Batfish....CRAZY!!

So today I'm diving off of Sunset Beach. Its my second dive of the day and its cold, so I'm feeling like I wish this dive was over, when who do I stumble into but this guy. Just sitting there as cool as you like, in his red lipstick with his little nose pointed proudly in the air.
Well you can imagine my excitement! Here is a video from utube of him walking:
This guy looks like he was deposited right from outer space - or Alice in Wonderland (he looks like the mad hatter - don't you think?). I don't usually mess with marine life - but I did have to fan the water a little behind this guy so I could watch him walk.
'hello crazy man what's going on?'
'oh I'm just taking a little morning stroll through the coral in my red lip stick - and excuse me but there is nothing crazy about me, I'm a very serious kind of fish'
'oh really - so when I fan the water behind you why do you waddle round like a little old turkey'
'ah get off me you big oaf - you simply have no appreciation for the more stately creatures who inhabit the waters off sunset beach'
I tell you I could have hung with this guy for a long time, but sadly I was in the middle of referral dive #4 with 3 divers who were not as excited as I was to meet my new friend. I'm going to hunt for him again this week. I'm guessing he has a mate or family or at least a good buddy batfish around somewhere too.
If you watch the utube video, you'll also see a frog fish. I have seen little blue feet protruding from a little nook in a coral head. I think this may be a frog fish but I can't tempt him to come out. I'm on to him though so its only a matter of time - stay posted!!!

Puffer Fish on Sunset Beach

So, as I've said, I'm getting to know the inhabitants off sunset beach really well. A young boy, Jason, who I was diving with today told me he wanted to see a puffer fish. I said that although it was difficult to predict what the Ocean would bring that day I had never seen a puffer off Sunset Beach. I think this little spiny puffer heard me: He was hiding against some rocks the same color as him when I happened along. Apparently these guys like to swim slowly near to or rest on the bottom, blending with the background. I love puffer fish's eyes. They are all glassy and really look like they are looking deep into you. This guy was trying to hide. We looked at him for a little while and then left him to his business. What cute little faces they have. Its those big eyes that make them look like they have sweet little personalities. I wonder what he was really thinking ('I wish these big scary divers would leave me alone to get on with feeling melancholy... if I stare really hard at her I bet she'll think I know what she is thinking'). Might I add that as well as spiney puffer this character is also known as a porcupinefish.

Some Interesting Info on the Porcupine Fish:
Porcupinefish Scientific Name: Diodon hystrix

Porcupinefish suck up water to scare predators. The thick, leathery skin of porcupinefish is covered by scales that have been modified into spines. They are extended when the porcupinefish gulps down water to puff out and sticks a hungry predator.

Appearance
Shaped like a short baseball bat, the porcupinefish doesn’t seem like a fierce creature. Looking closer, it is found to be quite dangerous. The scales of this fish are modified into long spines, which generally lie flat against the body. When frightened, porcupinefish quickly gulps down lots of water. This makes the fish expand like a balloon—doubling and even tripling in size. As the porcupinefish puffs up, the spines on the skin stick straight out, making this fish even harder to eat. After the frightened predator swims away, the porcupinefish lets loose all the water inside its body, getting back to its normal shape and size.

This fish can be up to 3 feet (1 m) long, which would be quite a display after puffing out its entire body into a ball shape.

Habitat
Porcupinefish live in the caves and holes of lagoon and seaward reefs at depths of 7 to 167 feet (2 to 50 m). Generally they can be found either resting in a reef hideaway or swimming out in the open over the reef.

Juveniles and occasionally adults may live in the open ocean floating around within the safety of Sarassum weeds, which is a leafy golden brown algae that floats freely throughout the ocean with small air bubbles or bladders. Catching a free ride inside these weeds allows the porcupinefish to be found in all the tropical oceans.

Range
Porcupinefish live in the warm parts of all the warm Oceans.

Diet
At night, the porcupinefish searches for hard-shelled sea urchins, snails and crabs. “Diodontidae", the Family name of this animal, means “two-toothed". This refers to the hard beak-like jaw that the porcupinefish uses to crush its crunchy prey. Sometimes this fish will also eat sea jellies.

