Category Archives: swim throughs

Macro, swim throughs, Uncategorized, wide angle

Have you been to the Solomon Islands?

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Brian after navigating the Cathedral dive passages swims into the deep blue ocean

Our 10 days of diving in the Solomons with the Master liveaboard was amazing. Some things about the trip are quatifiable, 37 dives in 10 days is, a pretty big number of dives. The countless thousands of fish we saw was impressive. We saw large schools of jacks, fusiliers and barracuda. But the diving wasn’t just about the numbers. There were many story lines along the way that standing alone could make great stories. Consider one of the dives we did was named Simon’s dive site. Simon lives in the Florida islands and is quite a naturalist. He has among other things replanted coral on the reef on his property and has gotten the government to recognized his property as a nature preserve. His efforts have helped grow stag horn coral in places where it appears to have either not existed or which may have been in existence but needed to be reseeded. With growing reefs come critters. We did a night dive on Simon’s reef. Among the things I saw was a nudibranch that was enormous, almost 10 centimeters in length. Now I have shot this same species of nudibranch in other places such as the Philippines, but I don’t think I have ever seen one this large.

But the trip wasn’t just about nudibranchs or small critters. One of the things that stood out in my mind was just how healthy the reef was on all of the sites we dove. In paticular, the wide range of hard corals struck me.

But the soft corals were also quite abundant. Not since I dove rainbow reef in Fiji had I seen so many different colors of soft corals on any dives. Red, purple, yellow, orange and white soft corals covered many sections of the reef.

And of course there were a number of the usual suspects that you find in the coral triangle, such as clown fish.

Nemo’s eye

But of course the thing that keeps me coming back to diving is the friendships that are formed by diving with people from all around the world.

Coming up for a break in the Cathedral dive site
    Bahamas, swim throughs

    Have you been to Littlehails Laird?

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    Grunts under elk horn coral
    Grunts under elk horn coral

    As a dive site, Littlehails laird has an abundance of marine life.  There were quite  few grunts of various species.  But while it is know for a variety of grunts we were fortunate to see a turtle swim through the site within minutes of getting to the bottom.  Like most hawksbill turtles he reminded me of a grumpy old man.  In my mind I could hear him saying:  ‘oh bother another diver trying to follow me, quick I will show him I can out swim him in a matter of moments.”  And, of course he was right, but not before I shot about a thirty second video climp of him swimming over the reef.

    Moments later, a gray reef shark swam by as if to say welcome to the reef.  I did not manage to get the video light on before he had disappeared over the reef.  It must be nice to go up in down in the water column without worrying if you have exceeded a maximum ascent rate.  In something under 10 seconds he had gone up and back down 30 feet in the water column.  It must be nice to be able to do that.  Divers are limited to 30 feet up in a minute.  So there is no way of safely trying to follow a shark, we can just wait for them to make another pass.   Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t, but the anticipation is what makes it fun– at least for me.  I’m usually thinking, is there a way to position my self so that if the shark or turtle or other wildlife that has just passed me will come back just to see me, at least out of curiousity.

    Bahamas, Mexico, swim throughs, Uncategorized

    Do you like swim throughs?

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    A short video clip from a swim through known as the “caves” in the Bahamas:

    Swim throughs can occur several different ways.  The Caves in Bahamas is an example of coral growing so high that it creates walls that sometimes meet and cover the corridor that otherwise winds through the reef.  The swim throughs I have been through have ranged from wide enough for 3 divers to go through side by site down to swim throughs where I have to fold in close to the camera housing the arms holding my camera strobes out to the side of the housing.

    swim through fins-1

    The Caves in Freeport Bahamas’ dive site starts out easily wide enough to accommodate a diver so it is a dive in which we follow the leader.  If you are not the leader of the dive, you have to hope that the divers in front of you do not kick up the sand too much otherwise the visibility gets real spotty really quickly.   Fortunately my dive buddy who went in front of me did not kick up the bottom much at all.  The Caves does get pretty narrow at points.  There were a couple of places in the canyon where I had to  turn sideways just to get the camera in its underwater housing through the narrows.  The narrows did feel pretty narrow. It is not too uncommon for swim throughs to have narrow points.  If you are not the first through, you have to hope that who ever is in front of you doesn’t balk and then try to turn around, or that someone from behind doesn’t bolt and try to  swim over you.

    swim through

    (If you look closely you can see the diver closest to the camera is actually swimming over the diver in front; not a good idea, even if it is close to the exit).

    As a dive site, the caves also has a good amount of fish life on the reef. I saw a school of goatfish which was quite large both on an individual basis and based on the number of individuals in the school .  Of course the fish life is what keeps me going back to see more creatures underwater. You never know when a plate sized angel fish or a turtle might meet you in a swim  through.  For me, the potential of a meeting of an interesting creature never gets old.

    We have just finished swimming through a swim through
    We have just finished swimming through a swim through