SURVIVOR ROATAN, Dateline: CoCoView, Day 5, 20 May, 2004
Another crummy day in paradise.
Last night we chowed down on roast pork and salads, some folks had the seafood, and we digested for a few minutes
before we headed for th 8pm night dive. Not many folks here to do it, it was just us three from Chicago- so we ‘had it
all to ourselves’. Seems that many from Rusty’s Salt Lake City group went to Geo’s Restaurant in nearby French
Harbour.
We found several critters in the shallows, right as we began our dive. Lots of large brown Shrimp (excuse the
technical nomenclature there) , many 3” in length, plus many smaller ones including Banded Coral Shrimp, tiny baby
Caribbean Lobsters, and lots of dazed, sleepy fish.
We found a 10” Parrot Fish in his cocoon, they spin this mucous bubble when they really want to get into a deep
sleep. It costs them a lot of energy to do this, and they are very zonked- so one never touches the outer membrane that
encases them- lest they be spooked and have to return to alert. These are fairly common if you keep looking, but it’s
always good to explain to others what they might see- as the membrane is fairly transparent and escapes the notice of
most divers at first glance.
As we went out on the chain that connects CoCo View to the Prince Albert, alert divers noticed 2” Octopus being as
cautious as any 2” creature might be. They didn’t stick around long to be examined!
At the buoy where we hang the CCV Strobe Light to mark the channel, it becam apparent that one of our group had
neglected to take his weights. While he was on the surface coming slowly to the realization that he had fubar’d his
dive, he got zapped by a Box Jelly, which he was lucky enough to see before it popped him. He returned ashore, got
his Dee DooRag, his weights and rejoined us at the Prince Albert.
While he did that, we went East to CoCo View Wall and at 32fsw, there they were, the Yellow Cup Coral. Photos
were taken and we headed back WSW to the Prince Albert for the remainder of our dive. Along the way we
encountered a huge 11” Slipper Lobster that enjoyed the things our lights attracted.
On the Prince Albert wreck, we also fed Crabs with the critters that our lights attracted. This is undoubtedly why the
corals and Basket Stars on the PA Wreck grow so large so very quickly- many divers feed them simply by looking at
them with flashlights, inadvertantly attracting miniscule things that they eat.
It was there that our ‘weightless friend’ rejoined us and we immediately saw a 10” (fully ballooned up) Caribbean
Octopus. He was as skittish as most smaller specimens are, and although he did extend a tentative probing touch with
his tentacle, he wasn’t much for interaction. He did put on quite a display- I think he knew that he was caught in the
“bowl” formed by the smokestack of the ship. It’s an oval about 4x7’ and 3’ deep. He puffed up and then got small,
he went from turqouise blue to brick red before he had enough and slithered through a tiny crack into his hidey-hole.
We also found a tiny 2” Slipper Lobster and a 5” Bristle Worm. The return trip also offered a fleeting glimpse of two
Squid that decided they didn’t want to deal with divers tonight.
This morning, we jumped ship and went with Jessee and Richard to Lita’s Hole and Window to the Valley. Quite
often, Richard will do two moored boat dives instead of the usual plan. In that I had seen neither of these two dive
sites, we went along and checked them out. Jessee has a great eye, and although he picked out numerous Sea Horses
and Spotted Drums, he was leading a pretty tough crowd- they had seen it all. They did however enjoy the several
Juvenile Spotted Drums and the free swimming Green Morays- we had a 4 and 5 footer. We saw an Arrow Blenny
and Scorpionfish as well.
The Afternoon Boat dive took us to the new “Mr. Bud” Wreck. She is a 90’ shrimper placed in 55-70 of water at the
bottom. She offers multiple points of entry and exits as she had been prepped by torch wielding divemasters before
her final placement in September 2003. There is already considerable growth, mostly due to her shallow placement,
but also because of her decaying status before sinking. Critters like little nooks and crannies provided by rusting and
rusted thru structural members. The day dive showed us that she was absolutely lousy with Banded Coral Shrimp.
There seemed to be a lot of plant life, the lower level ‘skoogy’ variety beginning to take hold.
Some other boats reported a 9’ free swimming Nurse Shark, and others went off site to dive with the “Shark Dive”.
They not only had a good Shark feed, but they also did some swimming with the Sharks. I want to hear more about
that!
We did a ‘drop off’ dive on the way back to CCV on CoCoView Wall and were not disappointed. Captain Randy
from Texas did the full swim, but we opted for the “Geezer Drop Off” which was about 1/2 of the standard distance.
Still, we managed to find three widely seperated Juvenile Spotted Drums (Dee, maybe they moved?), numerous
Flounders for ‘Herself’ to annoy, plus the single most aggressive Banded Jaw Fish I have yet to encounter. She
found this little tyrant safe in his excavated hole surrounded precisely by butressing pebbles. A flashlight would
expose him at the bottom, jaw wide open like a Whale! He was showing us who was boss in no uncertain terms!
On the way in, “Herself” tried on the new Hydro-Optix wide angle mask and decided immediately that it was hers to
keep. We’ll have to negotiate that one.
We’re planning for our Thursday night dive, and looking forward to one last boat dive on Friday morning. I am not in
this crowd, as I have gloated about previously- I have another week. Everyone received their ‘CCV Eviction Papers’
today- the paperwork that explains your departure... except for me
Tough luck.
