his dive story / 44

27 March 2013

Another awesome day diving at Northwest Point. We had been diving mostly West Caicos, the Channel and French Cay lately as the north side of Provo has been battered with strong surges.

The first dive was at Amphitheater and it is by far one of my favorite dive sites as the reef wall just drops and drops in what appears to be like seats at an amphitheater. We did the right wall this time and it was amazing with just about the right amount of sunlight coming down.

The second dive was at Thunderdome, which was once a location of a French tv show similar to Survivor. The structure has all crumbled but the sea life there is great. We usually stop by here after doing our wall dive.

I tried to stack my macro lens to catch these little fishes call blenny. I am trying to catch them when they shoot out as you can see the entire length of their body. Really cool but next time!

Enjoy the video and pics. Soon, it will be time to start wearing my 3mm but for now at 25c, I am still on 7mm. :)

my previous diving posts – HERE

his dive story / 42

5 February 2013

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his-dive-story-42-b This dive was in the channel. Somewhere between morthwest point and west caicos. The best time to dive the channel is when the tide is high as the reef wall is on a slippery slope so when the tide is receding the current will be unbearable, dragging you down towards the slope and the viz will be bad as all the silt will be kicked up.

Anyway on this dive we were told that this is usually where one would see gurnards, flying fishes but since last year’s hurricane they have seemed to have disappeared! Well guess what??? I found them on this dive as i went off alone as i usually do a deep profile dive and it was on my way up was when i found these two gurnards.

his-dive-story-42 Amazing looking especially when they open their wings and voila! The irresdescent blue spots are just so beautiful but one of them is missing part of its wing or else it was bitten off by another fish. Enjoy the video.

I used my new red filter on this video. Still testing and playing. I have now two INON macro lens that I stack and a new wide angle. Technique technique!!! Ciao and until next time – James

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his dive story / 40

11 December 2012

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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 / 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