Little Cayman Day 6: Turtlefest!

Stephen says I shouldn’t even post anything, because today was just another crappy day of crappy dives. Every day it’s the same thing here: blue sky, clear water, turtles and eagle rays! Marc, one of our divemasters, even said Turtles! I’m so bored with turtles this week! Move outta my way, turtle, I’m trying to see that bloody blenny! Hey, someone’s gotta do it.

Beautiful morning, but a little choppier than it has been. We had a rougher ride out, but a Triptone and the view made it manageable. We saw the dolphins again! Three days in a row, a first for Little Cayman!

Dive #1 — Nancy’s Cup O’ Tea (aka The Magic Roundabout)

Marc hustled me into the water pretty quickly since the waves were rough, and I was grateful; once I got in the water all was well, no current at all. As soon as we got in, boom! There was an eagle ray, right on schedule. They are just so beautiful and graceful; this one took his time swimming past us, so we just hung there and watched him swim about. Then we headed down the wall to a big pinnacle with a spiral of swim-throughs, at 100 feet, 90 feet, 60, 45 … really neat. The swim-throughs were more like big, wide corridors through the coral – easy to navigate, bright with light from above, and lots of stuff to see.

After a few passes, we headed down the wall a bit, hung out with a good-sized hungry hawksbill turtle chomping on the wall, then up onto the flats to look through the coral heads. SO pretty. Lots of fish, lots of beautiful fans and coral, anemones, pure white sandy patches. More queen triggerfish (lots of those here), grouper, cowfish, blue tang, black durgeons, parrotfish, a few trumpetfish, skates … and, of course, another friendly hawksbill. This one was a bit smaller, just as hungry, moving from coral head to coral head chomping away (apparently they’re coraltarians). He really didn’t care if we watched him or not, so we did. He’d take a few bites, then check us out, then move in for some more. A few times we’d turn to head off, and he would turn right around and head back toward us, like he enjoyed the company. Steve got some great video, and it was a great way to end the dive. Very, very fun!

Dive #2 — Donna’s Delight

By the time we got to our second dive, the waters had calmed a bit. We had both been a bit cold on the first dive, so I bit the bullet and put on my new hooded vest. I’ve decided to reserve it for when I really need it, because as warm and cozy as it is, it’s a pain (literally) to get on and off. But I’m glad I wore it, the water’s still 79-82°, but it starts to feel colder at the end of the week!

We saw even more fish on this dive – where were they all hiding earlier in the week? More queen triggers, one doing some sort of dance (someone said it was a mating dance, but he looked like he was eating tiny bits out of the water to me) – completely vertical in the water, mouth open, spinning around in little circles. Pretty cool to watch.

In order of appearance: the queen trigger parade, a large turtle, some really cool reddish corkscrew anemone with odd little white balls on it (like Lily of the Valley buds), a grouper being cleaned by tons of little fish and a coral-banded shrimp, an abandoned weight pocket with way too much weight in it to recover, another turtle, and another turtle (this one tagged on both flippers), and a really big fish that looked like a permit.

There were also beautiful fans and big, bright sponges; and the stars of the dive, Benji and Mini-Me, the two large puppy-dog Nassau groupers. They slide right up to you and give you a look much like Frances when you’re standing in front of the Greenie jar. What they really want is for you to wave a squirrelfish out of the coral so they can have a snack. But in lieu of that, they’ll gladly take a pet. Behind the gills, back toward the tail, and they’ll follow you anywhere. The larger of the two, Benji, also enjoys being petted under his “chin” (see above!). He sort of half closes his eyes, relaxes, and gradually moves from horizontal to vertical while you scratch him. If you stop, he’ll just follow you around and stare at you! And Benji was especially interested in Steve’s camera; he tagged along watching Steve take pictures for quite some time. The two of them hung out with us till the end of our dive … I got my Scarlet and Frances fix!

Dive #3 — Coconut Walk

I was still chilly, but couldn’t bear to pull that hooded vest on again (next time I’ll be sure to pack my 5 mil hyperstretch hood), so Steve let me wear his Red Baron beanie. Just right! We saw some more of the beautiful Bloody Bay wall, getting there through a cool drop-down hole that turned into a swim-through. We were the first ones in this one, so Steve was able to get some good pictures. It was a little dark, but the water was so clear the shots still came out.

We saw a pretty dark purple scrawled cowfish, another “dancing” queen trigger, a small piece of coral that looked like an orange hat, the cutest little pygmy puffer, and, as I was trying to point it out to Steve, he pointed right next to where it was, assuming I’d meant that GIANT lobster! We saw another turtle having a coral lunch, a golden/spotted skate of some sort, a nurse shark, and a giant parrotfish that looked like a blue or midnight parrotfish, except it was dark green. This was our last afternoon dive, but it was another great one!

We pretty much crashed after we got back to the room, never even made it to the hot tub! Down to the bar for a few drinks at 5:30, met some folks who just got in today (booooo), and then headed to dinner: chicken piccata and risotto for Steve; veggie risotto, asparagus, and refried beans for me. Chubby will be getting a very nice tip before we leave!!

We went back to the bar at 8:00 for a viewing of The Blue Planet, but we were wiped out. Must rest up for our last two dives tomorrow …

VERDICT, day six: an easy A+