Eddy's Scuba Blog

This is trip was the result of knowing Jack and Sue Drafahl from underwater photography seminars that I have attended at Boston Sea Rovers and at Beneath the Sea. The Drafahls are well known for being pioneers in digital underwater photography and the use of Adobe Photoshop for underwater photographs. Every year in May, the Drafahls offer a "Digital Photo Adventure" at Captain Don's Habitat in Bonaire. The program is a combination of lectures, photo critiques, in-water instruction, boat and shore diving and a photo competition. Since I had never been in Bonaire before, this was a great opportunity to visit the "Macro Capital of the World" and at same time learn first hand from digital experts like the Drafahls.

The program started on a Saturday. I flew the "red eye" flight out of Houston on Continental. This is probably the only red-eye flight into Bonaire. My flight departed Boston on Friday night and arrived to Houston that night. The flight to Bonaire departed just before midnight and was scheduled to arrive in Bonaire at 5:15am.

As a diver, this was a very convenient flight. You are able to use most of Saturday (diving) and don't need to spend a hotel night on Friday. Looking around me I noticed that most--if not all--of the passengers on this flight were divers. They were sporting scuba t-shirts, scuba watches or had stickers with scuba motifs on their luggage. Our flight was the first one to arrive in Bonaire, since the airport seemed to be just "waking up" upon our arrival. The lights were still off and the staff was just taking their posts. For this reason the luggage took a bit longer than expected to retrieve. There was only one luggage carousel in the whole airport.

Passing customs in Bonaire was a breeze. Your passport was stamped and off you were. At the exit of the customs area, I was glad to see Sue Drafahl greeting me. She did that with everyone that was part of the Photo week. Vans were arranged to take us to Captain Don's Habitat, which was about 20 mins. from the airport. On the van from the airport, I met Norma and Jamie, two gals that were on the Photo week as well.

It was still early when arrived at the hotel. It must have been about 7:30am. To our disappointment, we learned that most of our rooms were not ready yet, since checkout time was at noon. So the advantage of having flown the red-eye was wasted. We left our luggage in a storage area (basically in the office behind the hotel counter) and went for breakfast. It was pretty inconvenient to take out our stuff from our luggage and get changed, for example.

In the meantime, we had time to get something to eat from the breakfast buffet. The buffet was good. They had fruits, cereal, the usual eggs/bacon/sausage, omelettes made to order, a variety of breads and do-it-yourself freshly squeezed orange juice. Breakfast was served in the main dining area which is outdoors. Most tables have a view to the ocean and diving dock.

After breakfast we had time to kill. A number of us sat around the lounge next to the dive shop trying catch some sleep after the red-eye flight. We were waiting for the dive orientation to start at 9:00am, which is required for new arriving divers. The orientation was pretty basic, they told us what you could do and what you couldn't. As most other places like Cayman and Roatan, gloves are not allowed. There was also a $25 fee for the use of the Bonaire National Park.

At about 10:00am our rooms were still not ready. Fortunately, Sue came to the rescue and offered me to store my luggage in her room. Jack and Sue were in a Villa Ocean View Room that had two bedrooms, kitchen, living room with TV and porch with dinner table. She graciously offered me the use of one of her bedrooms (since it wasn't occupied), so that I could ready up for a dive that were planning before noon.

At about 11:30am, I was finally ready to go diving. Thanks to Sue, I had somewhere to change and get my photo equipment out of my luggage. I had already left most of my diving gear in the locker room near the diving dock. Sue again came to the rescue by "reserving" the lockers on top, which are more convenient to reach.

The Trumpet Fish Capital of the World, First Shore Dive

Just before noon, we went off on our first shore dive. There was a group of about 4 or 5 of us from the Photo class. This was our opportunity to check our weights and check our camera equipment. This time my camera and strobe were working perfectly. Every picture that I took was firing the strobe correctly. In my previous trip to Roatan, I had so much trouble with the TTL connector and the strobe.

My first impression of Bonaire was "Trumpet Fish Galore", I was seeing lots of trumpet fish of all sizes and colors. I could easily count 20 or 30 of them. They should have called it the "Trumpet Fish Capital of World". It was amazing to see that many trumpet fish. At other places I've been like Belize, Cayman and Roatan, it was a "treat" to find one trumpet fish.

Trumpet Fish

Blue Trumpet Fish

In addition to trumpet fish, we also saw many 3-ft+ tarpoons following us above and below us. It was surprising to see them like that in the open at daylight. I thought that tarpoons liked to stay close to swim-thrus and caves. We also saw angel fish, trunk fish and sand divers, not in the numbers as the trumpet fish.

Almost at the end of the dive, we circled around a small wreck just in front of Captain Don's. It was the wreck of a small 25-ft boat sitting at the bottom upside down. Near the wreck we found a grouper, which looked like a tiger grouper, although with no noticeable stripes. It was been cleaned, so it was very steady and opening its mouth open. A nice photo opportunity.

