Let's Take A Look At What You Could of Won - 01/08/2014

In my not so distant youth there was a darts based TV show called Bullseye. Bullseye, with hindsight, was a terrible TV show. However, each week it had an epic but rarely won prize that was either a caravan or a speedboat. Today TDFKAMF and I headed to St Catherines 2 for two dives. The first, a deeper dive down to around 30m and a second to the once coveted Bullseye prize - the St Cats Speedboat.

Our first dive threw up some nice life including a nice dogfish and a red cushion star amongst the usual life  in great visibility. However, it was on the second dive when the fun really began. I'd only been to the speedboat once before and that was on a night dive with Big Al and Batman, so today was a first during the day. After locating it and a quick swim around we headed along to the reef. As we swam along I noticed a couple of fine fishing lines floating in the tide, then another couple. After a few seconds I began to realise that these were the longest tentacles of a Lion's mane jellyfish.

I signalled to TDFKAMF the potential hazard just as the main bell came into view about 8m away. Not wanting to miss the opportunity to have a good I look and gauge the size of the bell, I negotiated my way around the tentacles and up to the bell. Grant stayed seabed and very kindly took some snaps (below), my camera had some condensation inside the case.

I estimate the bell to be between 60-70cm, the total tentacle length easily in excess of 8m. It was a great dive and a nice way to mark Grant's 50th.

Me approaching the Lion's Mane by Grant

Me rounding the speedboat by Grant

Dogfish

Red cushion star

Red cushion star

Let's have a look at what you could of won

50 dives and counting

Make Reefs, Not War - 15/07/2014

Make reefs, not war.

Day two of diving with Aqaba's Anchor and we hit two excellent reefs Seven Sisters & the Tank and Gorgon I. Both were quite similar with the exception being the former had a former US military tank. Young Al was having mask problems so Gill and I just followed Isaac through the maze of canyoning reefs. 

The tank was sunk by the King of Jordan to create an artificial reef. It probably was meant to be something big and interesting, but it now actually makes quite a potent symbol. I won't over egg my own political beliefs, but I think I've come up with a new slogan - make reefs, not war. Moreover, the tank has become an impressive nursery for a number of species fish and has also been colonised by fan corals - life thriving on a vehicle designed for killing.

Dive One gave us the more interesting sea life including a large Moray Eel, a Frogfish, an excellent little Nudibranch, a couple of little Scorpionfish and a baby Lionfish. Dive Two, however, was more about the giant coral sea stacks. It too was nice.

Tonight it's back to the Cedar Pride for my first ever night wreck dive. :D

Gill likes the tank

Red sea anemone fish

Nudi!

In amongst the coral

Frogfish

I think this is fire sponge, I never touched it to find out

Canyoning reef

Clam

Photobombed lionfish by Gill

The lionfish

Small coral thing

Mutha puffer

The Big Frewbowski

An Unexpected Journey Part 2 - 08/05/2014

I'm assuming you read Part 1, so I'll just continue with the narrative....

We came ashore high as kites because, regardless of what people think, we had just enjoyed an excellent little adventure. With Fast Ed set to continue our adventure, we prepared to dive the regular St Catherine's dive site. We entered the water determined to find some Conger Eels.

Dropping down to around 20m we stumbled across a lovely red cushion star before finding a large but shy conger eel. However, the dive highlight for the Zookeeper and Fast Ed was a spooked catshark that swam straight at my face. Naturally, I jumped. Even underwater I could hear Ed and Laura laughing. I felt like Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss' character from Jaws) when he finds the remains on the Orca.

Matt Hooper - The reason why most of us dive

Then came the edible crabs. A couple of them roaming freely over the reef. I've never seen that before. The carry-on continued as Ed unleashed his true inner self as he wrapped a length of seaweed round his neck like a Eurovision-esque feather boa - it seemed appropriate.

Edible crab

Jaws

Comb Jelly

Cushion star

Conger eel

Cushion star