The “As the Prop Turns” blog will not likely be updated until Monday, May 19 as I am doing my PADI IDC course.  Please excuse the lapse!

On a beautiful and sunny Saturday morning, the six guests who went on the Osprey trip were joined by eight new guests who flew up to join the boat. Once everyone was on the boat, introductions had been made and the safety briefing was done, Nimrod Explorer left Lizard Island and headed out for some diving. The water temperature was 25-26C over the week.

The first dive site that they visited was Snake Pit. After the dive and lunch, Captain Trent Thomas took the boat to Cod Hole. Along the way they were joined by a pod of spinner dolphins who rode the bow for quite a while! The boat arrived at Cod Hole just after 3pm for an afternoon Cod Feed. Visibility at the dive site was about 20m. The boat remained at the Cod Hole mooring for the night dive, and just past sunset, the pod of dolphins swam by the boat again.

The beautiful weather continued as Nimrod Explorer left Cod Hole early Sunday morning and headed to the site Stepping Stones for the first dive of the day. Once everyone had explored the site, they headed onto Lighthouse Bommie for a second dive and for lunch. The third dive of the day was at Acropolis where a pigmy seahorse was spotted. The last two dives were done at Monolith, named for the impressive coral one can see at the site. The visibility was 20m here as well. After the night dive, the boat headed south for Ribbon Reef #5.

On Monday everyone woke up bright and early for a dawn dive at Jayenems Wall. After breakfast, divers jumped into the water again to explore the site in the bright sunshine. As the boat left Jayenems Wall they were joined by another pod of dolphins who rode the bow all the way to Flare Point. Unfortunately they didn’t stick around for the dive. But I guess you can’t have everything! Three dolphin visits is pretty good! The last dives of the trip were done at the beautiful site, Steve’s Bommie in 25m visibility.

While at Steve’s Bommie, guests and crew completed the Project AWARE Asia Pacific Fish Survey. They recorded all sightings of ten pre-determined fish species including big eye trevally, lionfish, leaf scorpion fish, whitetip reef shark and yellowfin goatfish. The surveys were sent to Project AWARE for inclusion in their database. In recognition of their participation in the survey, all guests received Project AWARE certificates and decals. Thanks to everyone who helped with this monitoring project!

After the surveys at Steve’s Bommie, Nimrod Explorer began the long, but luckily calm, trip back to Cairns. In the morning, after pictures on the bow, everyone said goodbye. Thanks for a great trip everyone!

John was on the Turks and Caicos Explorer II the week of April 12 – 19. I asked him to tell me about some of the marine critters that he saw and this is the list he gave me:

An upsidedown jellyfish. A slipper lobster at the Gully: for those of you who haven’t seen a slipper lobster before, they are very cool looking! Arrow crabs - these small and long-legged crabs are abundant in the Caribbean. I have heard them referred to as “spiders of the reef,” which sounds appropriate to me. They are some of my favorite underwater critters. Banded coral shrimp: red and white striped shrimp that can be found in reef crevasses and often in sponges. Pederson cleaning shrimp: these are generally the friendliest shrimp encountered on the reef. They live in association with anemones, often the corkscrew anemone. If you are quiet and patient, you can sometimes get one to clean your hand and fingernails for you. The way that they indicate that they are looking for customers is by waving their antennae. So if you see rapid movement near an anemone while cruising along the reef-top, look closer, you might be able to get one to clean your nails! Over the course of the week, John was able to get several manicures! Spotted cleaner shrimp: these are similar to Pederson cleaning shrimp, but have spots on their body rather than the bluish purple coloration of the Pederson shrimp. They also live within anemones.

Conch, a commercially valuable species and were overharvested throughout most of the Caribbean. However, they are fairly common in the Turks and Caicos. Look for them in sandy areas, especially at dive sites at West Caicos like Elephant Ear Canyon. If you watch them quietly for a few minutes, you can watch their eyes come out and they will continue their lurching path through the sand. Several other divers saw octopi, but John says that he must have “octopus repellant” on him. Even if everyone else on the dive sees one, he will inevitably be on the wrong side of the coral! John saw several of the relatively common Caribbean reef squid at quite close range. They are very cool to watch, because like the octopus, they can change color instantaneously. John also saw the uncommon grass squid which is a small squid that lives in shallow seagrass beds and patch reefs.