Reproduction
At sunrise or sunset, porcupinefish pelagic spawn, which means they mate in an area where the fertilized eggs will be taken away on the currents to drift into the open ocean. Pairs may spawn together, or a group of males will spawn with a single female. After the eggs hatch, the larvae float in the open ocean near the surface. When the small fish grows to a certain size, it will swim down and become a member of a coral reef.

Threats and Management
These fish are sometimes sold to souvenir shops, where the porcupine fish are lacquered in their puffed up state. Otherwise, they are not highly sought after because their organs are poisonous. The poison in the fish actually comes from a type of toxic algae that the porcupinefish eats.

Skilled Japanese chefs prepare porcupinefish and boxfish, which is called fuga, in a way that retrieve the meat and almost all the poisonous parts are cut out. A slight amount of poisonous meat is left to be served with the safe portion. The diner feels somewhat woozy after eating the fuga. Prepared in this way, these fish are considered a delicacy. On occasion, a person eating the fuga dies.

While porcupinefish are taken for souvenirs and occasionally to eat, there hasn’t been an overabundance of them taken from the oceans. Their population remains stable.

Did You Know?
As another defense mechanism, high levels of poison are concentrated in the porcupinefish’s gonads and liver. Most predators will remember getting sick from eating a porcupinefish and won’t try it again.

Few animals will eat porcupinefish. Tiger sharks, which are known as the garbage cans of the sea because they eat just about anything, will eat adult porcupinefish. Juveniles are eaten by large billfish like dolphinfish and tuna.

The Drill at Sunset Beach

One of my Open Water Students, Phil and his fiance Cecy, were kind enough to send me some pictures from our dives off "Sunset Beach".
Here we are gearing up:About to get in:Final words before dive:Phil - fully certified PADI Open Water Diver!
Just like Dutch Springs, PA except 60-80 ft vis!! Trade spiders and dirt for sand and breaking waves and 7mm plus a 3mm vest for a 3mm wet suit. Down side is I miss my favorite teaching pals.... And hell I have to say I really loved Dutch Springs. Perhaps it's inhabitants were a little less exotic BUT it was always an adventure!!
This morning, I saw a beautiful pair of flying gunard fish. I actually think that the flying gunard I saw with Miguel was half of this pair. We were probably around Sunset Beach when we saw him. I'm adding the gunard couple to my list of Sunset Beach inhabitants. Miguel told me today that a Frog Fish and Bat Fish have been seen off Sunset beach. I will be hunting for these!!!

Sunset Beach

So I'm enjoying my new job. I work mornings by the pool offering free scuba try outs and then anyone who is interested comes along with me to sunset beach to dive. I like this job for a number of reasons.
The people who dive from El Cozumeleno are pretty nice. Because they tend to be beginners they are eager to learn and super respectful about Marine life.
I love that the dives are shallow. This is easy on my body and means I can run and lift weights after work. Most people who guide from boats are diving 4 dives a day, starting at around 100ft. This is tough on you physically and really restricts what you can do in terms of exercise and your own personal diving.
Another thing I like is that I always dive in the same area. This is nice because I am getting to know the marine life down there. For example there is one coral head where I know a family of yellow stingrays live:This guy often whispers "Nothing to see here just a sandy bit of ocean floor - no stingrays to look at here - honest- its much more interesting on the next coral head". Frankly, if I were those stingrays, I would move because all of the dive masters who dive of Sunset Beach know where to find them - so at least 4-5 times a day they are accosted by a heard of elephants. I try not to disturb them too much but a few days ago I did interrupt some stingray lovin. Two of them were just about to get busy when I came along with my group. I'm afraid we completely ruined the moment.
My favorite fish off sunset beach is the trunk fish. Here is a little video I took of one:


The snorkelers clearly feed these fish and so they are completely unafraid of people. This is nice and at some points in the dive you can swim amongst big groups of trunk, cow and parrot fish.
One of my recent students took some pictures of us gearing up. I'm hoping he will send those to me so I can give you an idea of the set up.

