Trip Report ~ Nekton to Medio and Cay Sal

[coral cowgirl]

After a previous trip to Cay Sal with Blackbeards in 2005, and having done the Belize itinerary on the Pilot over a year ago, the chance to return to the Cay Sal holes again was worth chancing a trip as 94L worked on getting it's act together in the Caribbean.

Diving: Great, really enjoyed the "fishiness" of Medio and liked the sharks and holes at Cay Sal. Viz was down....around 40 to 60, most likely due to Bertha and Dolly, but weather was great, no hurricanes!

Saw many turtles, spadefish, African Pompano, baby trumpetfish, tons of remoras and cudas, queen triggers, big angelfish, and quite a few schools of various Carib locals. And........of course........the sharks! There were plenty to go around, most everyone got nice pics of circling reef sharks. We noticed most all the fish were quite easy to photograph, not camera shy, which was great for this rookie photographer!

Crew: Fabulous crew... Captain Nelson is terrific ~ plus he's a diver and did everything possible to make this a great dive trip....he gave good photography and diving tips, and the itinerary was terrific. He's a very patient and knowledgable instructor too. The rest of the crew was polite, helpful, and competent in every area. They had a great overall attitude as well. We especially enjoyed diving with fellow Texan, Dustin, who knew where to look for big & little critters, and shark-charmer Jesse (when he could take time away from his engineering duties.)

Food: My favorite was quesadillas we had for an afternoon snack.

Accomodations: Try to get a room other than #4...the headboard will be right in front of the BIG speakers of the tv set with no wall insulation~!
It was really loud and made it hard to sleep.

And, bring your decongestant...the condensation problems downstairs have been repaired according to our briefing. But, mold was still a problem for our group and we were glad we'd packed the Sudafed & Chlortabs.

Finally, I want to thank all you folks who helped me get my first camera setup together....I had asked a lot of questions and got informative, helpful, and correct info on this board.

My lil' Canon A720IS in its Canon housing performed like a champ, even with the low viz and the particulate in the water. Used no strobes, only built in flash and had settings for UW on the video and stills ...very happy (and somewhat surprised) with the outcome~! I'll post some when I get organized. I'm liking the size of this rig ---- was able to get absolutely everthing, including a new card deck sized external hard drive into a small camera bag which is nice as our family likes to travel with mainly carry on bags.

Ok, now what?......Ahhh ------- back to work, save, dive.........work, save, dive.......work, save, dive...............~

[waytooslow]

Originally Posted by coral cowgirl

.....lil' Canon A720IS in its Canon housing performed like a champ, even with the low viz and the particulate in the water. Used no strobes, only built in flash and had settings for UW on the video and stills ...very happy (and somewhat surprised) .............
Ok, now what?......Ahhh ------- back to work, save, dive.........work, save, dive.......work, save, dive...............~

Looking forward to seeing the pictures, I have the same set up, but plan on adding a external strobe (SS YZ25). I have only snorked with mine and the display was useless due to ambient light, does it get better at depth?

[Vercingetorix]

Originally Posted by waytooslow

Looking forward to seeing the pictures, I have the same set up, but plan on adding a external strobe (SS YZ25). I have only snorked with mine and the display was useless due to ambient light, does it get better at depth?

My Canon housing for A620 came with a hood for the display. Does your housing have that?

Second, do you use a clear-skirt or black-skirt mask? Many photographers prefer the black-skirt, because it knocks-out some ambient light.

[waytooslow]

hard to believe but no shade on that model, had I known I would have probably gone a different route, I use a clear. don't think it would make difference as I have to hold at arms length to focus... arms are not getting long enough if you know what I mean - "it feels in focus"

[coral cowgirl]

Most shots were around 45 feet. No hood. I don't have very good eyesight and that was one of the reasons for selecting the A720. The display area is larger than that of my old G series Canon and so easier to see.

My old Canon didn't allow zooming during video filming and the 720
does so that was nice.

I have a black skirted mask.

[Defman]

Originally Posted by coral cowgirl

Food: My favorite was quesadillas we had for an afternoon snack.

Hmmmm... were the quesadillas really *that* good, or was the rest of the food that bad?