July 18, 2021 - We are in Playa Del Carmen now. Damn, this trip is going fast. We dropped off the guests at the airport in Cancun, said goodbye to my brothers and some of our buddies who joined us for some fun, and then high-tailed it to Playa del Carmen to see my son David, who lives, and works for Phantom Divers, as one of their instructors and Shark Feeders. We had not seen him since January when we were there to dive with the bull sharks, so it was going to be nice visiting with him. It has been too long.
We arrived in Playa, checked in at our hotel, then met up with him. After some catching up and a good lunch, we headed back to our room to get ready for a night dive. David would have rather just sat down with us for a few beers and some much-needed catching up, but nope. Mari, Sophia, and I were itching to go diving, and a night dive in Playa is always a good time. Plus I just picked up a set of video lights, and I wanted to try them out. So we jumped on one of Phantom’s boats and headed out to a nearby reef. Once we anchored up, the search for wildlife began… specifically for loggerhead sea turtles and octopuses. At least, that is what I was after.
Blue tang resting and seeking protection next to this sea fan. Love the colors.
Carina and Sophia. They are growing up too fast.
Ramon’s daughter Carina joined us for the fun. It was great having her out, Sophia and Carina got certified together when they were around ten years old. So it is so great seeing them still enjoying diving five years later.
The cool thing was it was just us on the dive, no one else on the boat, and no other boats out there on the reef. Which means no one was out there to scare off the nocturnal animals. At least until we showed up with our torches and video lights, it feels so invasive when you use lights to find wildlife. I try not to overdo it because then it just feels like harassment. But when you are trying to find animals or capture images at night, lights are essential.
We swam along the reef exploring; I was hunting for octopuses, they are such incredible animals, and I always love seeing them and trying to capture images of them. Of course, I am shooting with a wide-angle lens, so I will not get anything extraordinary from them. Not without a macro lens. - This was just for fun. Finally, after about 20 minutes, we encountered our first one. They are such beautiful animals. Unfortunately, this guy did not like my lights, so it did not stay exposed for very long. I snapped a few images and then left it alone.
We continued our swim, and David excitedly showed me what I have been hoping to find and photograph… A loggerhead! It was sleeping on the reef, and our lights woke her. I immediately felt terrible, so I snapped a quick few images of her and then left her alone. She was disturbed with our lights and swam off into the night.
I was thrilled to see her but also felt guilty for waking her up. I did not pursue her. I just watched her disappear, hoping she would find a quiet and safe place to fall back to sleep. She was an older turtle, massive with half of her right front flipper missing—no doubt from a tiger or a bull shark. I wasn’t with her long enough to get anything good, so I was hoping for at least one decent proof of life image in there.
We continued on and found another octopus; this one was hunting and caught a fish in front of us, which was cool to see. Octopus are wow animals. I watched in awe as it swam around the reef, changing colors, trying to blend in and hide from me. They change colors so fast, it is wild. At one point, it swam by a blue tang, and it turned a shade of blue. That, to me, is so amazing.
We stayed down there for about an hour; we would have stayed longer, but sadly we were low on air and had to call it a day. However, it was such a fun dive, I am already looking forward to my return to Playa after our croc trip for some more dives with the SDM crew and hopefully some daytime images of a loggerhead.
Until then… thanks for reading.