Cave Diving in Cozumel

Yesterday I went cave diving with German Yanez who is a cave instructor in Cozumel. We dove in two very different caves.
The first was Xcan Ha. This cave is basically a pit, the size of a football pitch with a bottom at 120ft. There is a debris cone in the center of the cave and we tied into this and swam around the circumference of the bottom. There were dead tree branches looming out of the cone. I was slightly surprised to see a baby crocodile, all curled up like a little sleeping dragon. I started to wonder about his mother and suddenly the blackness behind me seemed even blacker. Next we came upon a curled up snake. HUmn.. I'm thinking my mother would have liked this dive. My computer went slightly into deco and we'd planned 3 deco stops (2@70', 3@40' and 8@20' - all very conservative which I like). On the 20' stop German signaled for me to look up at the surface. The cenote water was colored brown by the tanic acid produced by decaying vegetation; it was close to 12 and the sun was pretty much directly overhead; the effect was pretty spectacular. The sun looked like a big ruby fireball, sending out beams of red through the water. I had 8 mins to admire this - very cool. On the surface I immediately grilled German about the crocodile and snake. I was assured both were dead (albeit recently), apparently the snakes fall in from the trees (quick scan of the overhead branches for potential jumpers - all clear), German went on to say that the cenote was only populated by crocodiles in the rainy season - ah ha I said 'you mean the rainy season that we are just in the process of coming out of?' I was assured that crocodiles in these parts were not man eaters like their African relatives and seldomly grew to sizes bigger than me (I'm 5'7"). OK this was enough chit chat for me. One of my more speedy water exits! After two yoga classes the previous day I found myself on one knee on the dock absolutely unable to stand up. Even visualizing one of my new dive buddies lumbering out of the undergrowth or falling from one of the branches overhead did not give me the strength to stand up on my own. DAMN - I had to be hauled to my feet by German:(
We had around two hours between dives, changed our gear over, pondered life and fought off mosquitos (one got me in the middle of my forehead - very attractive).
Then on to Aerolito. From the shore you can see that the water is full of white globules - this is sulphur. We saw a fire worm and sea cucumber. Both are albino and have adapted to life in the cave. There were also starfish and tinsy sponges - all white and gray. All of the creatures slithered away from our flash light beams - a little bit creepy. This dive also contained two of the worst restrictions I have come across to date (bear in mind that this was my second cave dive as a certified cave diver - so that is not saying much). German was leading and I watched him tootle onto his side and pull himself through a pretty small gap. OK I thought if this guy can get through there then so can I (I'm calculating body size here rather that expertise). So on I went - my tanks clanked a lot on the wall and I'd say I reached the very edge of my comfort zone. Still I just moved very slowly and made it through - checked my valves (Hans voice in my head reminding me to do this) and on we went. We called the dive at about 34 mins. I lead back through a terrain of much less visibility. I'd say down to about 12" through the restrictions. I could not really make out the shape of the cave around me but figured if the line was there I must be passing the place where I needed to be on my side. Felt a little bit stuck but resisted panic and took my time to relax and pull myself slowly through. All in all a pretty good dive. The cave reminded me of the bit in temple of doom where Indie is running away from the rock ball. It was pretty dark brown and looked like it had been hacked out of the rock by dwarfs rather than water and time. These caves are very different from those that I've dove so far. Not as pretty as the halocline filled, white walled, heavily decorated rooms in the systems on the mainland, but I really liked them. A bit like diving a New Jersey wreck after a Caribbean reef.
German is an excellent dive guide, very chilled and easy to dive with, also very experienced, which I like in a dive buddy. Hoping to do some more diving with him soon.

