Breakfast was poached eggs and good company. Everyone was getting along really well, it was a great group of people! The dive site for the morning was Long Cay Ridge, a wall that sloped off gently with a few cuts in the coral. We swam along the wall at about 70 feet, seeing some coral, a juvenile spotted drum and a banded shrimp along the way. Up on top of the ridge we swam back towards the boat and saw a small turtle gliding along. We followed him for a while, trying to get in front of him for a good picture. We ended up seeing him two more times on the way back to the boat, we were both zig-zagging so our paths kept crossing. We played with the yellow tails under the boat on our safety stop, then climbed back aboard.

Stovepipe Sponge

Banded Shrimp

Juvenile Spotted Drum

Little Turtle

For the next dive we did pretty much the same thing, just in the opposite direction. We saw many of the same fish, though the coral on this site didn't seem to be in as good condition as some of the others. The captain said it was mainly due to storm damage over the last number of years.

Queen Triggerfish

The little turtle again

Rick gets up close with the turtle

Randy snaps a shot

For lunch we had spaghetti and cream of chicken soup. Rick found the last piece of key lime pie just before lunch and the sugar coma had him heading upstairs for a nap right after lunch. Randy sat out on the sun deck to try to get a little bit of color. It was pretty quiet on the boat for a while, everyone was napping. When 2pm rolled around everyone made their way to the dive deck and we had a briefing on a site named cathedral, which gets it's name from the deep cuts in the coral. As we swam along the wall we saw a group of brittle stars all concentrated on a sponge, then we saw some jawfish backed down into the sand. They were fun to watch as they would rise out of their holes when you backed away, and then back into them when you got close.

Hogfish on duty at a cleaning station

Large soft sponge

Randy hides behind the coral

Queen Angelfish

On the second dive Chris went down with us to show us some small stuff. He found a tiny decorator crab that looked like a piece of lint on a soft coral. Then he somehow found a tiny little skeleton shrimp tucked in on the edge of a piece of coral. We were pretty sure he keeps a stash of them in known places to show people, how else could he have found it? On the way back to the boat we saw another trumpet fish and a barracuda.

Brittlestars on a sponge

Ocean Triggerfish

Rock Beauty

Jawfish popping up out of the sand

For dinner we had a turkey and all the fixings, just like Thanksgiving, it was really good. The service was great, Sam even brought Rick a pillow when he started to take a nap at the table after dessert. After dinner we moved out to the lounge and watched a video that Chris had shot during the week, and a slide show from Caroline (complete with special guest appearances from Yvonka!). Everyone had a good laugh and it was fun to see snippets from the week. It had gone by too quickly!

Sea Fan

Decorator Crab

Sleeping Grouper

Sting Ray

For our last night dive Rick was once again determined to find an octopus. We decided to concentrate on the numerous cuts in the coral under the boat. Gina decided to go in with us, hoping Rick would be successful. We swam around for a while, with lots of Tarpon zipping around in the shadows, almost bumping us a couple of times. We even saw one chasing a small fish, trying to catch dinner. We saw a sting ray in the sand and watched it for a bit, then moved on and saw lots of urchins all over the coral. We were just about to give up when Rick started to wave his light, he had found an octopus! Randy and Gina swam over and started to take pictures. We also signaled some of the other divers to come over, and soon we had an audience. The octopus performed for us, tenting over coral and looking for food. We finally were able to signal Howard who came over with the HD camera and started to film. The octopus kept feeding, going from one spot to the next. He didn't seem to care that we were watching. At one point we could see a big commotion underneath him and we were pretty sure he'd caught a fish. Then he made his way back to his den, up under a rock. Click here to see a video of the octopus! All told we must have watched him for 20 minutes.

The tarpons zipped out of the dark

Sea Urchin crawling along slowly

Large octopus

Looking for food

Back on board the boat we were all really excited as were many of the other passengers who had also seen the whole show. "Octopus Hunter Rick" had certainly lived up to his name! We reviewed the pictures and the videotape and were really happy with what we saw. What an amazing display for our last night dive! After staying up and chatting with everyone, we made our way up to our cabin around 10:30 and fell sound asleep.