After taking pictures of the grouper we headed back. This dive was a nice taste of the things to come and it looked like they were going to be really good.

Second Shore Dive, Finding New Creatures

After the first dive, we finally got our rooms ready, so I spent some time unpacking. I ended up sharing an Ocean Villa similar to the Drafahls. It was a nice room, with a full kitchen, living room with TV, 2 bed/2 bath, a porch with a dining table. The kitchen was very convenient to setup my photo equipment. The sink was extremely useful to rinse my equipment. After settling down I headed to the dining area for lunch. One annoying aspect of Captain Don's was that the food was billed separately from the hotel. So you had to open a tab with Rum Runners (that's the name of the restaurant that operated the food service at Captain Don's) and sign your bill everytime you had lunch or dinner. For breakfast, you had to sign in, as breakfast was included with the lodging.

At about 3:30pm, we were ready to go for our second shore dive. Marnie was my roommate and dive buddy for the rest of the trip. We only had a very short time for this dive (30 mins.) as the lecture was scheduled to begin at 4:30pm. In addition to the creatures we saw on the first dive, I was pleasantly surprised to see new creatures in our front yard. A spotted moray eel appear swimming in the open at broad daylight.

This dive then became a nice treat. We spotted a hawksbill sea turtle swimming along the reef and we followed it. The turtle didn't seem scared of me. I also made sure to swim along it, instead of behind it, so that I wouldn't scare it. The turtle was not even bothered, it was doing its thing munching on the sponges. This is the best picture that I took of that turtle:

We cut our dive at 4:00pm, as the first lecture was scheduled for 4:30. Even though the dive only lasted about half an hour, it was well worth it because of the moray and the turtle.

Digital Photo Adventure Orientation Lecture

Because we finished our dive 4:00pm, the time tight for me for the first lecture of the program. I barely made on time. Sue gave us an introduction of the program and what to expect. This schedule was put together for us; however, we made some changes to it along the way.

Saturday
9:00	Dive Orientation
4:30	Digital Photo Adventure Orientation - Getting your Digital Camera Setup for a Dive
Sunday
4:30	Lecture - Menus and Exposure
7:30	Intro to Photoshop - Top Ten Editing Tools
Monday
4:30	Lecture - Lighting with a Digital Camera
6:00-7:00	Manager's Party
8:00	Lecture - Composition
8:30	Critter Orientation with Dee Scarr
Tuesday
4:30	Lecture - Close-up, Macro and Fish
7:30	Lecture - Shooting and Editing RAW files
Wednesday
12:00	Deadline for Photo Contest
4:30	Lecture - Wide Angle and Digital
7:30	Optional Computer Time
8:00+	Optional Night Dive
Thursday
4:30-6:00	Wide Angle and Digital
8:15	Week in Review and Photo Contest
8:15	Computer time if desired
8:30-11:00	Music and Dancing Deco Stop Bar
Friday
12:00	Classroom editing if needed
7:30	Digital Photo Adventure Graduation
Saturday
	Departures at various times
	Jacks office hours: 8:30 - 11:00 1:00 - 3:00

The days throughout the Photo week were organized like this:

• Boat or shore dives in the mornings
• Lunch
• Boat or shore dives in the afternoon
• First lecture at 4:30
• Dinner
• Second Lecture at 7:30
• Night shore dive if interested

Jack was in charge of the lectures and one-on-one computer instruction. Since just underwent back surgery, he was "confined" to top side activities. He also had "office hours" in the mornings and afternoons. The lectures were at an air conditioned conference room right behind the dive shop. Sue in turn was playing hostess and in charge of diving with us. She would occasionally join us on shore dives.

Lecture: Getting your Digital Camera Setup for a Dive

We started the lecture by introducing ourselves and talk about our underwater photography experience. It was interesting to observe that 4 or 5 people were using the Olympus SP-350 or older Olympus 50xx. Even Jack had one himself. These are the notes from the lecture.

Kit (always carry these)

• Batteries, always have extra, as they always go bad
• Cosmetic q-tips with a pointy tip
• Moisture Munchers that can fit inside the housing
• Hex Wrench
• Silicone Grease, to lubricate o-rings

Housings

• Don't put them in the sun as they will fog. Cover them with a towel, don't let direct sun hit it.
• Camera tank is worse place to leave your camera. Somebody with heavy SLR might put on top. Rinse it and put it away wrapped in a towel.
• Ikelite custom housings can go deeper than original Olympus or Canon

Chargers

• Get an international one, not American, capable of 110-220v 50-60 Hz. If possible, get more than one. Laptop chargers are always international nowadays
• Sea & Sea 90DX has problems with rechargeable batteries over 2000 mAh

Accessory Lenses

• Inon builds the best attachments. Bayonet Mount: wide angle and macro
• digideep.com - camera + housing
• wetpixel.com - latest diving and uw photo

Flash Trigers

• Cable: Nikonos, Sea & Sea, Ikelite
• Fiber optic, works with most compact digital cameras.

