Dive no.: 10
Date: Aug 18 2007Location: Ft Walton Beach FLDive site: Laguna Park, Cinco BayouWeather Condition: Sunny, High 92 degWater Condition: Murkey and calm
Visibility: 10-15 feetWater Temp: 84 degEntered the water at: 8:35am
Max Depth: 18 ftBottom Time: 56 min

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Remarks:

On this day, we met up with a bunch of divers from our local scuba club, the Scubaholics. Dawn was teaching a class of new open water divers and invited us along.

Visibility was better than usual for this popular proving ground for new divers. There were a few cerfication classes in session here today. We ran into Jim Sturgeon, our old instructor teaching his newest batch of divers.

There`s several items sitting on the bottom of this dive site, including some old cut out scuba tanks, a crusty old hub cap, an old toilet, and a cinder block. To the casual observer this might appear to be nothing but a dumping ground. But to a variety of marine life (including the curious scuba diver) this is small utopia. Each item has over time become a miniature reef.


Old scuba tanks

Inside, Daniel discovered a very shy octopus.




Octopus clinging to the inside of the scuba tank






Pin Fish


Jeff pried open a clam shell and fed the hungry Pin Fish. It didn`t take long for them to invite their friends




A hub cap. One of many "treasures" in Cinco Bayou


Daniel


and Ben!


A pair of wandering Fuzzy Sea Hares


Daniel holding one of the Sea Hares.

Daniel noticed they have a deep crevace along their spine.




Ben holding the other Sea Hare

These guys are so cute. They remind me of shaggy sheep dogs. They`re so soft and squishy!




A Remora looking for a shark to hitch a ride on


I don`t know if this is true or not, but someone said to me that a remora siting indicates the presence of a nearby shark. I`ve still yet to see a shark. When I do I`ll be sure to get pictures!





Sea Robin (2 inches long).

This little guy scoots across the sea floor pretty fast.




Scubaholics pleading with the octopus to come out





Dawn` holding out her hand as a Sea Horse happens by.


Sea Horse resting on the bottom after a tiring visit.



Finally with some gentle coaxing, Mr Octopus comes out to play


Octopus (head is about 1.5 ft long)

Daniel pulled off one of his gloves and let Mr Octopus climb onto his arm. Apparently, the octopus is attracted to the feel of warm blooded human flesh. I didn`t get any pictures of this because.. welllllll while I was off taking pictures of the sea horse, I lost track of Ben and had to go find him in the murky water.

Where was he all this time?????

He was right next to Daniel checking out the OCTOPUS!!!

And I totally MISSED IT! :(



Well as a consolation I got plenty of pictures of...




Toothy Barnacles (1.5 inches wide)


Although visibility was pretty bad, it was a great dive all in all. It wa