Saturday in the Sun (Sept9)

What an awesome day to drop down into the ocean! Despite the slight drizzle we had this morning, conditions for weekend diving were fantastic! We had a small group of divers, most of which had dove in these parts previously. We had decided that dropping down into Baby Barge was going to be our first adventure for today.

With almost no current, we had an easy descent to the wreck and ledges. We had no struggle navigating around the site, enjoying all of the sea turtles that we came across, there were so many!

At the barge, there were tons of fish cruising around the ship’s wreckage, enjoying the calm seas. It made for great visibility for our divers, and a nice easy way to start out the day!

For those of us that spent a significant amount of time searching around the ledges, there was tons of stuff to see there too! Eels were everywhere and the microlife was astounding. Its great to search for some of the smaller stuff, there’s some really cool stuff down there!

There was also a variety of corals and aquatic plants as well. Crazy to think that this man made ship is slowly becoming part of the earth again, but it is very apparent on the barges.

After 35 minutes, the divers (who were all very good on their air) made their way back up to the Sea Fox, where we enjoyed the afternoon sun and some light snacks. There’s nothing like fresh pineapple after a dive!

Jumping in after almost an hour surface interval. We again had a very mild current at Fantasy Reef. We dropped down on the west side of the reef and got to glide slowly across the reef below.

Fantasy is one of my personal favorites, there is always so much to see. From starfish to turtles, swimthroughs and bommies, there is never a dull dive at this site.

There is one little “cove” created in the middle canyon part of this site that houses many turtles. We try to hit it every time we come to this site. As usual, there were turtles enjoying the calm waters and the divers got up close to these graceful creatures.

A great thing about the coral formations at this site is that they house so much marine life. We spotted loads of eels and little shrimps that have created their home among the reef.

We stayed down drifting for about 36 minutes, and again made our way aboard the Sea Fox to head back into the marina. It really was fantastic conditions out in the bay, a great way to start the weekend!

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CREW: Marnie (instructor) David (instructor) Joe (captain) Kelsey (crew)

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Sunny, 88*F

DIVE PROFILES: Baby Barge: 72ft max depth, 95+ft visibility, 83*F water temp, 35min dive

Fantasy Reef: 56ft max depth, 90+ft visibility, 83*F water temp, 36min dive

MARINE LIFE OBSERVED: crown of thorns, sea turtle, pencil urchin, butterflyfish, trumpetfish, bubble shell, green eel, boxfish, wrasse