Strobes

• Nikonos 105 has the best slave sensor. Can still get them on Ebay.
• Inon D2000, very complicated strobe. Don't forget manual

Travel and other Tips

• Bring camera and housing on plane
• Western Digital Passport external hard drive. Very light plastic. USB no power supply, $120. Very useful for backing up pictures.
• Don't delete files in computer, use camera instead. Can recover photos with programs like PhotoRecovery and ImageRecall to recover files from cards.

The Resort
Since the begining of the trip I've heard CocoView's reputation for its returning customers. That reputation was indeed based on true facts. People come back to CocoView because of the diving.

CocoView enjoys from prime diving real estate. It has the Prince Albert wreck on its front yard and it's shore dive accessible. Also shore dive accessible are CocoView Wall and Newman's Wall, both walls drop to hundreds of feet and are full of coral life and critters.

The reef around CocoView is so full of critters that there are "house eels". As it turns out, our Captain Osman, feeds a group of juvenile spotted moray eels and green moray eels every morning at beach dock. Even when you go out for a shore dive, you might see an eel, a mantis shrimp or an octopus in the shallow grassy area at the beach.

CocoView has definitely a unique character. It looks rustic, unlike some of other plush resorts. The trails to the different buildings are not paved. You could say they are "dirt roads". The common area buildings are not air conditioned and you can tell that some of the buildings have been there for years. However, this doesn't mean that CocoView is behind the times. Later, I'll talk about their dive operations, which are top notch.

The main common building is the hub of the whole resort. Here is where you eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. The bar is also located in this building and next to it there are recreational areas with a pool table and ping pong table, which are not used too much unless there is a big storm and dive operations are cancelled.

CocoView Dining Room	CocoView Bar
CocoView Pool Table	CocoView Ping Pong Table

On the second floor, there is a meeting area and TV room with satellite dish. Here's where the first day orientation is given. On the second floor, there is also a balcony area with lounge chairs and hammocks. They face the beach. In front of the main building (towards the beach), there is an outdoor dining area and a dock and gazebo area with lounge chairs and hammocks. This is a nice place to sip a drink that you pick up from the bar, relax and watch the night divers return to shore.

The Beach Houses

Four of us in the group (Cindy, Dina, Dave and me) stayed at beach house #10. It was the last house in the resort. It was relatively far from the main building and the dive lockers, about a 10 minute walk. Fortunately, they had bikes that you can borrow to go back and forth. The house itself was nice, but it wasn't air conditioned. It did have ceiling fans and high ceilings.

The house faced the beach, but it was not swimmable. It had lounge chairs by the beach, but there were too many bugs outside. We had lounge chairs and a hammock in a screened area. That was a nice area to relax. The house had two floors, one bedroom on the first floor and two bedrooms on the second. Each bedroom had its own bathroom. The rooms and bathrooms were cleaned every day during the morning while people were diving.

Cindy found a washing machine, but I never found it, so I never used it. The house had a full kitchen with utensils, cooking ware, oven, fridge, but no microwave. There was also a water fountain. The dining room was next to the kitchen and could sit 6 people. The living room was quite big and well ventilated by the open screened layout and ceiling fans. We also had extra regular fans in the living room and the bedroom.

On the last day we did suffer a snafu, the electricity went out. The electricity at the resort comes from a generator and on that day we were having problems. There was also no water because it was pumped by electric pumps. After diving and the hydroplane tour, I had to wait untill late in the afternoon to take shower that day :(.

Interior of Beach House

Sunset View from Balcony of Beach House

The Dive Operations
The dive operations at CocoView were superb. Not only did they have the latest compressor equipment, but they were very well organized. They counted with a fleet of 5 boats, some of them with an entry passage in the middle of the boat. When you arrive to the resort you are assigned the same boat for the whole week. That way you become familiar with your captain and your divemaster. And you always know where to find your equipment if you leave it behind at the boat. The boat becomes "your boat".

There are 4 boat dives daily, well, two boat dives and two drop-off dives. The boat dives depart at 8:00am and at 2:00pm. On the return, you are dropped at Newman's Wall in the mornings and at CocoView Wall in the afternoons.

Nitrox is the rule rather than the exception at CocoView. There were more nitrox tanks, than air tanks and sometimes you would even have trouble finding an air tank. From this you can extrapolate that most divers that come here are Nitrox certified.

