auchmeddan

We did our last dive at Southwest Breaker yesterday, but it ended on a high thanks to Ondrej telling us about “Charlie”.

Charlie is a Yellow-tailed DamselFish that lives in a spent Artillery shell that the Americans used to fire at Southwest Breaker for target practice. I won’t get into how I feel about the Yanks using a millions of years old formation for target practice…

Anyway, Charlie is a very aggressive (I can attest that he bites) and very houseproud little fish. If you put a small stone on top of his home and make him aware of it, he throws it away into the reef.

The video below shows Jules playing with him on what was her 200th Dive in Bermuda. Thank you Ondrej for drawing us a map so we could find him.

The Diving this weekend was OK, didn’t see as much as we usually do. Just proves Dave’s theory that all the fish work Monday to Friday and not on holidays. I did find some interesting things in the water though.

While out at Darlington on Saturday I came across a US drivers license for a guy called August. Thought he was on the boat but it was only someone that looked like him. I have no idea how it ended up in the water but it was right by the boat so he must have had it on him when he jumped in. Dont think you need a drivers license to dive……

The other item was much better, found that on the Monday afternoon trip. With me being a women I’m attracted to shiny objects so naturally when I see something blinking in the sunlight on the sand I have to go and investigate. To be honest I thought it was the ring part of a keyring but I didnt want to leave it in the water in case a fish or something ate it. When I picked it up I realised that it was someone’s wedding ring, the inscription on the inside read “Your kitten loves you”. Showed Dave and continued our dive with it on my thumb. Got on the boat showed Ondrej who was going to put it in lost and found, didnt think for a minute that it was from one of the divers on the boat. Happened to look at the young couple sitting opposite us and noticed that she had on a wedding ring and engagement ring but he didnt have anything on. Asked him if he’d lost a wedding ring which he had, told him what I’d found and it was his. I’ve never seen anyone suddenly look so happy, you could see him sighing with relief. Him and his wife were so glad that it wasn’t lost, don’t think he’ll be wearing it diving again.

That’s my good deed for the week.

Today was my last day off before going back to work tomorrow, and we went out for another dive this afternoon. We headed out to Southwest Breaker, which is one of my favourite dive sites in Bermuda.

On our dive we saw a lot of very cool stuff - A big Black Grouper who let us get pretty close, a Flamingo Tongue, An Octopus hiding under a rock, and a Balloon Fish (one of my faves).

Photos of the octopus, Balloon Fish, and a little blenny (we think it’s a Molly Miller) sticking it’s head out are below - Click on them for a larger pic. I’d swear the balloon Fish is smiling at me…but I guess I’m just imagining it.

The Hermes is not exactly one of Daves favourite dives. I’ve done it a few times recently and really enjoyed the dives but Dave just didn’t believe me until today. It being flat calm must have been a good omen for this dive. We avoided the wreck altogether and headed west across a cut of the reef and back again. On the way back I came upon a lizard fish which I sent Dave off to photograph. While he was busy with that I headed over to two anenomes and found 3 shrimps inside them. I Got Dave over for some photographs and even although they are very small (the body is only an inch long) he got some really good photos, the best of which is below.

On the way back to the wreck for our ascent up the mooring line I spotted a couple of Coneys chasing some fish away from a patch of coral, so I went in for a closer look. I found a reasonable sized octopus hiding under a rock, which is not an ideal place for photos but luckily it moved to get away from us right out onto the reef. While it was out Dave got a couple of really great shots, again the best one is below. Pretty good dive and even Dave really enjoyed it.

We went to Hangover Hole next - nothing much to photograph here but Dave did get a good silhouette shot from underneath where I was swimming. Found my first brittle star on this dive which I sent Dave off to photograph for me. As you can probably see from my blog I pretty much spot a whole bunch of stuff I want photographed and send Dave off to get the shot.

A good days diving all in all. 

The seas were between 1 and 4 feet today, and the boat was bouncing all over the place as we headed out this morning. By the end of the trip about half the boat was feeling seasick, but amazingly I felt fine all day. We hit 3 dive sites today, and found cool stuff on all of them, Which supports the theory I have that most of the fish in Bermuda only work Monday to Friday! Jules usually sees a ton of cool stuff diving during the week and then when we get out at the weekend we never see half of it. The exception to this was Saturday when we saw a huge Spotted Eagle Ray gliding over the sand flats in Blue Hole.

