Captain's Blog

This place is a fish-for-all…

The vis has been doubling by the week. We had an easy 50+ feet, but not sure, as you couldn’t see past all the fish…

First, you swim down through the first layer…

Nice Gaffsail Pompano, Purple surgeons, Rainbow Chubs and Bigeye trevallys….

Layer 2: Blue Trevallys… these guys are about 2 feet long each… Along with the top of a gigantic school of Spottail Grunts…

Finally, we’re on the bottom of the structure. It’s easy to lose people occasionally, they just keep disappearing behind the fish…

A big group of spottail Grunts.. some purple surgeons and rainbow chub, and creolefish mixed in…

Nice structure… hey would you guys get out of the way? I’m trying to take pics here…

In the background, you can see a white tip reef shark…

Nice Leather Bass

That’s a big lobster…

Ever wonder how the rays and sharks are related??? Well, here’s your missing link. This is a Banded Guitarfish, in the same family as the ray and the shark… Looks like a ray with a shark’s tail… very cool…

Gotta get that close up…

And the parting shot… how many different species can you see in this pic???

Another amazing day at Humpback Rock…

Capn Scott

First stop The Freakin Zoo

So, I throw out the marker for the first dive. The current takes the boat down current from the site while we gear up. As all of us are looking towards the marker (plastic bottle), a small ray jumps over the marker and does a double flip. All of us look at each other and just can’t believe what we just saw. Dan, is geared up and says, I’m getting in the water NOW! and in an instant he splashes in. The boat moves up to the marker, and the rest of us bail out. I look off to where Dan is and I see him doing some really interesting gyrations. It turns out that, while swimming to the marker, a sea snake surfaced and the surging current blew him right into the snake. They aren’t aggressive, but it’s still a scary sea snake. Pretty funny, not for him at the moment. Nice dive, lots of critters. We didn’t move around much, Sylvia was doing alot of macro shots and basically studying the bottom.

This little guy was hiding out in the rocks. A Jewel Moray.

Hanging out at the 15′ safety stop, we took pictures of each other, This is Sylvia.

And I’m guessing she has a pic of me taking a pic of her!

Lots of little sea snakes kept coming to the surface. Very curious little guys. And really beautiful.

Next stop, Ciudad Perdida

Such an interesting dive. The underwater structure is so special. I wouldn’t be surprised to find a column or some other artifact. Hmmm… maybe I need to place one…

Nice Crown of Thorns

The Blue Trevallys are really curious. And, they’re a good 2 feet long

And there are a bunch of em…

Almost looks like a foundation where a building was.

So much coral and life here. And everywhere else too…

One day I’m gonna get a face shot of these guys… Moorish Idols…

This is one that I hadn’t seen before. A Goldrim Surgeonfish.

The colorful little dude is a juvenile King Angelfish.

Sylvia, doing the science thing. She’s easy to spot underwater.

And, our final dive is Humpback Rock

This is a new area that we haven’t dove before. Sylvia named it Humback Rock, because the rock sits just below the surface. When the wave rushed in and exposed some of the rock, Dan started yelling, It’s a WHALE! It’s a WHALE!!!!. The both of us looked over just at that moment and for a brief second it looked live the jaw and face of a Humpback. Then the wave continued to expose our new found whale, and we all realized it was a rock. We dropped into the water, and were surrounded by the Gaffsail Pompano…

The Gaffsail Pompano… proof that God has a sense of humor…

Nice White Tip Shark

So, as I’m taking pics of the White Tip, I look over to my side and this guy is swimming alonside m… startling close. They are usually so afraid of divers, it was surprising to be able to get so close.

Another area loaded with life. These are Blue-And-Gold Snapper

What a great day of diving. And having the Sturgeon General, her deepness, Dr. Sylvia Earle, only made it that much more special. I truly enjoyed diving with her, and expect to see her back soon…

Capn Scott

Some of the locals have been telling me about a small group of islands called Los Ladrones. It’s not in any guide books and I’ve never heard about the diving near there. So, I decided to check it out for myself.

First dive is on a pinnacle that rises from 180′ to 29′. Difficult to find, but I have enough electronic exploration equipment on the boat to find anything, probably the only boat in this country with this much underwater exploration gear. We drop down and instantly we’re in a swarm of everything. Normally you get large schools of the same fish. This was a large swarm of everything from sharks to grunts. Really strange, but at the same time, all you can say is WOW! There are so many fish swarming that they are actually bumping into each other on the turns and such. You could easily, just sit in one place and watch the parade…  like these guys…

Just a couple of lobster hangin out, watching the parade…

and this guy… a reef ray…

Okay… now that’s a big honkin diamond ray…

He’s so big that the divers don’t spook him easily.

Yep… gotta get the close up…

Houston, we have liftoff…

Next stop, a very nice dive. It starts off around 40′ and ends around 15′ (no need for a safety stop now). Loaded with coral, everything you could imagine. And, of course oodles of the ornamental reef fish. My camera got one shot before it said, “change the batteries” Darn, didn’t bring a spare set with me underwater… Named, because it looks like ancient ruins.

Cool stuff… Everyone absolutely enjoyed the dives… I’m ready to go back.. How bout you???

Capn Scott

It’s a long boat ride to Isla Coiba, somewhere around 3.5 hours. But, always worth the drive. We checked in at the Ranger Station.

And went to Manta Channel. As always, it delivers. We only saw one manta, and it seemed very young. It crossed under us and before I could power up the camera, it was gone. Darn! Really would have been a great shot.

Next stop was Rocas Prosper. This is a Pinnacle that rises from 200′ to above the water. Great underwater life here.

Nice white tip reef shark…

Guineafowl puffer in it’s yellow mating colors.

Lots and lots of fish

Constantly being buzzed by the Spades…

Whatâ’s that in the spades??? Bluefin Tuna??? And Purple Surgeons???

Yep, definitely blue Trevallies…

Another great day of diving…

Capn Scott

Small group of divers. On the first day we go to 3 Marias in the Islas Secas group of 16 islands. We dove 3 Marias, and it was spectacular as always. I didn’t bring my camera on this first dive, because I wanted to make sure that everyone was competent. Turns out, that the only one to have a problem on this dive was me. My computer went nuts. I looked down at it and it was telling me that I was in 55′ of water and that I had been down for 999 minutes and that 20′ was my ceiling and I needed a very long decompression stop. I’ve been diving long enough, that I looked up and figured it was 20′ of water and that the computer was cookoo. Gauged my time and depth from experience because I broke the band on my backup computer that morning and didn’t wear it (where’s murphy?). No problems. The dive went well and all 3 divers seemed competent.

Next stop Contreras. This is a group of islands in the corner of Coiba National Park.

lots of fish… pretty much a constant cloud. vis was good when you could see through the fish…

Near the end of the dive, we were buzzed by a couple of really large Almaco Jacks… easily 5 feet…

All in all a good day of diving…

Capn Scott