Full Tanks

Empty Tanks

Next to the dive dock is the dive locker area where you assigned your locker for the whole week. Your equipment sits in the open at night and I noticed that it is guarded by armed guards at night. I usually took my dive computer home every night though. Next to the dive locker area there is a changing area with showers (no hot water though) and specialized sinks for cameras only and for the rest of your dive gear.

Booties Drying

Nitrox!

Compressor Room

Sink and Shower Area

I was impressed by the compressor room. The equipment looked spanking new and it was very clean and organized. The compressors, I believe, run all night to meet the tank supply in the morning. Each locker area had a Nitrox analyzer and you could analyze your tanks the night before and leave it in your locker. In the mornings, the crew would take your tanks and equipment to the boat. They would also put your gear together for you.

The diving setup at CocoView was one of the best I've seen so far. The layout of the dive dock, the lockers and the showers and sink area were very well thought of. The boat operations were also very well organized and you rarely saw confusion in the morning. Indeed, I could see why people return to Cocoview for the 5th and 6th time and why CocoView claims to have one of highest return rates in industry: more than 40%.

Locker

Empty tanks usually outstrip full tanks at the end of the day

That Friday afternoon was our free afternoon, as we were done diving for the trip. Some of us in the group just decided to relax and enjoy the beach house, whereas some of us signed up for extra activities.

Hydroplane Tour
Dave and I signed up for the hydroplane tour. Bay Island Airways located right at CocoView, had a two engine hydroplane and offered 30 min (US $60), 45 min ($90) and 1 hr ($120) flights around the island. We went for the 45-min version. We picked a flight plan that crossed into the North coast, flight eastward to the Eastern-most tip and then return Westerly along the South coast where we had done some dives throughout the week.

The North coast seem to be an interest place to dive. We had never done so because CocoView is on the side of the island that faces the mainland. It would take a boat several hours to get to the North side. From the air, yo ucould see there were areas where a barrier reef would extend along the coast. In those pools of water, we saw many spotted eagle rays.

Pilot and Dave on the lookout for Eagle Rays

Eagle Ray Found!

On the East end of the island we saw this interesting little island that reminded me of islands in Thailand (from pictures that I've seen). We also passed by Half Moon beach where we stopped by on one of our surface intervals. At that surface interval, we swam to the beach and walked around picking up shells and nice pieces of dead coral.

Island on the East End

Half Moon Beach

On the way back to CocoView, we circled once to take a good look at the resort and surroundings. This was a good chance to take aerial pictures of CocoView and it's neighbour Fantasy Island.

Fantasy Island Beach with CocoView Resort in the Background

CocoView: The Peninsula

It was also a nice chance to see from the air places that we've been to or living in. These are pictures of beach house #10, where Dave, Dina, Cindy and I were staying, and the CocoView dive dock, where our dive boats departed from.

Beach House No. 10

Dive Dock from the Air

Finally at our final approach, I took a close picture of the CocoView "front yard". This is the place where we spent lots of time diving. In the middle of the picture, you can notice the sand channel that leads into the Prince Albert wreck. We returned thru this channel on every drop-off dive.

Farewell Fire Show Party
That night the resort organized a farewell party as most of us at the resort were leaving on Saturday. The party was after dinner and it was pretty fun. It look place at the "island", a small island on the West side of the resort.

There was a free drawing for a week-long stay at CocoView during the July 4th week. Unfortunately, none of us won it. We also celebrated Dave's 700th dive and Chis's 100th dive. The resort was nice enough to give them diplomas :)

The party was animated by a live band and there was free rum punch. This contibuted to our eagerness of participating at the limbo party. I managed to finish in the top three, but it was really hard to keep balance on a wooden floor. Cindy, my dive buddy on a lot of dives, ended up winning the limbo contest. Women have the advantage of flexibility and center of gravity ;).

The party continued with a fire show. It was a lively display of dancers spinning canisters filled with kerosene attached by a string. They spinned it and waved them in very interesting patterns. This was a chance to take slow shutter speed pictures. I rested my camera at the bar and used the self-timer to take very slow pictures (over 1 sec).

Fire Show - More

Fire Show - How'd they do that?

At the party, Dave had the idea for all of us to wear the Fantastic Endeavors t-shirt that he gaved us and signed one for CocoView to keep. In the briefing room at CocoView, there is a tradition by dive groups to hang their t-shirts.

This was the chance to express our creativity and write about our our experiences throughout the week. It was a really fun activity as all of us wrote or drew something that made this trip memorable. We had inscriptions like "No Kicking the Eel", "I Forgot my Fins!" and "Where is Mel (the DM)?".

Throughout the party we discovered Chris's drawing ability and Craig as a comedian. The going joke towards the end of the week was one ocassion when Craig and I were the last to leave the shore at a night dive. CocoView had a protocol for keeping track of divers going for a night dive. You were supposed to take a tag that was provided in dive locker area. The tag had a number and you would write your name on a board.