Majahual

Before starting work a group of friends and I decided to go to Majahual for a long weekend. Majahual is on Mexico's east coast just north of Belize. The reef is part of the same barrier reef as that off the coast of Belize. We were on a much smaller boat but we had to exit the barrier with the same caution as we did in Belize. The waves crash over a belt of shallow coral and rocks and the captain has to navigate through a gap in the rocks with the help of a mate sitting at the boat's bow. The boat almost catches a wave and surfs over the barrier on the way in. We hit rocks both days. Out boat was a fishing boat and I'm not sure how used the Captain was to steaming over the reef.
Majahual's reef is one of the healthiest reefs I recall seeing. This site is not frequently dove, primarily because Majahual is a 5 hour drive from the nearest airport (Cancun and Merida are about the same distance). The reef is in finger formation, much the same a Belize and the ridges of reef are festooned with more variety of sponges than I've seen anywhere. I remember seeing a barrel sponge that must have been 5ft tall. It was like a small town, every inch of its exterior was full of life. Some of my favorite inhabitants were banded coral shrimp and the little purple, translucent, cleaner shrimp. There were also more types on anemone than I have ever seen in the Caribbean. Not like the large colorful anemones in Indonesia. Many of these were flat against coral, deep colors and no more than 7inch wide. I wished my camera was working - but then I would have slowed the group taking pictures. The reef resembled layered cakes, with ornate icing or fairy castles. I enjoyed just floating on my back looking towards the surface over the reef scape.
Lots of macro stuff. We saw a decorator crab:

Ours were much like this one but decorated with red sponge. I'd only seen this type of decorator crab once before. They are very cute:) They shuffled around 'you can't see me, I'm not there, right?'
Anyone looking for pristine reef and a peaceful vacation should head to Majahual. I kind of hope the place remains undiscovered for some time to come. It is also possible to take trips by boat to the reef's off San Pedro Belieze from Majahual.

FULL CAVE DIVER - yeah baby

I spent Sunday running lines all over the cavern section of Taj Mahal with Hans. I practiced finning backwards while tying in, over and over again. The visability was pretty messed up when we were done, but I got a lot of practice to build on my obsessive swimming backwards in the ocean.
Yesterday was Taj Mahal again with Steve - we went off to the Chinese Garden room off the left cave line. Thank the lord, everything went smoothly. No dropping my knees at tie offs - some successful backing off of tie ins. Believe me, there is still room for improvement, but overall it showed that I'd been practicing my ass off. Those with a keen eye will have seen, from Miguel's video, that my trim is still a little knees down, this gives my frog kick a little rock. Steve informed me that this fault is referred to as 'a braying donkey' - nice:) His overall appraisal of the video was 'good videographer, nice fish'. In other words my fin strokes still leave a lot to be desired. Without knowing what the current was doing he was unable to draw conclusions on the skill of my backwards finning (Buggar! - worth a try though).
Anyway after much gnashing of teeth, pulling of hair, and cursing at myself underwater I am now a FULLY CERTIFIED CAVE diver.
Steve pronounced his verdicts after the first dive of the day and offered to dive a second dive with us. I decided to end on a high note for fear of doing something stupid during a second dive which might cause him to rethink his decision. Excited about doing some more dives now.
As a side note the Chinese Garden Room in Taj is beautiful. I would like to do that dive again with less pressure.

The Proof

Here is an awesome video of me swimming backwards, courtesy of my good friend Miguel who is a videographer here in Cozumel:

http://cozumeldigitalcreations.com/video/gallery.php?title=Anna.mov

Now the first part where my knees are down is just because I was in a heads up trim for the camera (HONEST!). Anyone coming to Cozumel to dive should think about asking Miguel to take some video of their dives (shameless plug for Miguel)

New Job

Well on my first day of job hunting I got a job at El Cozumeleno Beach Resort
I start work on November 1st. I think it will be pretty hard work physically. Basically the routine is that we hang around the pool in the morning, encouraging people to take scuba lessons. The pool session is free as part of their all inclusive package and then we try to sell them a discover scuba dive. If they agree we head off to the Sunset Beach Club to do an intro to scuba dive:

The downsides of the job are that I will have to move 5 tanks to the pool every morning then back to the dive shop and then up and down the stairs at Sunset Beach; also I'll be in the pool every day which will be no good for my hair. The upside is that I think I'll enjoy teaching discover scuba. Its quite a high class resort so the guests seem pretty nice. Also the diving is all in one spot so I can really get a good routine going. Before I start I want to dive the spot a few times. I also intend to work out a really nice discover scuba routine. Its also possible to sell 'Scuba diver' and 'Open Water' courses if we can get people interested. There are two other instructors Fernando and Hernan. I spent a day working with Fernando and he seemed really nice.

