Being a divemaster candidate I cannot underestimate the experience I had at Little Cayman Beach Resort and Reef Divers who are a superlative organisation.

French and queen angel fish abound as do butterfly fish, hamlets, file fish, rock beauty, balloonfish and cowfish.

All stages of the spotted drum are abundant and don't hide from view. Of the fairy basslets, I saw a totally yellow bodied one with only the tail and dorsal fin purple. Black durgons, various parrotfish, grunts and groupers abound.

The Nassau Grouper (2) at one site: Benji and "mini-me" were phenomenal as it seemed they sought out our contact and was the first time in 150 dives I would/could touch, pet, stroke and scratch a marine creature. It was awesome!!

From the sailfin blenny to the reef and nurse sharks, all were a delight. Gardens of brown garden eels to single queen triggerfish; schools of blue tang/surgeon fish to trumpetfish or a spotted trunkfish. Pillar coral, elkhorn or brain interspersed with every conceivable sponge type (with the orange spawn) complete with brittle stars inside. Plenty of squirrelfish to satisfy the Nassau Groupers. Moray and spotted eels stay low as the stringrays and golden rays dance low and high while the loggerhead turtles go from surface to sand. Spotted eagle rays glide by as do the barracuda (more curious than not). Scorpionfish on coral heads are found while searching for octupi homes at the base. Sea urchins, arrow crabs, file clams and Carribbean spiny lobster vie for a search with the scorpionfish and nudibranchs. And if you find a brown seahorse, mark its location!!

The massive number of squids (squidrons) was a never before seen occurance, yet a pair of them apart from the group seemed rather intrigued with us - 2 divers - and spent a great deal of time being pink/light lavendar with white spots swimming around us until we departed.

The diving has been fantastic here at Little Cayman. I have never seen so many Queen Triggerfish. The great visibility really shows the colours of the Queen Triggerfish and Black durgons. The groupers are plentiful and friendly. Many divers had a great time petting Mini-Me and Benji. The french angelfish are huge!! We've seen the most eagle rays than any other Carribbean destingation. They are very calm around divers. I saw one of my favours - the scribbled filefish - two times.

The blue chromis are very plentiful and the fairy basslet are the the most plentiful. They are wonderful! We've seen some reef sharks and their tag-a-long fish (I didn't know they had groupies!) The yellowhead jawfish are really cool! Porcupinefish have been seen on most afternoon dives.

It was cool to see the residue of the orange sponges spawning. I haven't seen black sponges before. The many anchors often had great brain coral growing around them and other types of coral. Great photos of those.

Nancy

Sun 7-23-2006 Mixing Bowl

water temp 82-84 F depth 78 ft

I am last in line and 5 or 6 barracuda following me!

Butterfly fish, chromis, conch, star coral, black coral, spotted drum at barrel sponge, beautiful durgeon every where, spotted eel, gobi, 2 grouper at cleaning station, grunts, bar jacks, 9 million jawfish . . love those little fearless guys.

Lobster, parrot fish, squirrel fish, snapper, sponges of all kinds, teeny trunk fish . . very cute

Hhawksbill turtle, wrasse - bluehead and yellowhead

Monday July 24, 2006

Nancy's Cup of Tea

water temp 82-84 F, depth 106 ft

Giant Anemone

HUGE French Angel fish, conch, black coral, flaming scallop (a first for me)

Sea cucumbers, sponges of all types and colors . . blue vase, rope, encrusting, stove pipe,
elephant ear, barrel sponge, hawksbille turtle

This is a large pinnacle with swim throughs and a very nice safety stop area.

Monday July 24, 2006 Sarah's Set

82-84 F . . . visibility 100 ft +, depth 65 ft

Giant anemone (blue, green), butterfly fish, chromis, conch (little eyes peering out), coral of all types . . green finger coral, durgeons
goat fish, grouper, school of bar jacks . . as they are moving along, one in front goes to the rear of the formation (like geese flying in formation).

THE LARGEST LOBSTER I'VE EVER SEEN. 10 lbs ???

Stingray buried in sand and then later we see him take off, sea cucumbers, brittle star, urchin, wrasse

Nikki is a great divemaster!

