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 Morning
sun and calmer waters allowed the divers' boat to depart
from the Sunset House side of the island. Off to a
dive site called Caribbean Sand Chute, through some
moderate current and then down to a site with plentiful
reef fish and large coral heads separated by sand chutes
leading to the wall with a 6,000 ft drop-off. For the
first time our leaders, Georgienne, Jay, and Melissa,
were able to come  aboard
the boat and dive with all of us. The dive site starts
at 60 feet slopping to a sand fall of 130 feet. Photographers
were snapping the reef life including a school of horse-eyed
jacks, a school of garden eels, and later a green moray
eel peering out at the divers, with a small goby perched
on his head performing cleaning duty - another example
of the symbiotic activity we have been searching for
all week.
 At
the next site, Three Royal Palms Ledge, there were Pederson
shrimp, coral banded shrimp, spotted drum fish, box fish,
trumpet fish, jack fish, yellow-tailed damselfish—complete
with sparkles! Divers watched as the tiny Pederson shrimp
waved its antennae trying to attract customers to be
cleaned. One diver slowly and carefully extended a finger
toward the shrimp. Cautiously, the shrimp began cleaning
the diver's fingernail! I guess we were now part of the
symbiosis process.
   
 Back
at the Sunset House some divers worked on finishing their
projects and other scurried to Georgetown to buy souvenirs
for those at home before departing tomorrow. Then at
5:45 pm the complete IF team gathered for group pictures
at sunset on the shore of Sunset House.
The 6 pm
status meeting highlighted pictures taken during this
week that were both funny and spectacular. What a group
of talented photographers! John Monk gave an informative
presentation on "The Traveling Photographer".
We learned lots of good tips on preparing, packing,
and traveling with photo equipment. Once all the loose
ends of business were tied up, we all gathered for
a final farewell dinner.
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