November Rain

The weather is still very much against us this month with the continual high winds. We had a small window of opportunity to get in the water at Sunset House first thing in the morning.

The waves were pounding off the shore and even with the access via the pool, you still got bounced around badly by the swell.

Not for the faint hearted

The surge in the first 10 metres was pretty potent and the water was very turbid which made getting out to depth a bit of a challenge.

Once we got out the mermaid, things started to clear up a little with a mild Southerly pushing us along.

All clear now

We did a fly-by over the Nicholson which yielded some decent shots for the scrap book with plenty of snappers coming out to play.

All the familiar faces

Also had a nice opportunity to get a panoramic shot of the Nicholson as well which turned out not too bad.

Nicholson and surrounding area

We bimbled over the wall and headed North to catch some of the turtles cruising by who were a bit camera shy today. Probably hadn't had their morning coffee.

A camera shy turtle

After about 70 minutes we headed back into the shallows and over the hard coral formations to see what we could find. Which was a lot of basslets. Jill does like her little blue fish.

Basslets abound

We crused past the mermaid on the way back in and I got a nice panoramic shot of that as well before we rode the waves back into the pool and got a good pounding getting out.

Mermaid and reef in panorama wide-o-vision

On the way out, an OWSI was in the process of trying to convince her students that this was a typical day in the Caymans and it was ideal. Don't think the students were enthused by the sounds of things, they were ready to make a break for the bar. 

Don't think the OWSI had heard of being an RPS and she proceeded to drag them into the water whilst we sat drinking cocktails and watched the conditions get worse and worse. 

They definitely looked ready to throw up and throw in the towel when they got out. Poor sods! Hopefully they wont be put off from diving by their over zealous and inattentive instructor. Just as well there's no HSE on this island, they'd have had kittens.

Jill and her well trained snapper