Flying Gunard

This was an interesting fish that we followed around for about 15 mins yesterday:

It kind of lumbers along the ocean floor on two leg/fins and from time
to time spreads its glorious wings out and glides (no doubt to scare off
bothersome divers!). Very pretty though.

Guess what I was doing today????

Swimming underwater backwards!!!! It all just clicked after hours of practicing. I can now swim forwards, pause and then stick it in reverse, pull myself back in an even trim, pause, and then forwards again. Miguel was very excited to see a seahorse. I was excited to move close to the seahorse and then back off - move closer again and then back!!! Did I say that I CAN FIN BACKWARDS!!!
I have to give thanks where thanks is due and the most must go to Hans' friend Patrick who is a cave instructor with Protec in Playa. He was kind enough to run through the fin motion with me on his day off before we all dove in Xunaan Ha. Allie also blogged on this day with more pics. Let me tell you I looked very glamorous hanging off the back over Patrick's truck practicing the leg movements for forwards and backwards frog kicks:

Patrick teaches this very well though and it was this exercise which was definitely the turning point. Before I go back in the water with Steve on October 20, I want to do a few more dives in the Ocean here, to make sure I have this skill down and then hopefully a cave dive or two with Hans & Allie to put it all into practice. This will be a well earned certification!!
I am so pleased to have accomplished this today as I was really starting to think I would never get it.

Finning backwards - another attempt...

OK this is what I am trying to accomplish:

Actually this video is very good. I've just come back from a very frustrating dive off scuba shack's beach. After 40 mins work I was no better than in cave class. I can move backwards but my fins stroke lifts me up and back. The guy in this video claps the soles of his fins together before starting his stroke. I'm going to try this tomorrow. All I accomplished today was aggravating a bit of back pain I had, amusing some snorkelers above me and pissing off a damsel fish I was practicing near. Oh yes I can now curse through my regulator!!!
I like the style of the guy in this training video though so I have high hopes for tomorrow.

Full Cave Diver (almost)...

Just got back from almost a week in Playa Del Carmen taking a full cave diving course. Some of you may remember my taking an intro to cave course with Michele Carvale back in November of last year. We took the course with Protec. It was a pretty testing course - Michele definitely did a little better than I did with buoyancy but we both passed the course (admittedly Michele with a little more grace). Let me first introduce my cave instructor, Steve Bogaerts. The voice over is a little cheesy but it gives you a good feel for the guy and a little glimpse into the cave systems between Playa Del Carmen and Tulum.

