The Daily Routine

As Jessee mentioned, we're trying to keep in the habit of running. I don't really like doing it, but I do like having done it. It makes a world of difference in how you feel. For the last two days we've taken advantage of the fact that the water has been dead calm and, instead of just floating around at the dock to cool down, we went for a couple of long snorkels. Yesterday we swam around Dove Cay, and today we crossed the entire bay to Shark Alley. According to Google Maps, each route is about a mile.

View Snorkel Routes in a larger map

The water has gotten much warmer since the winter and it's really nice to be out there. The surface water was especially warm because there were no waves to churn things up, and the thermocline was especially distinct. The top 12 inches was probably 8° or 10° warmer than the water below that. It's just a shame it wasn't this flat when Jessee's family was here.

Dove Cay

We attached our shoes to the signal float. Yes, that is ocean water not pool water, by the way.

Jessee always pulls the float because she's the better swimmer.

There's some new Elk Horn Coral growth on the far side of Dove Cay.

A Massive Lobster

That's a nice leaf.

We saw this same "buddy pair" both days - a Sting Ray and a Bar Jack.

The swim across to Long Cay today was especially eventful. Well, actually, Shark Alley (the area at the tip of Long Cay) was. It never disappoints. We saw three turtles (two large Hawksbills and fairly large Green), 7 Eagle Rays, and a Reef Shark. The two Hawksbills had tags, and when they saw us they took off without looking back. I guess they recognized us. The Green turtle came swimming by while I was photographing the shark. I actually got both of them in a single frame. Shark Alley is really one of a kind. If you saw any single one of these animals in the Dominican Republic, it would be something to talk about. Here you're not even finished looking at one when another comes swimming by. This is really a special place.

We started at the dock for a more direct line across the bay.

Barracudas spend most of their time lurking.

It's a bit grainy, but the turtle is just behind the shark in the lower left.

Queen Triggerfish

There was an abandoned fish trap at Shark Alley with a Coney trapped inside. I decided I'd free him. Sometimes in rough weather traps get lost. Until all the bait is used up, they'll continue trapping fish, which simply die of starvation. It took about 10 breath-hold dives to get the gate open. I had to untie several knots and bend some wires, but eventually I did it.

The fish is in the top right corner.

Gate's Open

And the fish is free. You can see him swimming away to the left.

Yesterday afternoon we went for a dive too. Right off the boat we saw the biggest Snapper (a Dog Snapper, I think). It was probably 3.5 or 4 feet long, absolutely enormous for a commercially valuable species! I can't imagine what it weighed. It was a beast. Again, there aren't many places in the world where fish like this still exist.

Monster Snapper

This Cero Mackerel swam curiously around us for several minutes.

Jessee looking at her favorite fish, the Sharpnose Puffer.

Boatless

The boats have been out of the water for the past few days. Initially, they were taken out because Tropical Storm Erika was heading our way, but after it petered out we just took them out to clean them. So we've had to make do with limited access to the water. All the same, we made the most of it. On Saturday (after a long day of work for Jessee) we took the kayak across the channel to nearby Dove Cay. It's a one person boat, so after futile attempts to put both of us in it, Jessee just swam. We sat on the small rocky outcropping on it watching two resident Ospreys for a some time and then went for a snorkel with our new underwater camera.

Eagle Ray

Notice the (now healed) injury it had on its right wing - a bite mark, possibly from a shark.

Osprey

Banded Butterflyfish

Yellowfin Mojara

Flamingo Tongue

Yesterday morning we went for a walk (in the unbearably hot sun) out to the salinas with our new bird ID book. We didn't have binoculars, so it was pretty difficult to see anything, but we tried nonetheless. We saw several types of herons and egrets, the flamingos, some Killdeer, and plovers.

In the afternoon we drove out to Highlands Bay and went for a snorkel from the shore. The water is very green and murky over there (due to the prevailing current and extensive sea grass beds), but the there are really interesting coral formations with tunnels and caves all throughout. Here are a few of the pictures from there:

Eagle Ray

Eagle Ray

Eagle Ray

A large brain coral

This morning Jessee got up really early to head for the airport. She'll be spending the day in Provo, greeting the students as they arrive (!). They're coming already! It's hard to believe.

Water-Based Activities

I've been on two dives so far - one yesterday and one this past Thursday. Well technically, three (my dive computer registered a short, 2 minute, dive in shallow water while I was demonstrating that I knew the basic skills: mask clearing, regulator retrieval and purge, and buddy breathing). At the risk of being repetitive, the water is amazing. My computer recorded a water temperature of 84°F on both dives. I didn't even need my wet suit. And visibility must be 200 feet! Even better is that the lack of tourism in the area means that the dive sites are empty and undisturbed. Careless divers can do serious damage to coral.


The first dive was at The Arch, which is a natural coral formation that arches over the sea floor. We even swam through it. It's about 10 feet high, 20 or 30 feet wide, and about 20 feet long. The abundance of marine life is a little hard to believe. There's more coral and fish than I've ever seen (the only one I can identify so far is the Squirrel Fish). I just wish my underwater camera case was good enough to withstand those depths, so I could show you some of them here. We also had a brief Reef Shark siting, and a fantastic look at a Hawksbill Turtle (a "critically endangered" species). The Hawksbill hovered a little above us and swam away as I tried to keep up. It's the first sea turtle I've ever gotten a good look at.

Squirrel Fish

Hawksbill Turtle

Yesterday I dove at a site called Spanish Chain, which is named for the massive (10 ft?) anchor and and chain lodged in the sea floor. I was wondering where the ship full of gold that it was connected to ended up (apparently, there are two known Spanish shipwrecks in the area). Visibility, I was told just before going under, was a bit poor today. Funny, I could see about 100 feet or more. On this dive we got a close look at a Sting Ray (in addition to the 100s of fish I can't yet identify and loads of coral). For about half of the dive we traveled along a "wall," which is an undersea cliff that drops off quite dramatically, I believe, to over 800 feet (which is nothing compared to the east side of the island where it drops off to 8000 feet). All you can see over the edge is a deep blue color. It was a bit less intimidating than I expected though. I've never dove at a wall before, and I always imagined being terrified of whatever large creature might be lurking below. We also swam over the island's telephone cable. It's strange to think people had to physically lay cables under the oceans before the advent of wireless systems. Will (an intern and dive instructor) and Jan (another intern) have been nice enough to take me out on these dives and help refresh my skills.

On Friday, between the two dives, Jessee and I went for a snorkel over to the nearby Dove Cay. It's probably a bit more than 300 meters from South Caicos to the Cay, but not a super difficult. Jessee was worried about me because I'm not the strongest swimmer, but when you have a mask and snorkel it's much easier to stay calm and conserve energy. It doesn't get that deep there either, and the reef makes the deep parts look pretty shallow too. It's amazing how much you can see from the surface; all the same fish and brilliant coral species. We had a huge Barracuda following us for the last bit before the Cay. They're pretty curious fish, I gather. On the way back we saw the biggest (and scariest looking) crab I've ever seen! I didn't want to get anywhere near its claws, which were bigger than my hands. The Cay is just a small rock outcropping, but a nice place for a salty picnic.

You might have noticed I've created a new "gadget" on the sidebar of this blog (unless, of course, you've been reading these posts through email or a feed reader instead of at the website). It's my "dive (b)log." It's good practice to log all of your SCUBA dives, so I've written an application that reads my logbook and publishes my dives on this blog. It's not up yet, but I'll be activating it soon.