Dive #61 - Rich Torkington's Dive Log

Dad and John on the beach in Puerto Peñasco.
Photo by Lynn Dray in Mexico 1996

Dive Journal: On the morning of my 42nd birthday, we awaken to very calm seas and nearly perfect diving conditions. After our coffee, the first business of the day is to grab our gear!

The Vista Sea Sport crew has pointed out a shore dive near the Hideaway, and Eddy has helped direct us, too. The site is only about 1/3 mile north of the Hideaway, and so we don our gear and begin a slow surface swim north to the site.

The visibility is great although there is not much to see over the sand flats. From time to time we come across depressions in the sand with a box puffer. We also spot a few skates and schooling mullet. It’s a pretty long swim.

We finally reach a line of boulders in about 10 feet of water, and the fish life gets more abundant. We submerge and slowly begin examining the rocks, corals, and many fish as we swim eastward into only slightly deeper water. The shallow water allows tons of sunlight and the visiblity is just excellent. This would be a great dive to make with a good camera.

We find a very cool turquoise-colored sea hare or sea slug. There are lots of king angelfish, cabrilla, large schools of goatfish, and longnose butterflyfish. A few grouper-like fishes are around, probably rock hinds or coneys. There are also guineafowl puffers and little pink and red blennies. Linda discovers a wonderful guitarfish, which neither of us has ever seen before – way cool. There are also porcupine fish around, with their large puppy-like eyes.

In only about 15 feet of water, we enter the vicinity of a tremendously large school of silvery grunts, thousands of them. They are virtually unafraid of us, and we swim freely among and over the school as they conform around us. We finally just rest lightly on the sand bottom while the fish glide all around us – it is simply enchanting. These grunts are the highlight of the dive.

This dive is especially great because the shallow waters allow us such generous bottom time.