On the way out to the wreck, there was a buoy where you had to hang your tag. On the way back you were supposed to take your tag with you. If there were no other tags left on the buoy, you were suppose to take the strobe that was hanged there by the first night diver that got there. By taking the strobe, it signified that were no people left in the water.

So on that night dive, Dave had already taken the tag and walked back to dive dock. Craig and I were still at the platform taking our fins off, when a pair of guys accused us of breaking the resort's rule for diving "without a tag". One of those guys was badgering us in a Scottish accent, "Where is your tag? No tag, no strobe! I've taken the strobe, now CocoView will be very mad". Craig, told this story over and over and made us laugh to the floor. He even added a German accent for comedic effect. So on the t-shirt, Craig wrote the phrase "Vere is your Tag?" ... it was the motto for this trip.

Vere is your Tag?

Hanging the T-Shirt

On the way back, Dave and Dina hanged our t-shirt for posterity. Afterwards, we continued the party at the beach house. Dave had stocked the bar and Cindy turn out to be a great popcorn maker (without a microwave). Craig turned out to be a real comedian, he entertained us with countless jokes. At about midnight, we ran out of gas and retired to our rooms. Some of us had still packing to do. Fortunately, I had finished my packing already that afternoon.

After the Nekton cruise I had decided to stay for several days at Sunset House, in Grand Cayman. The main reason had been to take a class with Cathy Church. I was so impressed with the capabilities of the Olympus SP-350 that I decided to buy it. I was already looking for a new camera to replace my Sony Cybershot. I had been looking at the point-and-shoots with manual settings. It came down to two choices: the Canon S80 and the Olympus SP-350. During my scuba trips I had heard many good things about the Olympus 5060 series, which was already discontinued. The Olympus SP-350 was the continuation of that pedigree. The big seller for me was the TTL capability. Having used a fiber optic connector, often times I would end up with overexposed pictures. With TTL you would never get an overexposed picture. The SP-350 is one of the few point-and-shoot cameras that have a hot shoe. Getting the Canon S80 would imply the continuation of the use of the fiber optic cable.

So I decided to buy the camera and the housing. Prices in Grand Cayman were full price, so I ended paying far more than I would have back in the US (I later learned that you could get the camera even at Costco). I decided not get the strobe, thinking that I could get the strobe back in the US. In addition, I already had my existing strobe, a Sea&Sea YS-25 which had performed well so far. So I went with the fiber optic option. Cathy even made a custom gromit on the housing plate (in front of the flash) to fit the fiber optic connector.

Anatomy of a Flooded Strobe: Trinity Caves and Royal Palms Ledge

It's funny how fate is, after deciding not to get a new strobe, something happened to my own strobe. This was the first time I was on a boat dive at Sunset House and we were at a site called Trinity Caves. The site consisted of a series of caves and channels. By the end of the dive, I noticed that tiny bubbles were coming out of my strobe. Immediately, I said to myself "uh-oh". It was strange that a leak happened at the end of the dive, not at the begining. Could it be because of the pressure? I was down to 98 feet at that dive. When I looked at the front of the strobe, I noticed that the water was already inside and it was dark. It looked like something had corroded really quickly. The strobe was completely lost.

Once on the boat I knew that strobe was already useless. We still had a second dive so I promptly detached the strobe arm from my camera and planned to use my (new) camera without a strobe. The area around the flash on my housing was (neatly) taped up (so that the built-in flash would never be used), so I didn't want to take it out. I was going to take pictures with ambient light.

Unfortunately, on our second dive, we went to dive site with very little ambient light. The site was Royal Palms Ledge. As it names suggests, it was a round ledge, like circular channel with overhangs in some areas. Actually this was one of the most interesting sites in Grand Cayman. There were lots of small creatures like coral banded shrimp, juveniles and this Caribbean scallop that I have never seen before:

I was kicking myself for not having a strobe. The scallop was inside a hole on one of the ledge's walls. The reason the picture looks washed out was because of the very low light conditions. My dive buddy Gordon and I were using our flashlights to try to illuminate the scallop. It was really a shame that I didn't have the right equipment.

Once back at my hotel room I examined closely what happened to my strobe. When I removed the battery cover, I found that the o-ring out of place towards the inside. I was trying to figure out whether I had closed the cover incorrectly with the o-ring out of place. If I had, bubbles would have come out when testing it. This was really strange. Another things that happened was that the batteries were seriously leaking. This probably caused the water inside to go dark. If there was something wrong with the batteries, the strobe would have not worked at the begining. I was able to take pictures at the begining of the dive with the strobe. In conclusion, the most plausible explanation was that the o-ring was a bit out of place and caved in with the pressure. However, it never broke, it was just out of place.

