his dive story / 40

11 December 2012

Well, the weather hasn’t been too cooperative lately and we’ve had high winds coming eastward which usually means the entire Providenciales island is washed out and this means there isn’t a good place to go diving except maybe French Cays which has not been a favorite spot for me.

This Sunday was the first really nice day that we had for almost two weeks and I was so excited to book my diving. The boat was still in the south side and we were headed for Northwest Point. On board were the usual suspects… Dave, our captain, Nikki, dive instructor, Don, who runs the TCI Reef Fund and Sarah, a former dive instructor and my recent dive buddy.

On this day, Don would be working on refitting the moorings at two dive sites at Northwest Point. The first site was Two Steps, which I love. The second site was Shark Hotel, which for whatever reason was my first time diving it and I really enjoyed it for its deep swim thru which would take you down to at least 40m. It is called Shark Hotel because at bottom of the swim thru there is a sandy ledge that the nurse sharks usually hang out and sleep there. But today, I only saw reef sharks. You will see on the video what I saw. It was really cool to see a turtle swimming next to a giant Nassau grouper and then followed by a shark then by me! Sarah was behind and probably took a picture of all of us!

shark-hotel by myseastory

The other video was towards the end of the dive where I saw a decent size school of fish which I know Joana would like. Enjoy the videos and next time, I will be using my new INON strobe with ULCS arms, red filter and a new INON macro lens! Can’t wait to splash with them.

see all my previous diving posts HERE – James

his dive story / 39

23 November 2012

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Well, it’s been weeks since Sandy came and left with very little damage but she left behind weeks of poor sea conditions with very strong surges that washed away many of our beaches. Of course, this meant that there was no diving as the boats did not go out to sea. Now that things have calmed down a bit, I decided to go diving and I must admit, I was dying to splash into the warm sea.

The boat left from the southside this week so that meant that we would either go to French Cay, West Caicos or the Channel which is between Northwest Point and West Caicos, one of my favorite dives when conditions are ideal. And as it turned out, it was ideal as we stayed for two dives before the tide dropped. The reason I mentioned the tide is because, the Channel rests on a slippery slope and when the tide is high, the diving is heaven and when it is starting to drop, the current pushing you down into the reef wall is unbearable and all the sand would kick up.

At the channel, there are always sharks, many sharks and the occasional couple of spotted eagle rays. I love eagle rays and saw two in the second dive which I believe normally roam this area because I have another video of the eagle rays from last November. Enjoy the majestic eagle ray!

All previous his diving story posts – James

his dive story / 38

24 October 2012

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Hi all, it’s great to be back on island again and dive in the warm sea. When we were in Napoli last month, I managed to do 1 dive in plain view of Mt. Vesuvius and I tell ya, I could have used my dry suit! It was like 21c!

Anyway, in my first dive last Sunday, I caught sight of a fish that I had never seen before. We were at Northwest Point and our guide pointed it out for us. There were only three of us and we all had cameras. The fish is called a burrfish. I think my pic is better than the one in Wikipedia! Anyway, the fish was not at all shy and posed for us as we were taking turns snapping away!

Another fish that I saw was a flounder and it is fairly indigenous to the Caribbean. It was pretty well camouflaged on the white sand bottom but once you know what to look for, you can see it easily during your dives. Enjoy.

See my previous diving posts! – James

his dive story / 36

13 August 2012

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This past Sunday’s dive was by far one of the better dives I’ve had so far. I can finally check off my list the hammerhead. It was at Northwest Point and I was coming up from 42m to the reef wall at 30m when from a distance, I saw a shape of a shark that I figured was just another reef shark so I was preparing to ignore it… :) then I noticed that it had a strange head, that of a hammerhead!! Quick, my mind was flashing..take a pic or video it…at the very last second, I decided to video it and it was a good thing as the typically skittish hammerhead swam by really fast and I caught it!!! Yeahhhh man! Finally!

The other shark I saw was a nurse at a dive site called Two Steps. I had seen this one before at the same location but this time, it had sadly a fishing hook line and weight on its mouth… it was dangling it around and making clanking noises when it brushed against hard corals…I hope the hook falls off soon. When I first saw it, it was next to a huge lobster that appeared to be guarding it! How funny… Enjoy – James

See al diving posts HERE.

his dive story

8 May 2012

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Hi everyone, I’m back!

There are times when I wish I hadn’t gone diving as the weather, yes, does get bad and worse, there is no sunshine! Well this past Sunday was amazing…. It was by far one the best days in a couple of months and mind you I only go on Sundays….

Dave, the boat captain and owner of Provo Turtles, asked me where I wanted to go and I said Northwest Point and that was it. There was only 5 of us on the boat which is GREAT!

Our first dive as at a site called two steps and I went deep (42m) and got narc…. What a great feeling! The second dive didn’t have a name and it was near the canyons. We all jumped in and it was an amazing dive with great viz but it was at the end of the dive that made it all worthwhile for all of us….

We came upon a group of tiny red squids and they were not shy and loved the attention from all of us, especially the ones with cameras. We were all obsessed with getting that perfect shot! And so here are mine including a short video… enjoy!