Dive report for Destin/Panama City August 1-2

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Puffer Fish

Captain Happy
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Scuba Instructor
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Location
Knoxville, TN
# of dives
Sadly, I don't think my pictures are up to my standards this trip.. I had a charger fail on one side and resulted in half the batteries on one side not being charged correctly.. I found the issue, but a simple recharge did not do the trick. (it messes up the strobe firing). but I do have some images.

Sat was a night dive on bridge span #1...and Saturday was the usual sea cobra trip to shoreline reef and the suckey main rubble pile (I actually like the east rubble pile, but we never go there as it is way out of the way, normally)

Sat was with Wayward Son.

I was joined on Sunday by SCUBA066, and Jay (who brought a friend).

First off, these are some great people to dive with...so even if the diving had sucked (which it didn't), it would have been fun.
 
Sat was a leave St Andrews at around 5:30... go out, tie in and do a dive, wait till dark and repeat.

I used one tank for both dives (as I would not have time to get tanks filled for Sunday morning).

Some of the night dive pictures:

Anenome700.jpg


Drum700.jpg


crab705.jpg


crab700.jpg


crab701.jpg
 
Note: the orange picture above is a crab.. just in case it is not obvious.

Drive back to Destin, get there at 12:00... get to sleep and 1 am and up and 5:30... ah, the joy of the weekend relaxation.

Met all the guys.. down to the boat... I loan Jay my other 133 cf tank, and I use my 117's.

20 people on the boat.. winds a bit higher than forecast.. this may be an interesting dive trip.
 
Now a problem.. the sea up and the wind is blowing pretty good.... problem is, holding a reef in this wind.. which is why Nancy went th shoreline.. as it runs north and south.. but it is a bit small for 20 people... 10 are perfect.

Note: I used different batteries, so the flash control was not an issue.

I love this reef.. lots of life.. lots of interesting stuff...

First thing we find:

Octo704.jpg


Then all the usual stuff..

baitfish700.jpg


Blenny700.jpg


batfish701.jpg


toadfish700.jpg


lizardfish700.jpg


Then after everyone left, I saw another lizard fish grab one of the little bait ball guys.. he was still breathing when this was taken:

lizardfish702.jpg
 
The bat fish, by the way, was spotted by Scuba066..he also found a octo still eating a big crab.. but my picture sort of sucked.. which is a shame..

Octo705.jpg


However, the photo gods put a Sea Goddess in just the right place for a picture:

Nudi700.jpg
 
The anchor had a lot of damsels on it:

damsel701.jpg


So, after a very long dive and 2 minutes left till deco.. Jay and I headed up...(big tanks are wonderful things)

Onto the rocking boat.. and several unhappy people.
 
Off to the rubble pile... what joy.

Well I did get some new fish pictures... not necessarily attractive fish, but fish ID ones:

fish702.jpg


fish703.jpg


Cocoa Damsels and back to being their nasty selves...and will attack .. as this one is about to do:

damsel702.jpg


The anchor had gotten wedged under a piece of concrete guard rail.. and as it pulled on the 20 ft long piece.. there were Octo's coming out about every 4 ft.. took this one.. notice the stuff on his head:

Octo703.jpg


At the end of the dive, I found a flounder, which had a tragic accident with my knife...

Seas had calmed a bit and we headed back..

All and all a very nice weekend.
 
Those are AMAZING pix!!!! Looks like you are shooting with a strobe and are shooting in Macro.

Pretty much... the water was a lot more messed up than it shows.. I use the zoom control for framing...some are shot all the way to maximum.
 
Absoutely phantastic photos. I love the sand diver with the fish in its mouth. Great report - Thanks!!
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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