New dive site

There is a new (to us at least ) dive site we've gone to a couple of times now over the past couple of weeks. It's a really great reef right in downtown Aguadilla, appropriately known as (wait for it) Downtown. It's a pretty short swim out to the reef. We drop in about 25 feet of water. Along the outside the reef drops to 70 or 80 feet, almost like a wall dive. There are some very interesting, very healthy coral on the reef with lots of varied life swimming around. Considering it's location we were pleasantly surprised at the health of the reef and how unspoiled and untouched it is.

The two times we dove this reef visibility hasn't been very good. That may be one factor in why more people don't dive it more often. But the limited visibility has given me the chance to play with my new underwater flash.In the murky water you have to get close to things to photograph them so I got work with the flash set up close up. The colors really pop with the flash. Some things, like that purple sponge, look brownish under water because the water filters out various wavelengths of light as you go deeper, starting with the reds. So anything with a lot of red in dulls out as we descend. But the flash adds all the wavelengths back in, letting us see the "thing's" true colors.

 We're all looking forward to diving Downtown on a clean day. Hopefully this winter, after hurricane and the rainy season, we'll get some cleaner days on the reef. It should be diveable most of the winter, even in surf season. Because of where it located, it should be pretty well protected unless there is a lot of "west" in the swell.

Here's looking forward to a bunch of great dives on a new site!