Just under two weeks left here! I'm trying to make the most of it by diving every day. Tomorrow I'm going to the east coast, which is really exciting because I've never been diving there before! I've also borrowed a fancy-pants GoPro camera, so hopefully I'll have some cool videos to share after the dive. I just want to see some turtles and rays!
There's trouble in paradise, though--my new wetsuit has a hole in it! About a week after I got here, I realized that my old 3mm wetsuit wasn't going to cut it because I came out of the water shivering after every dive. I spent $200 on a new 5mm wetsuit, and even though it's a wee bit too small, I love it because it keeps me warm. But just two months later, it's got a big hole in the neck!
Booo, poor worksmanship.
Alright, alright, I admit, it's not really that big of a deal. But it's brand new and the hole is in a place with no load or tension, which is odd. I contacted Bare (the wetsuit maker) and they've agreed that it's under warranty and will fix it when I get home. Phew!
Less fortunate was my Sealife underwater camera. Before I went to Bonaire in 2011 I shelled out $800 for a Sealife 1200 Elite, which came with the underwater housing, special camera with underwater settings, and a strobe flash. Just 3 years later, the camera's sensor is failing (meaning that I get big lines through every photo I take) and the flash no longer delivers charge (meaning, no flash). Sealife has generously (harhar) offered to fix it for $500. Considering that I could buy a whole new and up-to-date rig for $800, that's not a great deal. Plus, why would I buy another Sealife camera if it's only going to last three years? Better to save up my money for a proper DSLR housing. How incredibly disappointing!
But other than my gear misfortunes, everything has been wonderful. The weather is fabulous, the diving is fantastic, and I'm happy as a clam! I've been out taking lots more photos with my point-and-shoot camera in its plastic-bag housing. I can't wait till the day when I can finally afford a proper underwater housing for my DSLR! (Although by the time that actually happens, I'll probably need a new camera too. Those housings are about $4000, and that's before you buy the camera and flashes!) I really love taking photos because I can see details on the creatures that I never would have noticed otherwise. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do! :)
First up, seahorses! We've got a few seahorses floating around in front of the dive shop I work at, but for the past few days it's only been Ricky. We call him Ricky because he is red, the same color as a certain British dive instructor in the sun. (My divemaster instructor, actually!)
Redband parrotfish.
This porcupinefish was kind of aggressive! Mostly they swim away from you and you rarely see the mouth, but this guy was all up in my face.
"Yeah? Yeah? You want a piece of this?"
Ocean surgeonfish. I love the blue tips of the dorsal fins and around the eyes.
This here is an orange-spotted filefish. It's a type of unicornfish, a group of fishes that gets their name from the horn on their heads. The horn comes up when they're alarmed. They've also got pretty decent teeth, so I try not to get too close.
Pretty!
Such pretty faces! They look glittery!
Take a look at the mouth and you'll see some teeth.
Arrow crab.
These are baby parrotfish of some kind. Possibly striped or princess?
They swim with the pectoral fins, and they're awfully cute.
Lots of chromis and a few other fishes on top of coral heads.
A long, skinny fireworm!
A saddled blenny.
I saw a conch! Or at least, I think it's a conch. It appears to be hiding out in some sort of underground shell, as opposed to the normal conch shell. It's like a little elephant alien because its nose is extendable and just ruts around for food.
Look at those eyes.
I found an itty-bitty lionfish that still had the spots!
Saddled Blenny again.
Bicolor damselfish! It's a bit of a misnomer because most of the ones here are actually three colors.
This is a juvenile of a threespot damselfish.
Same juvenile threespot damselfish.
A three-rowed sea cucumber!
Lettuce slug, a type of nudibranch.
A juvenile clown wrasse.
You already saw the orange-spotted filefish, but here's its cousin, the white-spotted filefish! The white-spotted one is about twice as big as the orange-spotted.
Tail detail.
It's easy to confuse the orange- and white-spotted filefish because they're both orange and white.
Uhhh, look at those teeth.
Good thing they're pretty unicornfishes!
This little guy is the size of my thumb. Sharpnose puffers are very common here.
Sand diver.
Tobaccofish!
He looks angry.
And what kind of a name is 'tobaccofish,' anyway? There's no tobacco underwater.
Schoolmaster snappers.
More photos of Ricky the seahorse! Ricky lives at about 35 feet, and my camera doesn't like to go that deep. Apparently the pressure sucks all the juice out of the battery, because even if it's full when I dive down, I can only get a few shots of Ricky before the battery flashes red. But I've got extra batteries, and Ricky's worth it!
Can you spot Ricky in this photo?
Ricky lives in a cluster of rope sponges, which he wraps his tail around. Seahorses have prehensile tails, like little underwater monkeys. (Or should I say, sea monkeys?)
Those little white things everywhere are fish larvae.
Ricky blends in very well with his rope sponges.
A photo without flash. He looks more red in real life though.
He's kinda dirty and covered in algae. Makes for good camouflage, I suppose.
I've even got a short video of Ricky:
This is a rough fileclam. It looks like something from a scary movie.
Jolthead porgy!
Ooh, more nudibranches. Loving what the macro lens does for this guy.
This is the head.
A long skinny one.
See? They do look like slugs up close.
Last but not least, a baby palometa! (Not to be confused with 'palomino,' which is a type of horse.)
That's all for today! I've found some cool snapping shrimps that are hard to photograph, but I'll keep trying. Hopefully I'll have some good video and photos from my east coast diving tomorrow!