Flooded Strobe: Sea & Sea YS-25

Flooded Strobe: Dark waters coming out

After the strobe incident I immediatley went to Cathy's shop to rent another strobe. It was Sunday and they were all out for a photo shoot! The store itself was closed. This was my unlucky day. Since I couldn't do anything about the strobe I decided to relax and have a stroll in downtown Georgetown. Sunset House is located within walking of distance of downtown. It was about 10 blocks away. Since it was in the middle of the afternoon, it was really hot. There was nothing out of the ordinary in Georgetown. There were the usual jewelry and watch stores, clothing stores and souvenir shops. After a couple of hours I was done and returned to the hotel.

It was past 6:00pm when I was sitting at the outdoor restaurant right next to bar when I saw one Sunset House's boats unloading divers. It was Cathy and her crew returning from the photo-shoot. Then it went to my head: Salvation! They were going back to the shop. I took the opportunity to "intercept" Cathy at the shop and told her what happened to my strobe. According to official business hours the store was already was closed. However, she told me to return the next morning before the dive boats leave (8:00am), she said somebody will be at the store at 6:30am. I also asked her about her photo shoot, it turned out that they were at Royal Palms Ledge that day. This kind of confirmed my opinion on the dive site. If the dive site was good enough for a photo shoot, something must be out of the ordinary there.

Eden Rock

The next morning at 6:30am I was able to secure a Sea&Sea YS-90, just like the one I've used during the two classes I took. I was breathing a sigh of relieve. Since I already had a fiber optic connector hookup, I was ready to go. I just needed to set the strobe in "slave" mode.

Today's dive boat was heading to two sites: Sand Chutes and Eden Rock. Sand Chutes had some channels and some swim thrus. I was surprised about the desolation though, there was not much coral life. I didn't like this particular dive too much.

On our second dive we headed to Eden Rock or Devil's Grotto. This site is quite famous because of the dramatic lighting effects inside the numerous grottos and swim thrus and it is only in 30 feet of water (average). The site was located not far from Sunset House. In fact, you could see Sunset House from it.

Eden Rock was quite interesting from the get go. At the begining of the dive, I found this purple-tipped anemone and stopped by to take a picture. Julianne, one of Cathy Church's staff, who was with us as a "photo buddy", took this picture of me taking the picture. To this day, I don't know whether she took the picture right at moment my strobe fired or if she triggered my strobe thru the slave mode. Anyway, the picture turned out to be great!

I didn't know that Julianne had taken this picture until I showed up at the store. Julianne was very excited and told me "you have to see this picture of you". When I saw it, I had to get it. It cost me $US 30, again priceless.

And this is the picture that I was taking while this picture was taken:

This was not the only anemone around there, soon after I ran into another anemone, this time it was a green-tip one.

So far I had noticed, that using the SP-350 with the fiber optic connector was more sluggish that using TTL. Since the built-in flash had to be charged every time, the cycle time and responsiveness was slower than with the TTL connector. With the TTL connector, only a small electrical signal was needed, this obviously cut down on the camera's battery life.

My dive buddy at Eden Rock was Gordon, a geology professor traveling with his son. We were passing one of the formations when I noticed a ledge at the bottom of it. It turned out that you could crawl underneath into the other side, which turned out to be a cave. I took the lead as I noticed it first, Gordon followed after. To my amazement, I ran into a tarpon inside the cave. I was at the right place at the right time. The tarpon got later spooked by two other divers coming from the cave side, it turned out that there was another entrance.

We went thru numerous swim thrus and caves. One of them I recognized from pictures: the Devil's Grotto. It is a smaller cave than what it looks in pictures. Only one person can go in at the time. There is an opening at the top of the cave and the noon sun light comes as a beam of light, like a spotlight into the cave. I took this picture with only ambient light with high aperture and slow shutter (F/2.8 and 1/60 sec).

Eden Rock was the best dive definitely that day and one of my favorites in Grand Cayman. Specially for the opportunities for underwater photography and best of all, it is not very deep, the max depth was 40 feet. So you can stroll around for even more than 1 hour.

Visiting the Mermaid Again

That afternoon I did a shore dive from Sunset House. I buddied up with Randy whom I was diving with on the same boat dives during these couple of days. This time I put my macro lessons to practice, as well as some of the lighting techniques that I learned in the past.

For example, with this yellow tube sponge, I used "rim lighting", meaning that I point the strobe right above the tube along its vertical axis. This illuminates the rim of the tubes and gives it a different and dramatic effect. This picture was taken at F/5.6 and 1/250 sec.

For this next picture, I was practicing "back lighting", having the strobe point in the opposite direction of the camera, with the aim to capture some "see thru" or transparent aspects of a formation or creature. I was taking a picture of this soft coral and making the strobe light shine thru it. While I was setting up my strobe, I noticed a small well camouflaged fish among the branches of the soft coral. It was juvenile scrawled filefish. This picture was taken with macro settings of F/8.0 and 1/500 sec. The fish was really difficult to shoot because it was moving around and the camera was going crazy with the autofocus.