I arrived in Playa the day before my course was to start and did an refresher dive with Hans and Allie. The first thing I realized, even before we entered the cave was that I was pretty darn nervous. Hans also saw this and suggested we did a cavern tour first. OK good start, I felt a bit better. We then did a short cave dive (as an intro cave diver I can dive the cave system so long as I don't have to make any directional decisions). This dive was much better, except we surfaced in a small cenote mid-dive and I could not clear my ears to descend. We regrouped, discussed alternatives and then made a second descent attempt. My ears cleared and we completed this pretty short dive. Hans shared with me that my frog kick was pretty skew and would not fly with Steve. I knew this to be true, but had always considered it quirky rather than a problem. Bear in mind that most of my technical diving thus far has been on wrecks in NJ, an environment where good buoyancy is scorned. On one boat a diver said to me 'you want to see what I use for good buoyancy?' and pointed at his rust covered knee pads:) Nevertheless, I felt mine was pretty good. In fact I'd go as far as to say my buoyancy is good by open water standards - I mean I can hover and my trim was always good - or so I thought.
The next day Allie and I met Steve. Allie was to audit the class, partly to refresh her own safety skills and party to keep me company. I was VERY pleased to have her there. First dive was OK. I really had to concentrate on keeping my frog kick straight but with a whole lot of effort I don't think I did too badly. I shared my worries re memory, with Steve, and he said he was fine with my using a wrist slate and making tons of notes as we dove. This, he said, helps train the memory and in time it would come much more naturally. I completely agree - this is how I usually set about navigating in a new environment (look at my last blogs on the beach/ wall dive off Scuba Shack). I also made lengthy notes on tie-ins. When we dive in caves, we follow permanent lines (well unless you are an explorer diving virgin territory, which is a little advanced for me). The permanent line is set way back in the cavern to deter open water divers from investigating the line. At the start of the dive you tie your line into a rock, or similar, with clear water about your head, then make a secondary tie off further into the cavern, more tie offs as needs be and then a final tie off into the permanent cave line.
I had thought my forwards frog kick was going to be my biggest problem, but I soon was told that in order to pass the course I would also need to master finning backwards, in perfect trim. This skill is imperative so that you can make tie-ins without disrupting the cave system. There is often a weak/ strong current in the cave so unless you can fin backwards its easy to drift over the tie-in you are working on. The dives I did were such that there was room to swim over the line and re-position myself - but this will not always be so. Steve was pretty patient with me. Unlike so many other technical instructors, he does not subscribe to the tough love theory of dive instruction. He is adept at breaking down skills into their base components and explaining with great patience how the skill should be performed and gives great tips on how you might improve.
I'm not sure I witnessed frustration in Steve's voice at one point during the course. Its funny though - this is very much how I try to teach as in my view getting frustrated with a student does little more than to increase their anxiety levels and undermine their performance further. The reason for my little smile is that often I am shaking my students by the shoulders 'concentrate you nincompoop' in my head, while complimenting their efforts, commiserating with their frustrations and making suggestions for improvements - I feel Steve may have been screaming at me in his head!!!!
So unfortunately by the end of the course the best I could accomplish was about three backwards fin strokes (usually when Steve was not looking) and more often than not I also managed to pull myself upwards as well as back, which tends to be no good for the roof of the cave. Steve very nicely said he'd prefer to see me perform this stroke and the knock on perfect tie-ins before giving me the full cave cert. I have been sent away to practice and we're going to spend another day together in October.
I'll admit, this was demoralizing. I do not deal well with failure and the fee for the extra day was going to hurt my pocket. I may have shed a few little tears while showering after the last dive - or I might have just gotten a little soap in my eyes (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!).
I have learned a lot from this course though and by the 4th day, as my skills were requiring less and less intensive concentration the cave environment was beginning to open up to me. I think I have just been very task loaded as everything in the course was pretty much a new skill. I now understand why Hans suggested 3 months of just diving the caves before taking the full cave class.
What have I learned. Buddy communication is very different. Eye contact is out. There are several ways to communicate with a buddy behind you. You can duck your head down and look underneath yourself at your buddy (turning the head to the side disrupts buoyancy), you can cover/ direct your light to the floor of the cave so you can see your buddy's light pool and know they are close, or you can make an OK circle with your light on the floor of the cave and cover your light for your buddies response. On the first few days kicking the habit of glancing over my shoulder was hard (perfect frog kick, arch back, no glancing over shoulder at buddy was my mantra). I think my share air and valve drills were pretty darn acceptable by the end of the course. Tie-ins themselves were so so. Allie and I did fairly good neutrally buoyant no viz touch contact exits (lights out swim out of the cave touching buddy and maintaining contact with the line). I found the line in both lost line drills but was let down by my tie offs. The last lost line drill I lost my double clip (essential for tying into the line) and cursed myself for not carrying a spare (Jose and Fernando might remember my tendency to forget to stow my clip before dealing with my reel - I'm no stranger to loosing these clips).
What do I think of the caves. Well I think haloclines (were the salt and fresh water meet) are unbelievable beautiful. I love how still it is in the cave system. I find the less obviously pretty caves a bit dull, but then I remember that this is how I felt about wrecks in New Jersey when I first started diving them and as my experience grew I came to find them awesome indeed - grand and foreboding but peaceful.
What I do not like about cave diving. The dirt, dust, gravel and slime on the water, nasty bathrooms, mosquitos, tarantulas (yes Steve took this all in his stride, explaining that the worst that the tarantula, crawling around our feet during our briefing, could do was to administer a bee like sting). I also find lugging heavy double tanks around to be difficult physically and finally hate how dirty my car gets. I feel that there must be ways to eliminate some of these things. Washing gear in the cenote after the days dives is a good way to eliminate some of the dirt (provided its not a slimy cenote).
I plan to call Steve today and rearrange a days diving with him. Hans has kindly agreed to do some cave dives with me between now and then to work on my skills and Miguel has also agreed to take the finning backwards challenge with me and video my efforts in the hope that this will help me improve!

