7/8/2006 - YADR (Yet Another Dive Report)

Date: July 8, 2006
Dive Location: Marineland
Buddy(ies): Merry
Time: 12:00
Bottom Time: 56 minutes
Max Depth: 50'
Vis: 12'
Wave height: 1'
Temp at depth: 59F
Comments: After spending about three hours in the Rocks, Rips and Reefs class this morning we decided to ditch school and actually get in the water. Conditions had worsened since Thursday but it was still very easy to walk in. We made the long surface swim to the point and began our descent. Merry had trouble clearing so we swam over to the shallow part of the reef and dropped down again. We began finding critters right away. I picked up a lobster molt and it had a Limacea cockerelli on it.

There were Christmas Tree Worms on every rock in various colors.

Among the nudibranchs we found today were Mexichromis porterae and Okenia rosacea, formerly known as Hopkin's Rose.

While we were looking down a VERY large creature swam over us and blocked out the Sun. We were too shallow for it to be a sailboat and it lasted too long to be a sea lion. It was likely a whale, but neither of us looked up soon enough. After 56 minutes Merry didn't feel well so we decided to exit at the Point rather than swim back to the cove. Exiting at the Point scares me when I'm in a drysuit for good reason. I just finished patching three new holes in it. I'll test it out tomorrow and hopefully get some good images as well.