Scuba Diving Vacations

We had 2 manta rays for pretty much the entire night dive tonight. We had a family of divers on board and they really enjoyed the mantas. Last night there was just one hanging around the periphery of the dive site, but our divers and most of our snorkelers saw it.

This morning we only had two divers on board. Some companies here will flat out cancel with just two divers, but I figure if you book 'em you might as well try to make the best of it. It can make for a fun easy day, and it's a great deal for the divers, who get a private boat for no extra charge. I led one dive and Bob led the other. We saw all sorts of stuff on my dive... divided flatworm, fried egg nudibranch, gold lace nudibranch, strawberry nudibranchs, fisher's angelfish, a gorgeous 16"-18" Yellowstripe Coris (Coris flavovittata, I sure don't see any yellow on these guys though), finescale triggerfish, milkfish, flagtail tilefish, razor wrasse, dragon and rock mover wrasses, great arches and topography.... too much stuff to list.

I haven't carried the camera the last couple days, I may get out on my own in the next couple of days to try some more stuff. Here's a pic of a rather large Yellow Margin Moray (Gymnothorax flavimarginatus). These guys get good sized, in the four foot range and quite thick bodied, and have a reddish or yellowish trim around their tails.

Bob and I have been running doubles (both day and evieng charters) quite a bit the last little while. It catches up with you, especially because it's tough to wind down after the manta dive. I usually hit the hay after 1 am on those nights (it's 1:30 right now) and still have to get up at 6 am or so to start the next day. Two and three days of consecutive doubles really makes me feel old... I keep thinking I'm about half my real age usually. I've got nothing scheduled for tomorrow so I may be able to sleep in a bit if the internal clock doesn't get me up.

later,

Steve