his dive story / 42

5 February 2013

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 / 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.