Advanced Adventure Dives

Emily and Sarah began their Advanced Open Water course today. This morning started early and they completed the two required Adventure dives, a deep dive and a navigation dive. 

The deep dive was done at a site that was new to me, too. It's called Black Hills. The site is actually a sea mount just off shore on the north side of the island. The top of the mount is about 30 feet deep. From there, you can follow the side down, probably past recreational limits (130 feet) if you go long enough. We went to 95 feet. 

Emily doing a back roll
entry (aka James Bond roll)
off Octopussy.

Sea mounts are unique due to the number of fish they attract. Especially if the sea mount is further from shore than this one, the mount serves as a refueling station, of sorts, for fish. It is a place to find food, a place where you can get cleaned by wrasse, and a nursery. This one attracts some fish which I haven't seen often on dives on the shallower reefs. We saw Queen Triggerfish (rarely seen above 85 feet or so around here), Black Durgan (another species of Trigger), and more jellyfish than I've ever seen on a dive, among other things. 

For the navigation dive, we went to a site called Ted's Point. The major item of interest at Ted's Point is a boat that was sunk at about 60 feet, creating an artificial reef. It's not big enough to go inside (it looks like it might have been an old dive boat) but you can peer through a couple windows and into other nooks and crannies. We swam around the reef for a little and then the girls had to lead everyone else back to the boat. Highlights of the dive were Brown Garden Eels and a gigantic puffer fish. 

Sarah doing a giant stride entry off the boat.

Sarah striking a pose. I think it's a heart, you'll have to
ask her to be sure.

Robyn and I at Ted's Point

The picture doesn't do this justice. This puffer was
probably a foot long.

No, Emily's not Asian at all! Why do you ask?