Turks and Caicos (French Connection)

French Connection is a dive site located in French Cay Turks and Caicos.  The boat ride from Provo is about 1 hour 20 minutes however the waves were large today so it took extra time.  This was our second dive site, slightly shallower compared to Tons of Grunts.  Unfortunately my flash was accidentally turned off partway through the dive so the photos didn't turn out as nicely as I desired.  My logbook book reads "6 large lobsters in 6 different hard coral overhangs, neatly in a row spaced apart by roughly 5 feet, 1 Hawksbill turtle laying on the coral at the edge of the wall watching as the divers swim around him, 2 cowfish and 1 stingray to end the dive".  This dive site was unique with the amount of variety I saw in fish and creatures.

The first marine animal we encountered was this turtle lounging about.  His shell facing towards the blue water, it was like he was watching us as well as looking at the life occurring on top of the wall.  He wedged himself around tall coral pillars so I had to make sure that I kept my distance to ensure I didn't break any of the coral.  Luckily for me at this point the flash was working! 

At this point we decided that since there was no current either way that the guide suggested the left side would be the better side.  As we swam along the edge of the wall I dropped down to 80 feet to take some photos of my brother Jeff.  While I was doing that he pointed to me to shine my dive/video light into the coral as he spotted a lobster! It was really neat seeing a lobster in person (red lobster doesn't count), he moved his forward antennas protecting his home.  Since he wedged himself to the back of the coral it was a strange angle to get a photo of him/her. At this point in the dive my strobe was not working, however I was so focused on the fish and marine life I didn't notice.  This photo of the lobster was taken at F-stop 6.3, Shutter speed 1/40 and ISO 400. I hope everyone has seen the T.V. Everybody Loves Raymond ?! As cool as one lobster was when you moved a few feet down there was another one and then another one and another one.  It was exactly like the T.V. show they all lived down the street from each other.  

After turning our dive we followed up the wall to a depth of 55 feet.  Compared to the first dive at Tons of Grunts there was a large amount of coral and life happening at the top.  It was here where I swam away from the wall and found a cute little Cow fish hiding under a rock overhang.  Sadly again my strobe was off so it was a challenge to capture a quality photo.  This photo was taken at F stop 5, Shutter 1/160 and ISO 400.  When taking photos underwater I never like to go above ISO 400 and I prefer to be as close to 100 as possible. After spending some time hanging around this Cow fish I got signalled from my brother to continue the dive.  There were some beautiful coral formations. I actually realized at this point that the strobe was not firing! I took a selfie of myself and wondered why is there no light.  I realized my finger must have turned off the strobe by accident when I was adjusting my grip.  I turned it back on and took one more (photo below).   

We continued back to the boat marker, and I came across this beautiful rock with soft corals, hard corals, and tons of little marine life on it.  I was lucky at this point to have the strobe working.  This photo (below) was settings F stop 5.6, Shutter 1/160 and ISO 125.  Unfortunately the quality cannot be expressed through this blog.  

 Like always if you want to get a HD copy please comment or email !