After nearly a week off, Dave Rufft and I headed out this cool Sunday morning for some diving. We ended up at Molasses Reef again, because we've had some great diving there lately. Winds were 10 knots out of the north. Seas had a some chop, but with this wind direction, the reef shallows provided some protection from the waves. After quite a few cool mornings, water temps had dropped. It was only 69 degrees at our house, but still 74 out at Molasses due to the proximity to the warmer Gulf Stream. We tied up first a M1 on the far south end of the reef. Some nice towering coral mounds and lots of fish.
Here are some photos of a Midnight Parrotfish, Elkhorn Coral, Filefish, Permit, Sergeant Majors, French Angelfish and a Banded Butterflyfish. Click to move through the images.
For our 2nd dive we headed to the central shallow area of the reef. A large catamaran sailboat was tied to the mooring next to us - with very little scope on his anchoring line to the buoy. A lot of tonnage pulling on the mooring! When we completed the dive we were greeted on the surface with 16-18 knots winds that had switched to the west. Seas were getting real choppy. Time to head in. We were both a little chilled after 2 40+ minute dives .
I will not have time to finish a video edit of this dive for awhile. I will post the link when its ready