Saturday, June 19th

Beautiful day on the reef today.  Absolutely no current on Molasses.  The wind was blowing a little over 10mph out of the Southeast, so it was a little choppy but not too bad. Visibility was good and the water temperature was in the upper 80s.. Overall an excellent day on the water.

Found this guy up under a ledge. he wasn't that concerned with me taking his picture. Usually they head back up into their holes when you start getting close to them.

Channel Clinging Crab

Blenny - Probably a Saddled Blenny

Couple Christmas Tree Worms on a Brain Coral

Eagle Rays

The Eagle Rays came up near the end of the dive, I was able to swim around with them for a while. They were actually doing circles right around the area I was in. Near the end I approached a little too close I guess, one of them came right at me (the short tailed fellow) and the other 2 swam away as did the one that came straight at me.  Pretty cool.

Sunday June 13th, 2010

Did a couple of dives yesterday with some new friends from Atlanta, Barry Sheldon and his daughter Stacey.  They were visiting the Keys and we got 2 dives in yesterday. Went up to the Horseshoe and then Grecian Rocks (The Christ of the Abyss). Visibility could have been better but it was a beautiful day and the water temperature has made it to around 85 degrees now.  Getting to the temperature I like now.

Wasn't planning on diving today but the weather was perfect and there was little to no wind, so I jumped in the boat and headed out to Molasses. Beautiful day with  the water temperature between 85 and 86 degrees. There was a moderate current on Molasses, but nothing too bad.  I dove on ball 22 first and then moved over to ball 1 for the second dive. Visablity was great, probably in the 80 ft range..  So, beautiful day, water temps in the mid 80s and great visability, doesn't get much better than that.

I don't think he was too happy to have me interrupting his cleaning.

A little Goldentail Eel.

Back on molasses again . Tied up on ball 21. If you follow the mooring line down you can't miss the old Spanish Anchor.  A few years back, I spent a lot of time looking for this thing. Everybody kept telling me where it was and some of them were actually close.  So to find it, follow the mooring line down on ball 21, there you will find it  a little south west of the mooring line,  look around... you can't miss it.  From there head north over into a large sandy area surrounded by reef..  This is one of my favorite areas to just hang around an watch..Lots to see in this area of the reef.

Spanish Anchor

A Permit cruising the reef looking for a snack.

Fire Coral

Pretty sure this is a  Porgy of some type.  I have only seen a few with this color pattern. As I tried to get close to him it would flare his fins up and try to look very aggressive. After a couple of times doing this it took off and didn't slow down . I wasn't able to get close enough to get a get a better photo.  

Saturday, June 5th

Went out to Molasses reef yesterday, took a few pictures. Nothing spectacular to say the least. Here is the best of the few I took.. Notice that behind the Glassy Sweepers there is a fin. That was a small to medium (couple hundred pound) Jewfish (Goliath Grouper). He swam up under the reef as I approached..

Glassy Sweepers (with Jewfish fin in background)

Either a Red Hind or a Graysby.. Can't tell since I can't see the markings on the base of the dorsal fin hat would identify it. Guess it could also be a Rock Hind, but since I can't see the rest of the fish, it is one of the three..

Heading out diving in a few.. Looks like a beautiful day here in Key Largo..