Diving In

We had an early wake up call on Friday at 7am.  We had breakfast and got ready for our first dive at a site called Challenger Bay.  We would have a briefing before each dive where the trip director would draw the dive site on a dry erase board, explain the different features of the site and what kinds of sea life we may see.  We got geared up and jumped in. Here's some of what we saw:

Giant Clam



Anemonefish (Nemo's cousin)



Beautiful blue coral

I loved seeing the Anemonefish peeking out from their anemones.  Some even had babies with them.

Many-spotted Sweetlips fish at a cleaner station.

Dives two and three for the day were at Cod Hole.  These dive were special because we got to see huge potato cod that were four feet long.  We also saw blue sea stars, a barracuda, moray eel, and our first sharks of the trip!

Potato Cod

Potato Cod

Barracuda



We had lunch between dives two and three and rested until dive four which was a night dive.  The dive site was called Archway.  We had underwater flashlights and glow sticks attached to our tanks.  We saw an epaullette shark, large turtle, and a giant clam opening and closing.

It was a great first day of diving.  We also had the opportunity to learn about underwater photography from the photography crew member and a professional underwater photographer who was on the trip.  They each gave short lectures in the lounge area and were available to answer any photography questions people had.  We had dinner after the night dive-it was pasta night and went to bed early.  We were exhausted and needed to get ready for five dives the next day.