20 Nov 2021
I think it rained most of the night, and even though I tucked my gear as far under the balcony as possible, most of it was still damp when I woke up. It’s always a bit of a challenge getting my gear dry before packing it up to go home, especially my wetsuit, but I was so cold yesterday that I figured it was worth busting out my second suit and having a bit of extra insulation.
This morning, my boat was headed to French Reef. My guide from yesterday, Abby, was on my boat again today, though I was in a different group this time, so she told my guide, Bruce, “This is Becca, she doesn’t breathe”. High praise! And when he checked on our group’s air partway through the dive, he just waved me off 🙂
Dive #6 – French Twist
First thing I saw when I dropped was this new-to-me nudibranch- a Red-tipped Sea Goddess / Chromolaichma sedna:
And a few feet away, my guide spotted another one!
Neither was in a great place for pictures, and I’m still trying to get used to my macro lens, but I always love finding new nudibranchs!
I’m not really a fan of lobsters, but we saw quite a few, so here’s one of them:
This small Spotted moray eel was tucked up in his hole and would not come out for a better picture:
Usually I’m not a fan of crustaceans, but these little Pederson cleaner shrimp are just so cute and vibrant!
Smooth trunkfish:
I love his skeptical side-eye!
Red-band parrotfish:
Trumpetfish:
Banded butterflyfish:
Dive #6 – 5 Caves
This stingray was free-swimming, then started rooting around in the sand!
Another fish I don’t remember seeing before- a Butter hamlet:
Yellowtail damselfish:
Patch-reef? goby- I like the swirl markings on his eyes!
Oh look, another lobster!
Threespot damselfish:
Smooth trunkfish, scouring the rubble for a snack:
despite the name, their skin has some pretty cool texture to it!
Sand diver!
Dive #8 – Permit Ledge
My afternoon boat was supposed to some dive sites to the north, but the water was a bit choppy up that way, so we went back to Molasses Reef.
Oh look, two lobsters!
and another
Sharpnose puffer- not a great picture, but I love these little guys and they kept avoiding my camera 🙁
The markings on that French grunt (the guy on the right) were darker than any other I’d seen before:
French angelfish!
and another!
Redband parrotfish (terminal phase):
Same guy (Redband parrotfish), but in the initial phase:
I was trying to get a picture of that Red hind, but got photobombed by a Bluestriped grunt:
Something attacked this Bluestriped grunt, but he seems to be hanging in there:
Pederson cleaner shrimp:
An intact jelly:
this guy was pretty graceful
and stuck around long enough for lots of pictures!
One of the biggest Nassau groupers I’ve ever seen- he was well over 2′ long!
Goldentail moray eel- another guy who would not come out of his hole so I could see his golden tail 🙁
Green moray eel, on the move!
No dive would be complete without a little puffer 🙂
Blue angelfish:
and another!
Dive #9 – JJ’s Cave
This must be Rainbow Reef’s new favorite dive- figures that I’d end up diving it twice in two days. But it did have a Scrawled filefish, and I think they’re pretty cool…
I want this guy to be a Threespot damselfish, but I don’t see his spot…
This site had several swim-throughs, so those are the bubbles we left behind:
Stoplight parrotfish:
Lettuce sea slug!
and another!
and one more!
and one final one
Spotted scorpionfish, spotted 🙂
now can you see him?
Redband parrotfish:
Blue parrotfish:
Napping nurse shark:
Green moray eel:
Yellowtail damselfish:
I’m not entirely sure what kind of fish these little guys are, but I spotted a couple schools of them:
Turtle:
And the light started fading, so here’s a poorly colored Blue parrotfish:
Dusky damselfish:
Creole wrasse! I wish the lighting was better, but this guy was so pretty!
After my last dive, and after my gear was rinsed and hopefully drying, I grabbed one last fresh-fish meal- a grilled Mahi sandwich:
and since no trip to the Keys would be complete without a slice of Key Lime Pie, I left town a bit early the next morning so I could make a slight detour south for a slice of chocolate-dipped Key Lime pie on a stick.
Best breakfast ever!