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Log Date: Saturday, January 30th, 2010
Entry By: Utila Aggressor Crew
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Our guests arrived for this week’s charter on the puddle jumper from San Pedro Sula early on Saturday evening. We had seven lovely guests who were Allison who is from the Twin cities in Minnesota, Stephen who lives in Wisconsin, Janice and Robert who are from near Atlanta, Francois who lives in Quebec and a special mention to Mr. Richard Clark who is making his third trip on the Utila Aggressor. We welcome you all and look forward to taking great care of you this week.
The engines kicked into life at six o clock on the dot and we took a leisurely trip around to the north side of Utila and to our first stop of the week which was Blackish Point, after a dive brief and a quick weight check our heads disappeared under the water’s surface which is at a temperature of 79f. We had a nice relaxed start with some great finds including three Red Tipped Sea Goddess, Queen Triggerfish, Spotted Drums, Flamingo Tongues and a couple of very big Midnight Parrotfish. We spent the afternoon on the south east point of the island at Ted’s Point, there is an old wreck down at seventy feet which is covered in healthy Sea Fans, there was a huge Dog Snapper hiding under the hull of the boat and we came across some Yellow Stingrays buried in the sand. Our night dive was truly excellent as we discovered a Southern Stargazer, this fish is without doubt one of the most spectacular in Caribbean sea, he lies camouflaged under the sand then eats any unsuspecting fish who swim to close to his mouth, we also found a Spoon Nosed Eel who was also in a hungry mood as he swallowed a Goat fish in one gulp, this was a truly great start to our weeks diving and everyone was looking forward to more excitement tomorrow.
After a calm night in the harbor we steamed around to Turtle Harbor to one of the most popular dive sites of the week which is The Great Wall, we found our first Seahorse of the week clinging onto a Rope Sponge at eighty feet, we also discovered a Loggerhead Turtle on the edge of the wall which is very rare in this area. The wall itself is worth a mention as it just keeps going down so far that you can’t see the bottom, there are schools of Creole Wrasse and Black Durgon cruising around and it is covered in beautiful Barrel Sponges one of which is ten feet tall and makes a great subject for wide angel photography. After an Al Fresco lunch on the top deck we went around the Utila Cays for a scenic ride before mooring up at Jack Neal Point for the remainder of Monday. We discovered a Lesser Electric Ray down on the sand, these beautiful Rays can give a shock of up to thirty seven volts so you have to be careful when you approached them, some other delights which we saw here included a three foot Barracuda, Sand diver, Corkscrew Anemones and a school of Parrotfish who were very busy mating near some amazing Elkhorn Coral formations.
We left Utila bright and early on Tuesday morning and headed to Coco’s sea mount which is a dream of a dive site, the sea mount has the highest concentration of fish numbers in the whole of the Bay Islands with big schools of Horse Eyed Jacks, Bermuda Chub, Brown Cromis, Barracuda, Sergeant Majors and Black Margate. There are plenty of other great things to see living on the mount including Lion Fish, Green Morays, Batwing Crabs and Nassau Groupers. We headed over to Roatan for our next dive which was at the world famous Mary’s Place. The canyons here are simply awe-inspiring as they drop down from twenty feet to ninety and some are a bit of a squeeze so it’s a very exhilarating dive, the site is also home to exquisite marine life like Bearded Fire worms, Harlequin Pipefish, Glassy Sweepers and Tiger Grouper. We hit the west end in the afternoon and instead of going to watch a show we did some dives at Half Moon Bay Wall, this site has many wonderful features including some big sandy areas which are home to lots of Yellow Headed Jaw fish, the shallow reef is full of Blue Tangs and Spotted Lobsters, the wall is pretty deep and is encrusted in lots of Elephant sponge and Black Coral.
Wednesday started with a dive on the wreck of El Aguila, this old cargo ship is in three main pieces and there is plenty of action to be seen near the bow as there is a bunch of hungry Groupers who hang around looking for a free snack. There was also a huge Green Moray who was not dissimilar to the Incredible Hulk and he scoffed down most of the chum even before the Groupers had any. The next dive was an absolute gem at Dolphin caves, this dive is just like the Cenotes in Mexico with lots of tunnels to explore and it’s a beautiful sight looking up at the sun rays as they penetrate the roof of caverns. There is thousands of Glassy Sweepers living in the dark corners and other great discoveries included some Spotted Drums, West Indian Sea Eggs, Giant Anemones and lots of Spiny Lobsters. The rest of the day was spent at Taviana’s Wall and Allison did a very good job finding the boat on the navigation dive for her advanced course. The night dive really rocked with a couple of Common Octopus hunting on the reef and it was a good night for Nudibranch’s with White Speckled and Banana variety found on a Common Sea fan.
Our first destination on the action packed Thursday was Cara a Cara and our guests came face to face with around ten Caribbean Reef Sharks. The Sharks are used to us being in the water with them so they come nice and close to pose for pictures and video, there is also a chance on this dive to look for Shark teeth in the sandy areas which makes for a nice souvenir to show the kids at home. As the east wind was blowing hard we took shelter on back on the west end of the island and did a really excellent drift dive at Fosters reef, there was plenty of marine life to keep us busy including a Scorpion fish, three Hawksbill Turtles, a couple of Green Morays and some massive Cubera Snappers. The afternoon was spent at Eel Garden and we had a lot of fun hanging out with lots of fish including Permits, Scrawled File fish, Midnight Parrotfish and of course all the Garden Eels dancing on the sand. If I told you that we saw Longsnout Seahorse, Large Eye Toadfish, Lettuce Sea Slugs, Cryptic Teardrop Crabs, Decorator Crabs, Crisscross Tritonia, Rough Fileclam, Fuzzy Chiton, Common Octopus, Giant Basket Star, Tiger Tail Sea Cucumbers, Leather Back Doris, Jack Knife and a Slipper Lobster on our night dive then I’ll think you all agree that we had a pretty good time.
Our last day started with a dive at Big Rock on the south east shore of Utila, we came across plenty of marine activity on the shallow sand patch including a Pipe horse, Peacock Flounders, Leech Headshield Slugs, Yellow headed Jawfish, Yellow Stingray and we found some Sailfin Blenny’s fighting it out with their Sails flapping around trying to intimidate each other. We chose Blacks Hills for our last dive as this is one of best kept secrets on Utila, our guests really enjoyed their experience on this pristine sea mount and were amazed at the variey and color of all the exotic fish that call Black Hills their home.
All the crew would like to thank all our guests for paying us a visit this week, we hope you enjoyed your time with us on the Utila Aggressor. Congratulations to Allison who completed her advance and Nitrox course, well done to Rob who also joined the world of Nitrox divers. Special mention to Francois who kept us all entertained with his great dancing skills and an obsession with potatoes and Sea Wasp’s.
Written by Kris Mears, Dive Instructor, Utila Aggressor.
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