Dive #209 - Rich Torkington's Dive Log

A great tiger grouper at a cleaning station.
Videograph by Rich Torkington in Bahamas 2005

Dive Journal: The morning’s second dive is another patchy swimaround. The bottom slopes downward in a northeasterly direction, and we come across a nice Nassau grouper to video.

As we continue NE, Linda points out a big tiger grouper sculling down in a large sandy depression, so we carefully lower ourselves in so we won’t disturb him. He’s getting cleaned by little juvenile wrasses and such, and he stays put to give me some of the best video of a tiger grouper I’ve ever gotten. We especially like how he huffs in and out with his big purple lips as the wrasses swim through his gills.

Following lunch, Janel and John take off in the dive boat for their first ever dive without either parent present, at a site called Queen Angel Ridge. We pretend to be nonchalant about it, but we’re both glad to see the dive boat return with our two onboard.

Linda and I heat up the ping-pong table again this afternoon, and we pick up a game of doubles with 2 local guys. They figure as tourists we must be lame players, but we educate them quickly. Soon, the trash talk is flying and the competitive juices are flowing. The local guys seem to really enjoy the game, and ask us to play later on in the week.