I intended to add a comment in an earlier blog about how great it was up here on the hill without any sign of insects, but with the dead calm last night the mosquitoes did find the open deck doors in the bedroom. Guess it's going to be the ceiling fan when there isn't a nice breeze. We've had a couple of hummingbird feeders hanging on the deck and have only seen a couple of birds, but last night the bats found them and completely drained one of them. They must have been to busy with the syrup to go after the mossies.
Today was another calm and mostly sunny day until about sunset and then the clouds rolled in. It's been raining off and on all evening. Had to move the bbq to the covered deck. The skewered shrimp still tasted good, just a bit overcooked. This charcoal cooking takes some getting used to again.
Hit the dive shop at Luna Beach resort about 8:30 and got my orientation of the boat and the equipment. They've got a locker in the gear room with my name on it to store my gear so I don't have to haul everything back and forth. They're pretty quiet there right now, three divers on the early dive and then five on the second one. For the first dive it was just me and the dive master. Good way to get back into the water. The other two divers were doing a deep dive, and I was quite happy to get started with a shallow one (60'). It wasn't a memorable dive although I did get a great picture of a lionfish who was all bristled out. (I'm liking my new camera.....)
The second dive was at Lighthouse, which is straight out from the center of West End. Not much for the first part of the dive other than a blue banded coral shrimp which I had never seen before, but then things started popping up quickly. First we saw a lobster that was the biggest that I have ever seen. He was walking along on the sand looking like some alien space creature from War of the Worlds, and must have stood close to two feet high. I didn't get a picture of him because he was down in a bit of a channel and then moved in under an overhang. Right after that I saw a cute Spotted Moray and got a good shot of him. His tail was sticking out of another hole in the coral about a foot away.
After I got my picture I drifted up so the others could get a look at him and there was a five foot green moray right in front of me. It's not common to see them out swimming in the daytime, but this guy was cruising around. My still pictures aren't as good as I'd like but I have a great video of him. Here's a still because I don't think I could upload a video in here.
While I was diving, Eileen chilled out on their beach. They've only got about five of their places rented out right now so it was really quiet there. Actually she hardly saw anyone, except this 60 something lady that we have seen in years past, jogging on the beach. Eileen said that she jogged up and down the beach the whole time we were away on the first dive (2 hours). There is about a half mile run between Barefeet Bar and Luna Beach that she would run. No wonder she is just skin and bones.
Had a very late lunch at the Lighthouse restaurant, got some veges for the grill from one of the trucks, and then picked up a bag of shrimp and a snapper fillet at the fish shop in West End. Got home, Eileen had a dip in the pool to cool down (it was hot this afternoon) and then we just chilled out for the rest of the afternoon.
No plans for the daytime tomorrow, but it's Tuesday so that means tapas night at Tranquil Seas. Emailed Monica tonight to get a table set aside. Looking forward to their food and some music from 2CanDo.
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