Our package included three days of 2 tank boat dives and unlimited shore diving. The boat dives went to Klein locations for the first dive and main island for the second dive. We visited Hands Off, Rock Pile, The Forrest, Erika's reef, Hilma Hooker, Small wall, and I'll have to check what else. We did shore dives at Angel City, Alice in Wonderland, Webers Joy, & Andrea I.

By far, my favorite was Angel City. This is the dive just south of Hilma Hooker. The topography there is breathtaking. This is where the double reef system is. There is a resident porcupine puffer and a resident small baracuda. At least I think they are residents because we saw them both times we went there. We saw four species of eel there: golden spotted, black & white spotted, green, and sharp tail. We saw a scorpion fish, a quite large grouper of some kind (haven't identified it yet - I know it wasn't a tiger). There is so much to see there.

The three of us are really SLOW divers as we like to really look at what is around. We like fish behavior. As a matter of fact, one of the guys in the group didn't want to buddy with me because I was so slow. But there is quite a pay off.

At 18 Palms I witnessed a behavior that I had not yet seen. A 5 foot spotted eel raced out of the reef, entered head first into one of those long purple tube sponges, then backed out again and went back into the reef. This was so fast that I didn't have time to take a photo. This site also has 4 frog fish. We also saw a baby something that looks like a dice. Quite comical.

At Small Wall there were two nice size squid that were curious and let us get quite close. Small Wall is a very nice site also. We were sort of rushed through that one, though.

At Andrea I, there was a school of about ten squid in the shallows. I just love these critters. I was diving with four other folks and so I was buddy-less. Since I was low on air, I indicated that I was going up into the shallows. These squid were brown. But when the four other divers came up, they flashed pale for a minute, then seemed to realize it was only those awkward creatures with legs and went back to brown.

At Webers Joy, luckily after the dive, I was loading my tank into the truck and it slipped and fell on my hand. It squished my ring so that it was sort of cutting off circulation to my finger. We went back to the dive store and they tried to get it into a shape that would slip off by using pliers but couldn't so we had to cut it off. It can be repaired. My big concern was that I would miss the next dive but I was good to go.

There was quite a current at The Forrest. At least more than I like. And because the mission of this dive was to see the frog fish, we had to swim against the current coming back.

As indicated, the Town Pier was awesome. Next time I go, I will go for a longer period and hit more sites. We did ask the dive shop staff to recommend sites and trusted them to steer us in a good direction.

I did not have time to contact Bas until the day I left. Jake told me where he was working and he was working very hard. So I simply dropped of the license plate and some pot holders from Seattle and left him to earn a living.

One more episode to come.

Becky, the "dice" fish is a juvenile trunkfish, the smooth variety if memory serves, they are as cute as cute can be, especiallly when you find a baby pea sized one.

Here's one...

and another...

Becky,
I am really enjoying your trip reports. Thank for the great descriptions of your dives!I too love fish behavior and Id and love to drift away when reading such!!!

Here's a try

Finally, firewall gonna make me nuts!