southern stingray enjoys a cleaning |
A group of Pederson cleaner shrimp wait for customers |
Giant anemone |
Goldentail moray |
The shortnose batfish, with a face that only a mother could love... |
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...but probably doesn't |
Lowel photographs the shortnose batfish |
I'm outta here |
Queen conch |
The eye of the queen conch |
A tiny pipehorse |
Shortfin pipefish |
A pair of tiny flapping dingbats that only Amanda could find |
An equally tiny berolina aglaja that only Amanda could find |
Southern stingray and friend (or mooch) |
Chaos at the safety stop |
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Lori and Steven get ready for another dive |
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A Turks & Caicos shoreline |
A splitcrown feather duster |
Southern stingray |
Amanda presents the dive briefing |
A school of Atlantic spadefish |
I found this little gaudy clown crab in a 1-2 cm hole in the coral |
Another well-decorated shortfinger neck crab |
Can you spot the sponge brittle star, ribbon worm
(Nemertea), and crinoid? |
An unidentified parrotfish (Sparisoma) |
During a night dive, we spotted this Caribbean reef octopus |
...who first assumed the color of the nearby sponges... |
...and then the nearby rocks. |
He (or she) moved around assuming different shapes |
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An unlikely trio of spotted goatfish, Atlantic trumpetfish, and another unidentified fish hunt together |
Spotted drum |
A brief glimpse of a spotted eagle ray |
Steven gets into the spirit of the season |
Steven, Deb, and Lori |
This dive site has a lot of reef sharks |
This dive site has a lot of reef sharks |
This dive site has a lot of reef sharks |
Lori checks out this reef shark up close |
This dive site has a lot of reef sharks although on close inspection, all of these photos appear to be the same individual |
French Cay |
Kimberly catches a shark playing with Bill and Lori |
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Queen angelfish |
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Amanda swims around to see if the boys and girls have been good |
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A rock beauty and a coney hang out |
This nurse shark sleeps until hunting hour |
Deb, Sarah, and Lori chill in the hot tub after enjoying lots of lovely gorgonians |
This Atlantic trumpetfish thinks he's hiding |
The tiger tail sea cucumber feeds at night |
A pair of banded butterflyfish |
It's hunting hour for this nurse shark |
Caribbean spiny lobster |
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Spotted scorpionfish |
A bad shot of the Spanish Anchor, a better shot of the sandy channel that it is in |
A slightly better shot of the Spanish Anchor with the deep blue behind it |
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Some sort of goby (Elacatinus) perched over a sponge |
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Ever-moving fairy basslets are hard to photograph |
Blackcap basslet |
Pederson cleaner shrimp |
Atlantic trumpetfish |
Graysby |
Squirrelfish |
Bearded fireworm |
Lori and some pretty colorful sponges |
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Nassau grouper |
Uh oh. Lori feels the pull of a giant sponge... |
...and it sucks her right in |
Lori emerges from the sponge unscathed |
Lori takes this channel clinging crab to the ER, but I'm afraid it's too late |
Honeycomb cowfish |
A very pround coney |
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Lowel looks at the paparazzi with disapproval |
Alizee has had too much nitrox |
Looks like this Pederson cleaner shrimp is carrying a brood of eggs near its common host, the corkscrew anemone |
Brain coral detail |
Atlantic trumpetfish and tiger grouper hunt together (or are they just buds?) |
A peacock flounder takes flight... |
...and then becomes invisible |
The flying gurnard doesn't so much fly as rummage through the sand |
A yellow snapper hopes for a quick meal uncovered by the flying gurnard |
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Tiger grouper |
Channel clinging crab |
Caribbean spiny lobster |
An unidentified parrotfish (Sparisoma) sleeps |
They went that-a-way! |
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Karl is skeptical about this dive briefing |
It looks like Deb is skeptical of this briefing too, and perhaps Karl asked a tough question |
This Nassau grouper appears to be kissing the common octopus |
Common octopus |
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Whitespotted filefish |
Deb hopes some cleaner shrimp gives her a free manicure |
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Bicolor damselfish |
A group shot of Bill, Deb, and Lori on the last dive; only Deb is aware of the giant bull shark coming in from the depths for the kill |
Le Tour Grand |
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Rob works on the dive log |
Amanda is happy to trade some cash for a great week of diving |
Katelyn hangs out |
Alizee is uncharacteristically calm |
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Karl, Bonnie, and Paul are happy after a good week of diving |
Great food from a small galley |
Chef Alisa fed us well this week |
Rich is down with the diving |
Carlos kept things running all week |
Kimberly and her ginormous swath of photo gear |
Lori and Deb relax on the ride back to the dock |
Paul finally gets some time to make some headway on his novel |
Steven, Sarah, and Karl watch grass grow, gear dry, whatever |
"So where am I going to catch a nap?" |
Nice profile, Steven! |
Mur and Jen enjoying the wind in their hair |
Paul and his daughter Katelyn |
Jen: interviewee #1 |
Mur: interviewee #2 |
Alizee and Lori |
With the boat tied to the dock, Amanda, Rob, and the rest of the crew can enjoy Happy Hour with us |
And we definitely enjoyed Happy Hours |
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Everyone is enjoying Happy Hour! |
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Copyright © 2022 Bill Wohler Last modified: Sun 31 Jul 2022 10:17:02 AM PDT About photos |
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