In all fairness, I often don’t get to dive in June and July due to crowded boats and my limited schedule. Therefore, this summer hasn’t been unusual other than I was really making an extra effort this year. Anyway, Hubby’s classes were postponed with the effect of “Fred” and the weather stabilized for yesterday morning. Since it was a day off gor him.  he was able to take his camera. Unless he’s teaching a specific photography course he’s not allowed to have a camera when with students.

We went to the wreck of the Benwood, a favored site because it is a) and authentic WWII wreck which makes it interesting. If I haven’t related the story before, the quick version is it was a Norwegian freighter and in the required nighttime running under blackout conditions to try to counter the U-boat threat, the Benwood and another vessel whose name I don’t recall collided in the dark. The Benwood was too damaged to salvage and is very broken up. It does have seven-plus decades of marine growth and always lots of fish. You can also see the anchor and a turtle has taken up residence. In this case, we saw him later on the surface rather than underwater. Although there was nothing very special on the dive, there were multiple different types of schools of fish and they are fun to watch. I saw my queen and French angel fish as well as quite a few hogfish and the big barracuda nicknamed “Psycho” took his usual place under the boat. I don’t actually know where the name came from. The behavior though is common as the barracuda use the boat to “mask” their presence and wait for prey. Interestingly, I’ve never seen a barracuda going after a fish while doing it.

Our second dive was on a popular reef and there was a large nurse shark taking a nap which allowed Hubby to get some good shots. Nothing else extra special, but once again a great many enjoyable “regular reef inhabitants”. In watching the snappers, groupers, and hogfish, it was a bit like looking at a menu and we did have hogfish for lunch later.