COZUMEL 2012 - Day 1

Well, here we are in Cozumel again and it's our favorite place to dive. Julio, our divemaster, greeted us early this morning and we were off to the Palancar Reef for two beautiful dives. Here are just a few of the over 100 photos we took today and though now are "publishing" quality, we hope you'll enjoy them and get a little feel for our adventures. Please leave a comment or two. God bless!

We start with a couple of beautiful underwater landscapes.

Turtles are one of the most graceful of all sea creatures.

Trunk Fish

Juvenile ? Playing Inside a Yellow Sponge

5 Point Star Fish

Just some of the reef fish we see on every dive.

This Rock Fish is hard to find and dangerous if touche.

Barracudas roam the reefs looking for prey.

Okay, see the thing going over the wall? It's not a snake, but the tail of an iguana. Below is the face of this granddaddy of a lizard. He is over 4 feet long and the largest we've ever seen. We encountered him on a trail during our surface break, between dives. Isn't he cute?

      

                                   

Four Urgent Problems The Church Needs To Deal With

I ran across what I believe to be a great article today on chruchleaders.com and I want to urge you to read it.  (LINK BELOW)  However, as you read the article, please remember it is not intended to be an in-depth analysis of any of the topics. It is a rather short synopisis of the preceived points of emphasis intended to get us thinking about the impact our church is having on the community and the way we go about carrying out the Great Commission. It is a very short article and should take less than five minutes to read. I encourage your prayerful feedback here at this blog spot, as we share in Christian love our thoughts and idea with one aother.  God bless each of you!

http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-blogs/160476-perry_noble_four_problems_the_church_has_got_to_deal_with.html?p=1

Cozumel Diving 2011 - Day 10 The Final Chapter

Day 10, The Final Chapter -- Okay, I know some of you are tired of all the underwater photos, so I assure you that this is the final chapter of Cozumel 2011. Today we will show photos of a large gray ray, a trumpet fish, a five point star fish (this is the only one we saw this year), Mitch with a turtle, a small eel, and a balck & yellow reef fish that wanted a kiss from Reva. Then there are four macro shots of very small critters. You'll have to look closely at some in order to find them. They are a black-red-white nudi-branch, a sand blennie, a red rock bleenie and a lettuce nudi-branch. Reva did a great job of photograph this year. She had to carry the ball after Mitch's camera case flooded and ruined his camera. Thank you all for looking and PLEASE leave some feedback. God has given us so much beauty that is hard to imagine until you've been there! Enjoy and God bless!

Cozumel Diving 2011 - Day 9

Day 9 -- Palancar Horseshoe Reef followed by San Clemente Wall. These were very nice drift dives that produced great colors of coral, sponge and fish. Greeted shortly after our decent by a friendly feeding sea turtle, the fun was on. Lobster (big enough to feed a family of six) poked its head out to say "hello". An unfriendly Lion Fish met its doom at the end of Dive Master Julio's spear and would be held over to the second dive to make a festive dinner for a large Mutton Snapper. A large crab waved goodbye as we prepared for our first assent of the day. On the second dive, though the current was swift, we were quickly met by another large lobster. Along the way were an array of beautiful reef fish, large Parrot Fish, large Brown Angels Fish, a couple of grumpy looking Barracuda and too many others to name. As we began our final assent a six foot Nurse Shark swam out to say goodbye. We hope you enjoy the photos and the videos today.
Gram doesn't like videos taken of her. Grandpa says, "Get over it, Gram!"

Wow! Watch these big Parrot Fish chompping down. Don't let them get your finger!

Cozumel Diving 2011 - Day 8

Day 8 - Trips to Dalila and Punta Tuniche Reefs were unique, enjoyable, but not our best dives. Swift currents made photograph difficult, but there were rewards, as you will see. Enjoy the photos of: crab; splendid toad fish; blue tipped sea anonime (see if you can find the tiny cleaner shrimp); green moray eel, and the sand dollar. We'll also try to load a couple of videos, but can never tell if they'll actually load. One is a special request from our grandson, Thatcher, who told Gram that he wanted to see a video of Grandpa swimming. The other is of our divemaster, Julio, feeding a Lion Fish to a Trigger Fish. What fun!

Cozumel Diving 2011 - Day 7

Day 7 -- A beautiful day for diving with calm winds and flat seas. S trip down toward the southern end of the island brought us to Palancar Garden Reef for our first dive. Lazy swim through tunnels between 70 and 90 feet were relaxing. Coming out on top of the reef brought an array of sea life. Our second dive was at San Clement Reef. This is a reef which we dove earlier in the week at night, but this was the first ever daylight dive for us at this location. It is a shallow reef (20-45 ft.) and was one on which we spent just over ninety minutes today. We looked for and found many tiny sea creatures: Nudi-Branch of assorted varities; tiny sand and rock blennies; a flounder about the size of a quarter; and many very small fish. Toward the end of the dive we found ourselves face to face with a small school of Reef Squid. This is something we'd never encountered before. We hope you enjoy the pictures and please leave us a comment.

From some of the LARGEST (Mitch with a Great Grouper)......................To some of the smallest (Mitch with a Nudi-Branch lying on his arm) Spider Crab (Good shot, Reva!) Trunk Fish (or is that Mitch looking in a mirror?)
God's glorious beauty shines through at 90 feet under the sea!

This little reef fish is only about 3 inches long and very difficult to catch in a photograph. In all our years of diving, this is the best we've been able to do!

A nudi-branch (about 1/2 inch long) inside a yellow barrell sponge.

School of Reef Squid passing by.

Very nice File Fish, but Mitch will never catch him! Reef Mermaid. I think I'll take her home with me!

Cozumel Diving 2011 - Day 6

Day six took us to Columbia Reef and Columbia Shallow Reef. Columbia Shallow has become our favorite diving destination because it is shallow (meaning we can stay down longer) and there is an abundance/variety of sea life. Our second dive today lasted over one and one half hours and we hope you enjoy the photos.

The splendor of God's creation. Looking up from 85 feet below the waters surface.

Sea Snails mating at 35 feet. (the slugs are extended from their shells...in between the two shells)Puffer FishSplended Toad Fish (found only in the area around Cozumel)

Trumpet Fish