In retrospect, I could have used manual focus; however, at that time I didn't know I had that capability with this camera. I could have just set the focus to say 10 inches and move the camera back and forth.

After noticing the sluggishness of the camera using the fiber optic connector, I decided to go for the TTL connector. Right after the shore dive, I went to Cathy's shop and told them to install the TTL bulkhead for my PT-030 housing. They did it right away, but I had to leave it overnight. The next day I picked it up right before the boat dive.

Northwest Point and La Mesa

This was my last boat dive at Sunset House. Today we were going to North West Point and La Mesa. At North West Point, I didn't manage to see anything interesting. I had buddied up with Randy and we went our own separate way. The other group had seen all the goodies including a moray eel and a turtle.

La Mesa was a more interesting dive. It was similar to Royal Palms Ledge. It was a circular ledge with a lot of nooks and cranies. On this dive I was able to practice both macro and wide angle. And since I now had a TTL connector, my macro pictures won't be overexposed. I took a number of macro pictures of coral formations. These were taken with inches away from the camera.

Smooth Coral	Coral Closeup
Web-like Coral	Arrow Crab inside Vase Coral

I also took a picture of this juvenile rock beauty. Unlike adult rock beauties, this guy swam around, but around his home. Adult rock beauties are particularly hard to shoot because they swim fast and they don't stay in one place.

Another opportunity for macro was taking the picture of this diamond blenny. This picture was taken at F/5.6 and 1/125 sec. Blennies tend to stay on the ground for a bit, but then they "jump" to another place. The challenge is getting them in focus, because they are so tiny.

At the end of the dive, we were surrounded by big schools of fish, grunts and Caribbean chubs. This was a chance to take some wide angle pictures.

School of Grunts

School of Chubs

The past 3 days were a roller coaster experience with my new camera. I went from being excited of trying this great camera, the Olympus SP-350, buy it, flood my existing strobe, rent a strobe, feel disppointed with the fiber optic connector, and finally get the TTL connector. Every day something was going on with my camera setup. It was though a great learning experience to go with the different camera setup conditions.

Here is a review of the Nekton Rorqual on the Cayman Islands itinerary. Since the Nekton Rorqual is very similar to its sister ship, the Nekton Pilot, this review is a comparison to the Nekton Pilot, since I've written about the Nekton Pilot before (see my Nekton Pilot: Belize Central Review).

The Ship

The Nekton Rorqual was build a couple of years after the Nekton Pilot. It includes one major design difference which is the continuous strut on each side connecting the superstructure to the submerged pontoons that provide buoyancy. For that reason the Nekton Rorqual looks more boxy than the Nekton Pilot; however, this design improvement provides slightly higher speed and range than the Nekton Pilot.

The layout of the superstructure of the Nekton Rorqual is almost identical to that of the Nekton Pilot. The living space layout is almost the same. The Nekton Rorqual has three decks as well: A lower deck for mostly guests and crew quarters, a mid-deck for guest quarters, the galley and dining room, and the top deck or Sun Deck, which houses the bridge, a shaded meeting area and the jacuzzi and lounge area. The Rorqual has 16 guest rooms and is able to house up to 32 guests. It has all the amenities seen on the Nekton Pilot, although, I noticed that the Pilot has more audio visual equipment. On the port corner, the Nekton Pilot has a TV and VCR set, whereas the Rorqual doesn't.

The Diving Facilities

The diving deck, as in the Nekton Pilot, is movable, that is it can go up and down depending on the conditions of the sea or whether the deck is open or not. There three ways to make an entry into the water: two on the side, which require a 3 ft jump, and one through the stairs in the middle. The way back to boat is through the stairs. Underneath the stairs, there is a hang bar at 15 ft with an emergency air tank with regulator. This is where you can comfortably do your safety stop. At night, the hang bar is illuminated with with glow sticks and a beacon.

The nitrox measurement is done right before a dive. A crew member would measure it and you would have to sign your name on the Nitrox sheet.

In the middle of the dive deck there is a mask cleaning station with a bucket just for masks and a sprayer with cleaning solution (I believe it's vinegar). On the two sides beside the middle stairs, there are two containers with fresh water for camera equipment. This where you would leave your camera right before the dive. A crew member would hand you your camera once you are in the water.

The dive deck has two rows of "diving cubby holes." This is a space assigned to you for the duration of the cruise. That is, you don't have to change tanks, as the tanks are filled directly using a network of hoses that can serve all tanks. Below you can see a picture of the "cubby hole" I was assigned, right next to the starboard exit platform, so I was able to get into the water rather quickly. Below the bench, where you lay your tank and BCD, you can put your fins, masks, snorkel and other wet belongings.

