MITSUGIRLYS EPIC CRUISE--2nd time around-1st from Port Canaveral

[mitsugirly]

They gave everyone some dog bones for the fish and I think it helped ease everyone's mind. I did not get any, but I was busy taking pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

Then all of a sudden I see Kendra and I rush to her, well it was rushing in my book but looked more like I was in a slow time warp. She was fine, but holding her mask and nose at times. I wasn't sure what this meant and communicating under water was really not our forté. It was like trying to do sign language to someone who was blind. So foreign to us. But I ask the "ok?" sign and she replied "ok" so I guess whatever issues she had, she was better now and I would have to get the details later because this dive was about to happen! Eeek

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

Notice that during this feeding, they were easing us out a little. Look at this picture and you will see that at this point, we are well over our heads and simply couldn't pop up to the surface if we wanted.

 

I remember being this guy in the orange shirt once. I was the person at the top of the water, looking down at the scuba divers, and wondering what it was like.

 

 

 

Then I look around and see that the instructor is a little further out there and he's motioning us to "come here" and pointing at something. Ok, if this is a trick I swear....

 

We went over to a big piece of coral and found this lurking...

 

 

 

Do you see him? It was a nice sized trumpet fish (not as big as the ones I would see back in St Lucia, but a good sized).

 

 

Ok, he managed to coax us out this far and all is good. Courtney was doing amazing.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Our instructor kept telling us to come and come we did. We were exploring and looking at the fish all around us. There wasn't much coral to see and mostly a sandy bottom, but there were your normal fish you see on the shore line.

 

Kendra is superwoman. Dun dun dun.

 

 

 

Ok, still all is good and I'm not even thinking about the breathing part now.

 

 

 

All of a sudden I sunk. To the sea floor. I couldn't go up. I struggled. What the heck. The instructor was way ahead and swimming and here I was. We were told not to mess with the BCD...I didn't want to disobey. But I wanted up and I wanted up now. How was I going to get his attention? I look up as Courtney is passing over me waving.

 

 

 

No wait...don't leave me down here. I need hel........pppppp....wait, why did I just go up? Oh, the other instructor was behind me and adjusted my BCD. LOL Weeeeeee

 

 

 

 

 

I think Courtney rarely left my side because I ended up with so many pictures of her beside me. Every time I looked around to snap a picture, she was there. (She does this when we are snorkeling too and if she gets in to trouble, she hangs on to me).

 

 

 

Then all of a sudden Courtney sunk. LOL HAHAHAHA to you. Now you get to wait for help to arrive.

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Hey while you are down there, there's a parrot fish to look at.

 

 

 

Now we were getting deeper and the water was getting bluer, but for some reason, it didn't bother me. We were starting to see more things and it was more than just a sandy bottom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

Since I was the one with the camera, that meant that there would be no pictures of me scuba diving. I decided to take a selfie to prove I was there.

 

 

 

There's that devil fire coral...stay away. I will tell you that several times it really scared me down there, when I was going along the bottom and getting pictures as close as I could, and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get away from touching it a few times.

 

 

 

 

 

Now this was getting extremely hard. Like REALLY hard. My legs were wearing out. We were going against the current and I felt like I was kicking to save my life and wasn't getting anywhere. I was wearing down. Panic was starting to come over me. I wasn't sure if I could make it. I wanted to flag down the instructor and tell him "wait a minute, I need to rest", but he was way ahead of me. I seriously felt like I wasn't moving AT ALL. I did not like these fins. I felt like my wide fins would have done a much better job. Oh help me!

 

 

At one point I stopped for a minute to try to rest. I look up and I see the hubby above me. He is holding onto the "safety rope" that one of the instructors is pulling through the water to let those above us know we are down here. I see my husband hanging onto the rope and the instructor is trying to pull him. He's not moving his legs at all. Just hanging on. Wait, I want a free ride too! I could tell this wasn't good. The instructor finally stopped pulling the rope and went up to him. I see him take his leg and extend it out and up to stretch it. I see him rubbing the top of his leg. Did he have a muscle cramp? Charlie horse? What was going on? He gave me this "look" and I knew he was tired and his legs were hurting. I just knew in my heart that he probably would not go on.

 

He stayed with the other instructor and I had hoped that he would rest and continue on. But it did not happen. He had to go back to shore. Afterwards I would find out that he was just too worn out, swimming against the current, and with his weight gain over the years (just like me), he just couldn't do it. I felt so bad. He's been a skater all of his life (except for the last few years) and he's always had strong legs. But they failed him this time around. He told me that he would end up laying on his back and the instructor pulling him back to shore. Really? That bad???

 

I hear this "click click click" like someone is taping on something. The instructor had something to get our attention and it worked. He motioned us to come over. I gathered up what strength I still had and swam over and eventually caught up with them.

 

Does a fist symbol on the air signify that you have found something?

 

[mitsugirly]

 

Well lookie what we found. A brittle starfish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Ever since I first came to Coki a few years ago, it has been one of my favorite places to snorkel. I was simply amazed at the bright purple coral that I had seen there and no other place before. But I wasn't seeing that same coral this time. Maybe because I was so far out? BUT...what I did see what some awesome blue colored coral and later some other type of beautiful purple coral.

 

 

 

Kendra was still going strong with no other issues.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We weren't struggling to swim now and everyone was doing good. My legs weren't aching anymore and it was much easier to swim. We had made it around the corner, there was no longer a current, and life was good.

