Check dive. Required by resort prior to using equipment/tanks. Buoyancy was OK with full tank in 3mm suit, but with empty tank struggled to stay down. No empty's around to do proper check prior to dive. Add 2# next dive. Good dive to get familiar with salt water, shore diving and Nitrox. At 47' visibility was great. Many species of fish, including lionfish, trumpetfish, parrotfish.

Recreational dive, went South first from mooring line towards Bari Reef, and into the current on the way back. Tougher than would have liked, and learned to plan for the current; usually go into it first. Better gas consumption rate. Saw my first shark today; a reef shark ~8-10 feet long. Better buoyancy during dive, but again struggled on a low tank in 3mm suit. Add 2# more on next dive in 3mm.

Switched to dive skin for evening dives. 16# was a good weight with nice buoyancy. 3rd Nitrox dive to test tolerance. Had a little irritation at the end. Will stick to only 2 Nitrox dives in a row then go to air. 1st dive with the GoPro also. Good hover practice while taking pix. More new fish, including a sharptail eel and need to buy a guide book. Dive skin was warm and comfortable. Longest dive to date at 58 mins.

1st night dive. Skins and 16# worked great. Back to air for this dive. BigBlue TL3500P light on glove gave good point illumination; more than enough, and penetrated the dark water nicely. 4-5' long Tarpon use our lights to hunt...way cool. Saw our first wreck (La Machaca) to the north at 35'. Big crab under it. Saw a few eels and lots of bait fish running from the light (& Tarpons).

In dive skins. Spent most of the dive with the GoPro shooting pictures, practicing hovering and breath control. Good dive, though visibility was lower until ~25-30', then it was back to excellant.

Easy swim South towards Bari Reef, cloudier water than norm, but still good close in. Warm in the skins and weight was good.

New off site shore diving location at the Alice in Wonderland site. Rocky entry, with mooring line at 25'. Very cloudy water with lots of tidal surge (check the tables next time...). Good navigation practice. Conservative out and back along the crest of the reef due to lack of familiarity and cloudy water. Just meant extra time once back at the mooring line to explore that local area looking for sights.

Early morning dive for the transition from night to daylight. Many new fish and creatures during the changeover. Surge was strong. Started deeper, then worked our way back up. Photo Ops were plentiful. Stayed pretty local and focused on pictures. Ust the GoPro light for pix and the BigBlue to spot items of interest. Saw a huge green Moray Eel (~6').

In skins. Went South to Bari Reef. No cameras. With the current on the way out, so turned around prior to 1/3 rule to give buffer. Saw our first green sea turtle on the way out. As expected, a tough swim sometimes on the way back into the current and the surge, but managed gas well with the early turn around and made it to mooring line with 1200 PSI, with 500 PSI avail to explore locally.

Went North from the mooring line to the wreck at 25-50'. Deep around the initial swim and wreck, a little shallower on the way in, and a short return deeper at the end. safety swim and stop done. Many lionfish today!

Went South towards Bari Reef, lots of new sights (coral and fish) as we went deeper longer on the way out. Rockfish, Frogfish, and Spotted Moray Eel, along with many Trunkfish and Porcupinefish.

Transition dive from twilight to night, with the GoPro. Quite a few shots with the GoPro light. Ones using the BigBlue primary light have hot spots. More eels, peacock flounders and parrotfish. Getting better at hovering and positioning for pictures.

Slept in today. Went with the current South towards Bari Reef. Deep start out, shallowrer return started before 1/3 rule kicked in. Lots of new coral and bigger fish at 35-45'. Saw a Spotted Eagle Stingray at ~30' on the return swim. Feeling more comfortable with deeper swims. Just need more exposure to them.

Deeper start and with April in the lead to the North towards Captain Don's Habitat and the wreck. Beautiful looking down the wall, but few pix on the way out into the current. Pix at the wreck and on the return. Almost a drift dive at times on the return. Good gas left so lots of local swimming and pix around the mooring line. Big blue parrotfish at the end was new.

Twilight dive. Fun dive towards the South, mostly drifting on the way out, and into the current on the way back. Saw a 15+ minute long river of blue fish with black mouths running South to North. Unbelievable how many fish there were! Of course no cameras on this swim... I led out and April led back, working on nav and maintaining depth. Very fun dive.

Night dive to the wreck (La Machaca) and a bit beyond; past Captain Don's mooring line and the flag memorial to him. Not many fish on the way there that were not hiding in teh coral. Tarpons met us at the wreck and stayed with us until we got out of the water. Got back to the start point early, so spent ~20 mins pretty much stationary, watching the Tarpons chase our lights and the fish they stirred up. Got chilled from staying still so long and not generating heat. Probably wear 3mm later in the days if we're going to do this again.

Fun dive, no cameras. Swam North and made it all the way to Capt Don's flag memorial again. Farthest swim yet that direction, and had stayed ~25' to do so, with April leading. Turn around at 1/3, even with drift back, so plenty of air left at mooring line. Played locally and saw more sand dollars than previously and a decent sized sharptail eel. April is doing well on nav and depth control.

Dive to the South along the ridgeline/wall drop off. Cool coral formations and almost a drift dive again. Saw large Morays, more Sharptail Eels, French Angelfish. Tough finning back, but more than 1/3 left after turning around at 1/3 used. More local swimming upon return.

3mm suit and upped weight to 21# (one weight I thought was a 3 was a 4#, so 21 vice 20). Another fun dive towards the North. Saw more BIG lionfish, crabs, and multiple Sharptail Eels. April led and shot pix, while I monitored depth and air. Good solid dive, though still need some weight with the empty tank... Adding 3# next dive.

3mm suit and 24#. Finally manageable buoyancy at the end of the dive! Went North again with me in the lead and taking photos, April monitored depth and gas. Saw the river of fish again, but in the twilight dive, with them at 70', my GoPro couldn't get a decent picture of it, so tried a video but got an SD card error and lost the video. Frustrated with the GoPro, got back with plenty of air, but got out early.

Night dive with cloudier than normal water. Lots of up and down, looking into crevices. Some massive Lionfish, our first octopus, a spiny lobster, more eels, and some crabs tonight. Fewer Tarpons than usual tonight. Nice relaxing dive, even into the current we reached the wreck with 500 PSI to spare before the 1/3 rule turnaround, so we explored to our farthest North point yet. One of our best feeling dives yet. Think we're learning to relax both our finning and our breathing.

New shore dive site, North of Buddy Dive a bit; The Cliff. Rocky entry, but manageable. Easy dive. Swam North from the pipe guiding us out to the big anchor chain that marks the North end of the site. Saw both a large and small Green Sea Turtle, a Southern Stingray, and a spiny lobster. Swim back was easy. Lots of time for pix on both ends of the dive.

Second dive at The Cliff site. Enjoyable dive. Saw juvenile Spotted Drums, a young Green Sea Turtle in staghorn coral, along with a Rockfish at ~45-48'. Another fun dive, headed North first and drifting back. Up and down to an extent for photo ops. 3mm suits again.

Last dive of the trip, done in dive skins. Easy slow dive to get photos of morning critters. Saw many types of eels, a Barracuda, a couple of large Porcupinefish, lots of Butterfly and Angelfish, Damselfish, Snappers and Grunts. Many other species all week long. Good work on hovering for pix and relaxed breathing rate.