Right before stepping into the dive deck there is a "check-in board" where you have to sign the time you start your dive. On the way back you have to sign out. A crew member would keep track of your times and make sure you don't exceed your bottom time. Although this is not policed very heavily, as most divers that come here have dive computers.

Right next to the check-in board there are two hot water shower heads and a rinse bucket (with Clorox) for wet suits and booties. Above the dive deck (on the mid deck) there are two camera tables, an air hose for cameras and rinse bucket for leak testing. Right next to one of the camera tables, there is a dryer. The exhaust of the dryer warms the towels stacked underneath the camera table.

The Food and the Crew

As in any dive trip, divers need their source of energy. The food on the Nekton Rorqual is served buffet style. On lunch and dinner, there's always rolls, a salad, a side dish or soup, and a main course. The picture below is of our last dinner, in which Capt. Nelson is serving enthusiastically each and everyone of us (bbq ribs). One thing that is very noticeable, is how much Capt. Nelson is involved with the operation. Since he is an diving instructor himself, he gives the briefings and even dives with you. And he doesn't skip galley duty either ;). It is really a pleasure to have him as a captain. You feel that he would go the extra mile for you.

Brett (making a face, above) is an excellent cook and he would come to you to serve you snacks during surface intervals (like the eggrolls below). 10:30am and 3:00pm are the times when snacks are served. Kat is another tireless member of the crew (above, on galley duty). She gives the Stingray City briefing and is also the resident photographer. She is also the MC for the picture competition and she is the one that compiles the CD that you can purchase at the end of the cruise. One thing that is noticeable as well (compared to the Nekton Pilot) is the quality of two of the briefings: the one of the MV Tibbets Destroyer and the one of Stingray City. Both of them were well-prepared and informative Powerpoint briefing presentations.

At dinner, there is always dessert at the end, like chocolate cake with vainilla ice cream and whip cream (below).

Cayman Islands Itinerary

The Cayman Island Itinerary is an itinerary that has lots of variety. It has a wreck (MV Keith Tibbets Destroyer), "petting zoo" (Stingray City), big animal encounters (Benji the Grouper and Spotted Eagle Rays) and wall diving with the best visibility on Bloody Bay Wall.

On this itinerary my favorite dive sites were Lea Lea's Lookout, Jackson's Reef and Wall, MV Keith Tibbets Destroyer, McCurley's Wall, Stingray City and Tarpoon Alley. Below is a table of the sites we visited. Click on the site names for detailed accounts and pictures and the littele map for the diagram that was presented on the corresponding briefing.

Day	Dive Site	Location	Highlights	Map
1	Jax Dax	Grand Cayman	Porpcupine fish, Spootted Butterflyfish, Snapper, Blue Tang, Rock Beauty
1	White Stroke Canyon	Grand Cayman	Trumpetfish, First Encounter with Big Stingrays, Lobster
2	Lea Lea's Lookout	Little Cayman	Benji the Grouper. Great Visibility
2	Randy's Gazebo	Little Cayman	Turtles, Groupers galore!, the Gazebo, Banded Butterflyfish, Dog Snappers, Green Tipped Anemone, Foureyed Butterflyfish, Lobster, Nurse Shark
3	Marilyn's Cut	Little Cayman	Groupers, Swim-thrus, Big Tube Sponges, Sea Fans, Barrel Sponges, Turtles, Green Moray
3	Magic Roundabout	Little Cayman	Two Reef Sharks!, Black Grouper, Turtle, Swim-thrus
3	Jackson's Reef and Wall	Little Cayman	More Groupers, Laberythn like Formations, Big Green Sea Turtle
4	Joy's Joy	Little Cayman	Black Grouper, Brain Coral, Barracuda, French Angel, Queen Trigger, Nassau Grouper
4	Randy's Gazebo	Little Cayman	Playing with Groupers, Turtle, Chasing Nurse Shark, Unicorn Trigger, Whitespotted Filefish, Lobster, Black Grouper
5	MV Keith Tibbets Destroyer	Cayman Brac	The Destroyer Wreck, Big Guns, Barracuda, Grouper, Garden Eels, Spotted Eagle Ray!, Banded Butterflyfish
5	Land Excursion	Cayman Brac	Bat Caves, the Bluff, Columbus Botanical Garden, Maritime Museum
5	Radar Beach	Cayman Brac	Dolphin and Stingray Sculpture, Channel Crab, Sea Star, Slip Lobster
6	McCurley's Wall	Grand Cayman	The Pinnacle, Black Coral, Whitespotted Filefish, Barracuda, Juvenile Yellow Stingray
6	Stingray City	Grand Cayman	Stingrays!
6	Tarpoon Alley	Grand Cayman	Tarpoon, Long Encounter with Spotted Eagle Ray
6	Jax Dax	Grand Cayman	Smooth Trunkfish, Ocellate Swimming Crab