At West Caicos, several eagle rays circled John and his buddy at very close range and they also saw several stingrays. Several different kinds of sharks were seen while John was on the boat. He saw several Caribbean reef sharks and there was a sighting of a bull shark which several people got pictures of. On a night dive, John saw a crevale jack eat a blue tang! On several dives, barracuda patrolled around the boats. There were also green and spotted morays at the sites. Unfortunately there were also several sightings of lionfish, which are an invasive species from the Pacific.

Thanks for the update John!!!

Here are some clips from the French TV program that was filmed at The Dome.

Click here: Pago Pago Underwater - Truveo Video Search

Thanks John and Blake!

All passengers arrived to Providenciales as scheduled on Saturday and Turks and Caicos Explorer II left Caicos Marina under the command of Captain Mark Fernandez. They headed first to the Northwest point of Providenciales. The morning dives on the first day were done at Eel Garden and Stairway. The afternoon dive was at the Chimney. The bull shark was sighted for the third time in three weeks, and people who have seen it estimate it to be 10-12 ft. The site for the night dive was “the Dome,” which is a large metal structure that has become an artificial reef. It might not look like much during the day, but it attracts many marine critters and is a great site for night dives. In addition to being a fun place for a night dive, “Thunder Dome” has quite an illustrious history! It was originally constructed as the set for a French TV game show.

After morning dives at Amphitheatre, the boat headed over to West Caicos for dives at Rock Garden Interlude - or RGI for short! Tuesday was also spent at West Caicos with dives at the Gully (and Loretta!) and Brandywine. On Wednesday morning divers got to see the beautiful coral and sponge encrusted anchor at the aptly named dive site, Spanish Anchor. After the morning dives, Captain Mark Fernandez took the boat over to French Cay where they spent the rest of the week. They dove at G-Spot, Double-D and Half Mile Reef. Then it was back to the marina in time for lunch on Friday.

Caribbean Explorer II spent the first few days of the week diving around St. Kitts. They visited the dive sites Corinthian, River Taw, Paradise Reef and Anchors Aweigh. On Tuesday the boat crossed to Statia to dive at Barracuda Reef, The Ledges and Double Wreck. The rest of the week was spent at Saba, visiting 3^rd Encounter, Tedran Wall, Ladder Lab, Tent Wall and Torrens Point. Interesting marine life seen over the week included nurse sharks, dog snappers, lobsters, eels, tarpon, angel fish, flying gurnards, stingrays, jackknife fish, turtles, yellow-headed jawfish, hermit crabs, flounder, yellow-tail snappers, French grunts, stripped grunts, flamingo tongues, Creole wrasse, cleaning shrimp, a pink frogfish and eagle rays.

Average water temperature is 78F.

In celebration of Earth Day, Caribbean Explorer I turned off as many lights as possible. On Thursday, the crew and passengers on Caribbean Explorer I conducted a beach clean-up. They brought back 4 industrial size trash bags full of trash plus a 44 gallon fuel drum with various other large pieces.

Great Job!!!

Caribbean Explorer II left Bobby’s Marina in St. Maarten early on Sunday morning and arrived at Saba in time for breakfast. They spent three days diving around the island, visiting Ladder Lab, Tent Reef, Tedran, Customs House, Torrens Point, 3^rd Encounter and Tent Wall. Several people also went on the island tour.

Wednesday was spent diving in the Statia Marine Park at the dive sites Barracuda, The Ledges and Double Wreck.

The rest of the week was at St. Kitts on Paradise Reef, Anchors Aweigh, Corinthian and River Taw.

Over the course of the week many critters were seen including: Nurse sharks, dog snappers, lobsters, eels, tarpon, angel fish, flying gurnards, stingrays, jackknife fish, turtles, seahorse, yellow headed jawfish, permit, garden eels, flounder, yellow tail snappers, French grunts, stripped grunts, flamingo tongues, Creole wrasse and cleaning shrimp.

Average water temperature over the week was 78F.

HAPPY EARTH DAY!!!!!!!!!!!