Dan or Justy

The wake up on Big Cat Reality is a rude one. Roosters, klaxons and, worst of all, an Aussie-pop version of "Who let the dogs out". You want to get up and out of there.

We crawled out of bed, up the stairs and into our dive gear. Still crawling, we fell overboard and struggled mightily in tough current down the incredibly active (and dangerous) anchor chain to the shipwreck. All this in about 20 minutes. A bit much. I sort of regained full self-awareness at 85 feet.

The wreck isn't a spectacular sight, but harbors them. We saw 2 lionfish: one in the perfect setting for pix. He was quite amiable and posed for us innumerable ways as we oohed and ahhed. Justine didn't have the camera, of course.

The other was inside the wreck, where we got some respite from the current. He was attached, limpet-mine style to the side of the wall, waiting for unwary prey. Luckily, we were wary.

On the second dive, camera in Justy's capable hands, we encountered a cool drama. A large grouper (not a huge one, just regular ol' large :) was chasing an octopus twice his size. I signalled Justy to come over and she initially didn't see the octopus, as it had blended in to the coral where it was defensively postured.

The grouper was very confused by us. He backed away slightly, but did not run. He took up a position in the sand and kept his face pointed to us as we worked with the octopus. He would retreat somewhat if we got too close (only prudent from his perspective, I suppose). The octopus used this and our reluctance to truly interfere with him, to move back to the coral I believe the grouper was trying to shoo him from.

I had a rush of shame as I realized I may have allowed the octopus to feed on the grouper's eggs.

Nature's love is a tough love, and the grouper will make more little groupers, but I felt guilty for the rest of the day.

Last dive and a leisurely one with a nice highlight. I found a little, itsy-bitsy Nemo clownfish in his own right-sized anemone. The picture Justy took needs much magnification to see him nicely, and it was almost a macro shot. I just hovered watching him for a long time.