Today we saw a ton of Grouper and Jacks (Horse-eyed, Almaco, Bar), a lot of Blue Angelfish, a pair of Peacock Flounder, and an Octopus. Jules gets the credit for spotting the Octopus and for spotting a beautiful little Nudibranch (sea Slug) on the Pollockshields, a photo of which is below. Jules really deserves a ton of credit for finding the nudibranch as it was only a couple of inches long.

FYI: It feels/senses with it’s horns, and breathes out of the flowery bump on it’s back.

After my enforced break from diving (while my gum healed) and all the nights I’ve spent studying for my CCDA it was nice to knock the exam on the head on Friday, and start to relax knowing I was going to spend Saturday and Sunday diving in seas that were predicted to be about 1ft - perfect diving conditions. 

Saturday ended up being even better than I hoped as we headed out to a reef site Jules had told me about** where she had previously seen a bunch of grouper in a cave/swim-through, and it didn’t disappoint.  We were diving with Dave and Carmen and I was excited for all of us when we hit the cave and found 7 Grouper (mostly Black Grouper, but by size and markings one or two looked like Goliath Grouper to me) and a school of Horse-Eyed Jacks and Gray Snapper.  To put this in perspective of Size:

Horse-Eyed Jacks and Snapper are 1-2 ft long.
Black Grouper are 3-4 ft long.
Goliath Grouper are over 5 ft.

To be among this many big fish was very exciting, and while the Grouper tend to stay a little distance away we were practically able to swim through the Jacks and Snapper and look them in the eye. The only downside was my Camera was fogged from previous dives and unusable, but considering how much fun the dive was I could live with it.

In the wee hours of Sunday morning we were both woken by a thunderstorm that went on for some time and, unbeknownst to us, knocked out our internet connection at home.  The storm brought the seas up on Sunday from the predicted 1ft to more like 3-4 ft swells.  While this makes the diving less fun, it ended up forcing the boat to go all the way back to (the slightly calmer) the same site again and this time I had a working Camera!

The rougher weather on Sunday created a much stronger current in the cave than there was on Saturday, and in turn this created a lot of particles in the water which cause “backscatter” from camera flashes and made most of my photos unusable.  Fortunately, I took one photo of a Grouper without using my external flash and ended up with a nice silhouette.  I’ll post the photo when we get internet access back at home.

** - I removed the name of the dive site as I know people who might read this and then head out there and try to fish.  Groupers have not been common sightings here for the past few years and appear to be starting to come back again.

The seas were pretty calm on Saturday, and we went out for a couple of dives at the Hermes and Virginia Merchant.  The vis at the Hermes was terrible, but Virginia Merchant wasn’t bad and we saw a huge Black Grouper on that Dive. 

On our way home I asked Jules if she fancied going for Sushi at Salt Rock Grill for lunch, which was my way of delaying the studying I knew I had to start in the afternoon. We went home to have a quick shower and dump our dive gear, and managed to catch the end of the Hibs Vs Hearts derby on the Radio.  As I was in the shower the Hibees went 2-1 up and won the match.  I ended up celebrating the Hibs win with a couple of pints as we sat in the sun and ate Sushi.  I continued my study-avoidance with more beer and Howard Stern on the radio, and we ended up sitting out on the Patio for the rest of the afternoon. Just around sunset we spotted a pair of Rays swimming along in the shallow water - a perfect end to a great day.

Unfortunately for me, I had picked up way too much sun on my head at Salt Rock and had developed a case of Sunstroke by the early hours of Sunday morning.  I was really bummed out at the prospect of missing the dives we had planned as the sea was completely “flat calm” and I was due to reach my 100th Dive.  After some gentle prodding from Jules I decided to go anyway.