Eagle Ray Roundup July 22, 2006

water temp 82-84 F, visibility 100 ft + , at 78 ft

Fish seen - barracuda, butterfly fish, blue chromis, conch, star coral, green finger coral, feather crinoids, parrot fish, stingray, sergeant major, squirrel fish, hawksbill turtle, bluehead and yellowhead wrasse - neat swim through . . . but don't be the last one through!!

Lots of flying fish on the boat ride to the dive site.

July 22, 2006 Ringers Wall

HUGE French Angel fish

Two large barracuda, one VERY large - 4-5 ft ??

Fish seen - butterfly fish, chromis, conch, brain coral, arrow crab, crinoids, juvenile spotted drum (cool!), lots of durgeon (beautiful), gobi, grouper, lizard fish,
parrot fish, a sleeping rock hind . . . a Caribbean reef shark that circled around and came up under us . . pretty close . .
squirrel fish, blue vase sponges (lovely), barrel sponges, bright yellow encrusting sponge ??, a VERY large Ocean trigger fish, one urchin, wrasse

Ggreat dive . . easy cruising along the wall . . dive guide says stay in the top 100 ft of the bottom (off the 8000 ft drop) or you will have eternal
bottom time :-)

Sunday July 23 Randy's Gazebo

Fish seen - barracuda, butterfly fish, chromis, conch, star coral, crinoids, . . . bearded fire worm ( a new one for me), gobi, a HUGE grouper just as you go over the wall from the mooring, grunts needle fish by the dock, a large octopus hanging on to coral tightly . . he
looked scared, right below him a puffer, parrot fish, sea cucumber (donkey dong . . gotta love that name), squirrel fish, snapper (mahogany & yellowtail), sponges of all types - blue vase, barrel, elephant ear, brittle star, large Ocean trigger fish, hawksbill turtle hangs close by for a bit. Only saw one urchin.

It was my first dive after being certified. The Wisconsin group that I came with told me many stories of their dives at different locations. I, of course, was excited about our trip and hoping to see some of the wonderful marine life they were telling me about.

After we went down, you could see some barrel sponges. Sharon, my roommate, saw a black one. It was the first time she saw a black barrel sponge. The most exciting for me was watching a green sea turtle. I was able to get inches away from him. He wasn't nervous about us being in the water at all. The turtle just hung around for a while and then slowly swam away.

The dive masters told us about two huge grouper fish. I didn't see those; but on the last dive of the day, a grouper swam right by me. Right behind him was a small nurse shark. He was the cutest thing!

Two people in our party saw a lobster all sprawled out. I would have liked to see that, but there are many more dives ahead. I'm looking forward to finding one on my next dive.

Beside all the animals I have told you about, there were also tons of other fish and coral. Coming from a state which is cold for six months of the year, it is amazing to watch these beautiful animals.

Roxanne Eggersgluess

This week Bluewater Divers and SeaLevel Dive arrived on Little Cayman with it seems 2 things in mind - doing a night dive and diving the Captain Keith Tibbetts Russian Frigate on Cayman Brac.

Due to Cayman Islands law we can only allow a maximum of 20 people on each boat and with this in mind, two full boats were sent out on each trip this week.

Lying between 45ft and 100ft, the Captain Keith Tibbetts is suitable for any diver from novice to the more advance. In 1996 it was sunk specifically for scuba divers, and our guests have certainly been making the most of it. At around 43ft long, it makes an easy wreck dive, with hardly any current and visibility between 70 and 120ft. Penetrating the vessel is possible for the more adventurous diver.

As for the night dive tonight, with two boats going out, guests have a choice of dive sites - another wreck (the Soto Trader) or the wall itself..... whichever site they dive, we can guarantee one to remember.

As you can see from our last blog entry, we've had some fantastic diving recently and can only hope for more of the same in the week to come.

We unfortunately had to wave goodbye to Eels on Wheels after a funfilled night of karaoke on Friday, but we welcome the Dive Addicts group and all new guests who start diving today and look forward to hearing their vacation reports at the end of the week.

We've already had lots of interest in Tuesday and Thursday's night dives so if Mother Nature plays along we should be able to pay The Soto Trader a visit one night this week and see some of the huge Parrot Fish that have been hanging around there lately.

It looks like the wind will be picking up considerably by Thursday so maybe we wont make it to The Russian Frigate over on Cayman Brac, but we can keep our fingers crossed.

The sun is blazing and the ocean looks as alluring as ever - bring on another incredible week of diving on Bloody Bay Wall!!