 

 

 

I was busy off in my own little world and I noticed everyone was gathered around the instructor. I went over to investigate.

 

 

 

A Yellowline Arrow Crab. Hims so tute (cute, but said in Kendra voice) with his little blue-purple pinchers.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

He was very active and crawling all over.

 

 

 

Well that stuff is pretty colorful.

 

 

 

THIS GUY! A Yellowtail Snapper. He started out with us from close to the shore. He would follow along with us the entire trip. He never left our sides. He was my buddy. My explorer. Me likey. These guys are very curious and will approach divers often.

 

 

 

Here's the purple coral that I would see for the day. It was quite beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

Just look at this blue coral. It was such a unique color.

 

 

 

 

 

Luke showed me how to turn my camera flash on and off with the flick of a button. I would experiment with it at times. I learned (and he also said) that if you have the flash on, sometimes it will pick up all the particles in the water. With some experimenting, I would find that if you are shooting straight down with the flash, it did pretty good. It only did bad when you tried to shoot straight across the water.

 

 

The purple in these sea fans were so brilliant and pretty. Do they get deeper in color the deeper you go?

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

THERE'S that purple coral that I had found last time, when snorkeling at Coki, and loved so much. There actually was some out here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The variety of colors in one small tiny area were just so magnificent and bright and there's just so much to see. Without my camera, I think I would have missed a lot of it. It was hard to focus on so much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

 

A pair of four-eyed Butterfly Fish.

 

 

 

Other unique purple coral.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then all of a sudden we were motioned over....a shark had been spotted........................

 

 

[Wetescape2016]

Oh my gosh! Cliffhanger!

[mitsugirly]

NO NO NO I don't want to see a shark. Someone take me back. Hide me. I'm going to die.............

 

 

 

He points down....

 

 

 

 

 

Ok, you got me. You think you're cute Luke! I guess this is a previous statue they had over at coral world. When they decided to get rid of it, the divers (or something) took it out in the water and dumped it for other divers to have something to see. LOL

 

 

 

 

There was a crab/shell hiding down there.

 

 

 

Oh my, blue sea fans and pretty soft coral. So beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

 

Now look at this coral. See the other coral going right through it? It was very interesting...but what's more interesting you might say? Look inside the coral.

 

 

 

A lobster

 

 

 

 

 

I don't see white coral very often.

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

My friend was still hanging out with me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[katiecat]

These pictures are absolutely beautiful. I've never been underneath the water to ever see this stuff.

[josumello]

The pictures are awesome. Thanks for taking us along. Love the coral.

 

 

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[aztekpm]

Some of the best underwater pictures I've seen, amazing!

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

This fish was the most amazing color I think I have ever seen.

 

 

 

A Redband Parrotfish. He was absolutely amazing! I don't think I have seen a parrotfish this color yet.

 

 

 

 

My friend...still with me and getting closer and closer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A blue tang lurking

 

 

 

 

 

[dporter]

amazing pictures! thank you for sharing these they are absolutely stunning.

[17cruisesnsl]

Thank you for the amazing photos and great review! Your first dive and you managed to take all these fabulous photos! WOW! Very Impressive. Your coral photos are as good, if not better, than prints I purchased in the Caymans on a cruise many years ago.

[Laszlo]

Great photos Kim!

[mitsugirly]

Some how I managed to get turned around and thought we were still heading out. Courtney and I was getting a little worried at this point. Our air tanks started out with 3000 on them. We were told that we wouldn't get into the "yellow" caution area and we had plenty of air. We were instructed on how to read them, but also informed that our instructor would be checking them while we were diving and we wouldn't need to worry about it. He had said that sometimes people excessively check them over and over and it kind of ruins the experience of diving when you are freaking out about the air. So, don't worry about it and they would keep an eye on it. The one thing that I can say is, he never once checked my air gauge. I did check it several times. Well, I can't really say "he didn't check it". I probably should say he never picked it up and looked at it or ask me for the number like Sakari's instructor does. He's an instructor, so I'm sure he's trained to eyeball it from a distance or when we are around him...inconspicuously.

 

We were in the yellow, which if I remember correctly, that was below 1000. So, caution. Courtney and I both noticed this and I kinda looked at him and raised my gauge up to him, but he was a good 20 -30 feet away, so obviously he couldn't read it, but yet didn't seem concerned about it.

 

 

 

 

Can any you divers tell me what this brown fish, blue dots, blue fins is? Is it some type of grouper?

 

 

Maybe a blue dot grouper? Or a blue stripe grouper? It's the only thing I can find that looks even close to it. From far away, it looked like stripes. But when I zoom in on it (from the computer), it actually looks like dots. Anyone?

 

 

 

Ok, once again, Courtney and I are getting a little worried. We are starting to look at our gauges a little more frequent and we are watching the air gauge go down. We are mid way into the yellow and still trying to signal the instructor.

 

But...before long, we started seeing sand. Lot's of sand. Ok, um at what point did we get turned around and start heading back to the beach? Obviously we were both panicking for nothing and of course our instructor knew what he was doing. We just had no idea ourselves what was going on...other than an air tank that was running low. We thought we were still going out further. I was just envisioning us having to swim at the top of the water, with a heavy air tank on our back, and kick or float all the way back to shore.