Our neighbors on Nautilife, Patricia and Drew (normally Andrew but there are too many of those, so he lost a syllable), had expressed interest in coming diving once Patricia finished her certification. That happened, so we each piled in our dinghies and motored up towards the Cliff dive site. But that one had a boat on it, so we kept going north… past Coopers Barge, which we thought would be too deep for a new diver, and past Small Wall, which was also occupied, until at last we put-putted all the way to Petrie’s Pillar. A little further than we’d have chosen to take our 6hp motor on purpose, but not unmanageable.
Petrie’s Pilar, for a rare change, delivered enough current to be noticeable. We swam into it, and were rewarded with fish. Here are some yellowtail snappers, a buttered hamlet (great name!), and what we think is a black grouper but could also be a rock hind.
Probably the highlight of this dive was an absolutely enormous school of blue tangs that flowed through.
In other amusing finds, a sleeping soapfish, and a lettuce slug. (We would eventually start seeing lots of both, but at the time they felt rare and exciting.)
As we got back to the boats, we were passed by another big school, this time of chubs. (There was also a big ocean triggerfish, but too far away for the GoPro.)
Back on the surface, we contemplated the now-unfamiliar task of climbing back into the dinghy with our gear on. All these shore dives have us spoiled! 🙂
