Monday's dives

A successful first day diving for us on Cozumel. The rest of our group dove yesterday but the Colonel and I prefer to attend church and engage in quiet activities instead of diving on the Sabbath.

Between the three dives today, we spotted at least five lionfish. Chino, our divemaster, managed to capture three of them. Aqua Safari advertises that any guest who finds a lionfish and points it out to a divemaster gets a free afternoon dive. I discovered one of the lionfish at 28ft on Cardona Reef, hanging upside down against the ceiling of a low profile reef cave. The body was about 6" long -- a good-sized critter. Chino captured it with one swipe of his net. I guess that makes my afternoon dive today free.

In addition to all the usual suspects, some of the noteworthy finds on our dives today at Caracolillo, Cardona and Paradise:

• Yellow-cheek wrasse (Cardona)
  
• At least 10 yellow sting rays (Paradise)
• Lesser electric ray (Paradise)
• Glassy sweepers (Caracolillo)

A shower, an hour of group fish ID class, a tasty dinner at El Foco, and its time to hit the sack. We're looking forward to another full day of diving tomorrow.

Best fishes,
Reefnut