We got a little bit of a late start since as we were heading out of the harbor, one of the divers "discovered" that she did not have her weight pockets. We had to go back to the dock where Shawn rustled up a couple of pockets to fit her BCD. This is my first dive with my new ScubaPro Equator BCD.
On the first dive I was partnered with Carlos, so our group was last into the water. There were 10 divers and three "guides". Half of the divers were students.
Carlos lead our group and I brought up the rear. The other four were Night Diver students and were on only their second night dives. We all dropped down to the wreck and looked around a little. Photographs were hard to come by. Lots of suspended stuff in the water, so backscatter was a real problem. Still, I got several really good photos of Decoy Scorpionfish. They were everywhere on the bottom by the wreck!
Decoy Scorpionfish
This Pebble Collector Urchin didn't have any pebbles, so you can get a good look at it.
Pebble Collector Urchin
There are always several of these little fish around at night. They are pretty shy, and so far, I have not been able to identify them.
????
A new species of crab - the first one I have observed!
Hairy Portunid
And another crab that I see all the time. . .
Hawaiian Swimming Crab
This big Undulated Moray Eel was hanging out under a little ledge and kept poking his head out.
Undulated Moray Eel
Another new species - this one a sponge.
Blue Suberites
When I ran out of no-deco time on my computer, I headed over by the mooring line and followed the students up to safety stop depth. Carlos and I did our safety stops together and then swam over to the boat and got out. I still had 700 psi of air.
The BCD functioned perfectly! It does not have the internal frame like a Glide Pro or a Nighthawk so it is lighter and has less inherent buoyancy. I will probably be able to drop a couple of pounds of weight, but need to wait until a daytime dive so I can see to do a post-dive buoyancy check.
On the second dive, I went with Shawn's group and since one of his divers decided not to go on the second dive, I was buddied up with Nick Long. Once again, the plan was that Shawn would lead and I would follow the others and keep them all together. That was a good plan, but Nick kept dawdling along and we just fell behind. That was OK, though since I a pretty familiar with this site and so I just lead Nick on a tour.
This was a gorgeous Red Pencil Urchin! I tried several times to get a decent photo and failed because of all the stuff stirred up in the water and the resulting backscatter.
Red Pencil Urchin
I spotted this guy as the surge swept me past and had to turn around and go back to get a photo.
Yellowhead Moray Eel
This little Ornate Octopus was out swimming as we past over it. It immediately stopped and then started crawling along the bottom, stretching out its tentacles a long way! While I was photographing it, my batteries died. That just made my day! In addition to the other challenges with getting photos, I had do deal with that. I can usually nurse a few more photos out, but it is a hassle.
Ornate Octopus
Nick found this big fellow and pointed him out to me.
Scrawled or Broomtail Filefish
When Nick ran low on air, we slowly ascended and climbed out at the boat. I was ready to get out since I was getting a little cold even though I still had 1200 psi left.
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