1 Apr 2024
Good morning from Lighthouse Reef. This morning, we’ll be diving off this island (I know I said there wasn’t a lot of land, but this is one of the few exceptions), Half Moon Caye:
It is swarming with birds, and I wish I had a longer lens to try to get some pictures!
Here’s today’s schedule:
But today, we’re doing 5 dives! I’m not sure how I feel about doing a dive after eating a large dinner, plus, I’m always hungry after I dive and I sleep best with a full belly, so I may have to raid the kitchen after the night dive. We’ll have to see…
Dive #5 – Half Moon Caye Wall
Two Sharpnose puffers!
Finally, a neck crab in a nice-to-photograph location!
Nassau grouper:
We saw quite a few of these guys!
A Juvenile Threespot damselfish:
RAWR!!!
Green Moray eel
A bold Spiny lobster walking around out of his hole!
White grunt:
Queen conch:
There were so many of these guys crawling around in the sandy area of this site- it’s a bit hard to see, but you can kinda see this guy’s track:
“Palm tree”
For whatever reason, this site had several PVC pipes sticking up from the sand- this one sprouted a top. Also, you can see a bunch of the conchs that live here in the sand.
Dive #6 – Aquarium
Visibility at the first site wasn’t great, so we moved over to Long Caye for our next dive:
This site is very aptly named- there were so many fish and critters- I almost didn’t know where to look! Also SO MANY SHARKS!!!
There were at least 3 different ones cruising around:
These guys are reef sharks, about 6′ long.
There were also SO MANY TRUNKFISH!
Again, I almost didn’t know which one to focus on!
A couple more sharks:
My buddy and a shark!
A couple more trunkfish:
A whole pile of Creole wrasses:
Spotlight parrotfish:
Little Graysby:
Indigo hamlet!
LOVE his color!
Black grouper:
Another common fish at this site- they were totally unafraid and would swim right up to us divers.
Ignore the terrible coloring, but look at that little trumpetfish trying to hide!
Dive #7 – Aquarium
As soon as I descended, my buddy indicated there was something wrong with her high pressure hose. I looked over and sure enough, it was leaking like a sieve! I always assumed that when a hose failed, it would fail spectacularly (and explosively), but hers was leaking from countless little pin-prick holes. It had been just fine the dive before.
I’m not sure how quickly she was losing air, but she signaled that she was going up and to buddy up with the guide so I could still dive. We had been operating a rather loose buddy system, wandering further apart than is probably recommended, but while we waited for the boat to swing back, I stayed closer, octo at the ready, just in case.
Once she was safely back on board, I continued my dive, joining the group that was following the guide.
So many parrotfish!
This site is really living up to its name- there is so much fish life here!
Shark!
Shark with a tracker on its fin:
Creole wrasse:
Lobster in a coral:
Princess parrotfish:
Parrotfish cleaning station:
Spotlight parrotfish, chomping:
When they chomp the coral, you can actually hear it!
Queen triggerfish:
Scrawled cowfish:
Dive #8 – Silver Cave
While we ate (and I napped), the boat moved west to Long Caye, to Silver Cave, where we’ll be doing our next two dives:
My boat has a system where if the gear your bring fails, they’ll let you use their rental gear for free, so my buddy was able to source a replacement SPG/high pressure hose. I travel with a spare low pressure hose, but I’ll be throwing in a high pressure hose as well after seeing hers fail.
Lots of fish life at this site as well:
Arrowhead crab:
Little spotted eel:
Barred hamlet:
French angelfish:
Nurse shark:
Whitespotted filefish:
(I know, I know, his spots aren’t white…)
Spotted drum:
Burping/yawning tarpon!
There were so many of these guys swimming around under the boat and they kept doing this mouth thing- I shot several pictures, but only got the behavior in one shot.
If you read today’s menu carefully, you’ll notice dessert was listed as “surprise”… I had my suspicions and they were confirmed when the chef brought out a birthday cake!
Happy birthday, Rich!
Dive #9 – Silver Cave
Tonight’s night dive was better than last night- still an annoying amount of bloodworms, but not nearly as bad as the first night.
Juvenile Spotted drum:
Slipper lobster:
Lettuce sea slug / Elysia crispata, with bloodworms 🙁
Flying gurnard!
My buddy actually spotted him, so I hung back and watched, but eventually he spooked and swam at me!
SO COOL!!!
Little moray on the hunt:
Lettuce sea slug / Elysia crispata, on the move (his head is on the bottom):
Almost every time I spotted one of these guys on this dive, their leafy parts were splayed open so you could see their spotted bodies:
But as soon as my light hit them, they’d close back up.
A sleeping Glasseye snapper:
Hermit crab:
Spiny lobster, on the move:
Spotted lobster!
These guys are far less common than the regular Spiny guys!
Caribbean reef octopus!
He stayed out for a bit, but wasn’t really a fan of pictures/our lights so he zoomed into a hole and did not come back!
Oof. Five dives in one day is a lot! This trip is certainly living up to the liveaboard mantra of “Eat, Sleep, Dive.”