blueline

Hi partner,
Sea & Sea recommends o-ring maintenance annually.  I push it to every two years based on the conditions I normally dive in (no sand or gunk).  Three years is pushing it.  If I was in Florida I'd take my housing over to Reef Photo and ask them to go through it fo me.  It's all the internal o-rings I'd be worried about.  The first one to start to leak is usually the shutter release since it gets more rotational wear.

Cheers,
Steve

Thanks Steve! That's what I was thinking, next time I'll be down there for a shore dive, I'll take it to them.  I completely forgot about the shutter, plus haven't used it in over a year.

More reef scenes, even though some are awesome. Fiji must be great. Overall I like your work. I bought your Reef Life of the Andaman DVD years ago when I was in Phuket.  I still enjoy it.

Cheers.

My question is, how does the diving around Miami compare to these ?

The Fla Keys have some world class ship wrecks mainly in Key Largo/Islamorada and Key West (Spiegel Grove, Vandenberg, Duane, Thunderbolt etc..etc.. plus USS Oriskany off Pensacola(where else can you dive an aircraft carrier?)). If you are into diving ship wrecks, FL might be an equal or better destination. I agree, sea life wise, there's no comparison with Indonesia/Red Sea, but every diver is different in what they want to see.

Blueline

Thanks for all that info folks; as always WP comes through as the place to get the info you need. Sounds like I will be aiming for Feb / March 2012 to RA.
Komodo will have to wait....so many places, so little time.

Either one should be an excellent choice not to be missed (dive there at least once in a lifetime).

I did Komodo in Feb last year and ended up to be myself and my dive buddy on the boat (everyone else canceled fearing it was a bad time to go). Couldn't get any better. Also, diving at Horseshoe bay for 2 days with only 3 people in the water was an experience. Snorkeling was also pretty good with decent visibility. Dec-Feb is the best time to dive Horseshoe bay in terms of water temps. Summertime it gets really cold. The north side had so-so visibility with a lot of plankton/marine snow in the water, however, we saw a whale shark by Crystal Rock. I'd say Dec-Feb might provide the best of both worlds (North-South side) at Komodo.

As for RA, I'm pretty sure it won't disappoint you either..

D.

I could be wrong, my limited info came from conversations with the guides on the boat. A short internet search found a couple of references that the males as the larger fish.

I'd love to know the correct answer,

Cheers,
Steve

Steve,

Definitely the large one is the male(they have a longer dorsal fin than the smaller females too). I kept a couple in a reef system for a few years until I had to take down the tank. They are beautiful fish! Their only defense is a slimy substance they excrete which is poisonous to bigger predators/fish. They have no scales and they strictly feed on copepods too.