Saturday, December 27, 2008

Suck 'em Up Scuba

Austin is doing great on his fourth descent free diving down to the bottom! GREAT JOB AUSTIN!
My favorite part of a two tank dive when I have my kids aboard is when I actually get to scuba dive! The mooring we tied to was called "Lone Tree Arch" the site is adjacent to another mooring called "Suck 'em up." It is a cave system that has blow holes at the surface.
When the surge is strong you can see what they call champagne bubbles in particular areas of the cave that when the waves hit along the shoreline, if you are in that area, you are literally shot out of the cave toward the surface. Today, however, the surge was not an issue and Austin and I were able to travel into the larger cave body of "Suck 'em up."
Sometimes in this location there are white tip reef sharks that sleep in a sheltered sand bed in the cave, unfortunately they were not there today but last time I dove this site I was able to see them. I followed this beautiful specimen of a threadfin butterfly fish trying to capture a picture and although this blog photo currently doesn't do many of the pictures justice, I will work when I get home to make them more vivid and larger.
I learned to use the video on the underwater camera on this dive and captured Austin exploring
the ocean bottom.
We were able to pick up a few items as well. Dean picked up this starfish like creature...I still need to look up it's real name.
I took a photo of a greenish colored Crown of Thorns Starfish, not something you would want to pick up.
Austin found the skeleton of a collector sea urchin and we brought it home.
In a crevice we spied an octopus as it in turn spied us out of it's small dwelling. After a long day of Scuba all you need is a Coke and a smile! :)

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