Scuba Shack Shore Dive Take II

70 Mins 110ft 2200psiToday we did the same dive as last time. This time Miguel made this wonderful rendering of our route, before the dive, so that I could see what we were doing (the red object is Jorge's aerial shot of a Mexican on a bike). We planned to head along the wall until it kind of split off to the left and shot down deep. Miguel showed me where the turn point was and I noted that it was about 24 mins into the dive (which of course will change with current etc). I think I can remember how this spot looks. Then we headed on a perpendicular to the wall off to the right - I guess we were heading West which is a sure bet in Cozumel to reach the shore. I hadn't brought my compass so I thought - lets use natural navigation. The sandy floor was littered with coral heads in the direction we were heading so I figured I'd line two up and maintain my heading that way. This worked for about 5 mins and then I got side tracked looking at some Pygmy Filefish and forgot how my coral heads were supposed to line up. I want to do this dive again with a compass and see if I can navigate it on my own. Anyone who knows me (and particularly has dove with me) knows navigation is not my strong point. I'm thinking a sense of direction is a bit like having natural rhythm and in the comforting words the girl in my hip hop class in Brooklyn 'not everyone is born with rhythm but I think you can learn it'.
Anyway back to the Pygmy Filefish:

These little guys hang out in grasses on the seabed and, as they change color to match their surroundings, they are difficult to spot. Miguel found two of them and now I'll know what they are next time I see them.
We also found some nice banded cleaner shrimp living on a plant which I think might have been a turtle weed or a paddle blade algae or something else completely - I wish I had the full set of reef ID books - I only have the fish book. They can often be tempted to clean your finger nails for you. On this occasion I decided not to harass them:

I found another algae I liked called a 'bristle ball brush' algae. Yes - they look like little cleaning brushes. If I was the kind of person who ever touched marine life, which of course I'm not, I'm guessing they'd feel like little cleaning brushes. they often have little shells nestled between their little bristles. Cute.

First dive in Cozumel...

Shore Dive from Scuba Shack Pier 110ft/ 65mins/ 2100psi
I dove with Miguel, Petros and Jim. We got a 2 min ride on a little zodiac boat out to the coral wall which lies about 200 meters off the Scuba Shack pier. I cant tell you how nice it was to hit the water. I love the excitement of New Jersey Wreck Diving, the thrill of the currents in the St Lawrence and the adventure and beauty of cave diving BUT the serenity of this type of reef diving is what I love best. Its like a drug for me. Within seconds of rolling into the water my brain sinks into a very peaceful place. All of the worrying I'd been doing over the last few days/ months melted away. The wall we dove on was sparse in coral but I amused myself searching for my favorite creatures - Arrow crabs!And trunk fish:
Jim found a seahorse. I was overjoyed to see my first seahorse years ago in Indonesia. The initial thrill is short lived with these little guys as they don't really do much except slowly turn to face away from you because they are shy. Then Miguel found a little shrimp who had a fight with my finger nails (later I was told that this breed can give you a pretty nasty little nip - thankfully on this occasion I was spared!).
Miguel guided us perfectly to the Papa Hogs Pier (he later admitted that there had been a fair amount of luck involved in this). Just off the pier is an artificial reef - which looks like a fairy castle with turrets of tube sponges set around its perimeter and fish clustered in its overhangs like beautiful glistening mobiles. The water temp must have been around 84 degrees. LOVELY!

Watch This Space

I will be arriving in Cozumel, Mexico, around September 10 2008. I plan to take my full cave certification on Sept 20-24, and hopefully secure work in the diving industry as an instructor well before December. I plan to document my diving adventures in this blog!!!