Dive #120 - Rich Torkington's Dive Log

Schools of cottonwicks at Bigfoot
Videograph by Rich Torkington in Florida Keys 2002

Dive Journal: Linda’s computer is dead this morning. It has been blinking for several days now, but Linda thought it might at least last the week. Mine is giving me the first weak sign this morning, too. With the dive boat in mid-preparations, Johnny and I quickly take off in the van, find an Osco, buy the batteries, and re-energize both computers.

During our dive briefing, Sarah tells us we have arrived at the Cage divesite, and suggests that if we head away from land, the reef gets much deeper over there, good for exploring. The conditions are just perfect again this morning, and we quickly enter the water and get negative.

Heading southeast under the boat, we all fin for a distance, finally arriving at a sandy flat still in only 30 feet of water. We proceed a bit more over the sand, but we don’t see any sign of an extended reef. What’s up with that?

We reverse course and continue to explore the reef. After a while, we pass the boat again and eventually reach the opposite end of the reef. What a great spot!! There are beautiful collected schools of various grunts all hovering and competing for reef space, stunning French grunts, bluestriped grunts, smallmouth grunts, schools of juvenile French grunts, and smaller packs of blue tangs. It is a wonderland of abundance!

The best attendees are the cottonwicks, another type of grunt I have not seen before this dive. The cottonwicks have a gorgeous wide black stripe running down their backs, like a racing stripe. They are just stunning in numbers.

We spend a lot of time slowly circling this patch of reef, swimming through the grunts and exploring the nooks and crannies. There is a nice arrow crab in one spot, and nearby there is a pair of banded cleaner shrimp.

We eventually start a slow return back to the boat. Very soon, we come across another pair of Caribbean reef squid! We use our remaining air hovering around them, taking video, watching their interesting color changes and undulating fins. So fascinating we don’t want to end the dive.

Back on the boat, we learn that Sarah has flubbed the dive site identification – we’re actually at a site called Bigfoot, which in fact does not go any deeper than 30 feet. At least we found some great spots here!