I really didn’t feel that great as a headache, a sunburned head and cold water don’t go together very well.  However, it was worth the pain to get my 100th Dive in at a very calm Southwest Breaker.  The highlight of the dive was when Jules and myself found an Octopus being chaperoned around the reef by some coneys.  This was the first time I’ve ever seen an octo out in the open during the day, and it quickly moved to a new hiding place.

Photos of the Octopus on the reef, and the Coney with the octopus hiding under a rock are below.  More photos are up in the photo gallery.

  

Today was our first dive together this year, and to cut a long story short I ended up very cold and had to cut both dives short. As it was though, the dives were only the opening act for a really special moment.

On the way back from the dives, Ondrej spotted Whales and was good enough to take us a bit closer for a look. We had a great time crowded up front of the boat, waiting on the Mother and Calf to surface. We didn’t get to see a Tail, but we had a good time “ooh-ing” and “aah-ing” along with everyone each time they surfaced.

The best photos I managed to get are below. Click on the pics for a larger version.

Jules is out sunbathing just now. I’m heading out into the shade with a beer to enjoy the memories from today.

The weather at the beginning of this week was great, it was sunny and there was very little wind so when Ondrej, at Bluewater divers, emailed me to ask if I wanted to go for a dive Tuesday I jumped at the chance.

It was a pretty quiet boat for divers, only 5 in total, 4 certified divers and one lesson and dive. Surprisingly there were about 6 folks coming along to snorkel. Everyone was getting themselves sorted on the boat and there was a huge splash. We all looked round and one of the snorkeling folks was in the water. After finding out she was ok I was trying not to laugh, Michael wasn’t so subtle he said “well I guess you don’t need to go snorkeling now?” with a big smile on his face. Turned out she was leaning on the ladder at the back for support while she put her foot in the water to test the temperature. As the ladder isn’t locked the force she used while leaning on it was enough to push it down, so when it went down so did she. After all that she ended up not going out to snorkel, she got seasick.

The visibility was really good today and I was really exited when our first dive site was the Lartington, you can sometimes find a lion fish here. Found him in one of the small boilers found in the middle of the wreck. They are just so beautiful looking, hope the guy I was guiding managed to get a good picture. Also on this dive I noticed a big coney hanging around a bit of reef so I went in for a closer look. On closer inspection there was a pretty big octopus hiding between two rocks. Don’t think he liked my presence so he shot off under another rock, was still cool seeing him swimming away.

The second dive was the Constellation/Montana, wasn’t really expecting to see much but right in its usual spot in the boiler was the local spiny lobster. Surprisingly there were a few shoals of fish around the site and lots of juveniles, it was great swimming through them. Also on this dive my favourite fish, the smooth trunk fish, made an appearance. Watched him for a little while, hope the folks I was diving with didn’t mind stopping to watch him swimming around.

If I was a photographer today was a great day for taking photos, the sun was out and the fish were out in full force. Wished Dave could have been diving with me, looking forward to my first dive of the year with Dave, hope it’s a day like this one. The two guys I was guiding were pretty good. Pat from Norfolk in the UK seemed like he had been diving for ages. Brian from the states seemed newer to diving but after the first 15 mins seemed pretty comfortable in the water and I didn’t have to chase either of them down during the dive. All in all the diving today was really good and I really enjoyed myself, it’s nice just being able to go out when I like :-)  

Jules made her 100th Dive last weekend, on an eventful day.

We headed out South Shore even though the weather was not good, but it got worse the further we went. The Swells got higher, until we were looking at swells 6ft or more. It seemed like 10ft at the time, but probably wasn’t.

By the time we finally found somewhere we could dive We had large swells, strong surge, OK Visibility, and a couple of large fish (HogFish and Black Grouper). Back on the surface after the dive a new diver panicked and got hit a couple of times on the leg by the boat (which was bouncing a few feet by this point), resulting in a couple of cuts and some stress for the guy. The hang line got caught around the prop, and the anchor line got sheared while there was still a diver out in the water (his own bloody fault for not coming up when he was told to). We then ended up with a DiveMaster in the water without a snorkel or fins…or any good reason to be in the water. Once the Diver and Divemaster were back in the boat, Ondrej was sent back over to find the anchor, but he ran out of air before recovering it.

All in all, it was an eventful morning.