The special treats included a cow fish that had a remora almost hugging its body as it hovered around like a helicopter. I lured the cow fish toward me with waving fingers and, to my surprise, he started to swim against my hand and gear in an apparent attempt to shed the remora. He was so docile that he even let me push its body through several "aileron roles." After several minutes and the failed attempt to shed the remora, the cow fish casually swam off into the reef again.... really wished I had the video camera, but didn't.

Another highlight was a large eagle ray near the habitat on the large sand patch. He let us swim up right next to him while he fanned his wings in a motion that resulted in digging a large hole. After a minute or two of digging and producing the hole he moved on 15 or 20 feet and repeated the process, the whole time ignoring me just 3-4 feet away at his side. The activity seemed to be an effort to stir up and dig into the sand to apparently catch food.

We went back to look for our friend, the large green moray, but he must have been out exploring himself... will check him out on a later dive.

I'm sitting here now at the table warming up by drinking a hot chocolate, writing this journal, and taking in the wonders of outside through the port window. Everybody is inside except Byron who is working at the never-ending job of cleaning valves and other equipment on the exterior of Aquarius. We can hear his banging and chipping on the hull... it's amazing how quickly the sea life takes over on the surface of objects on the reef.

This afternoon will be another coral data collection dive with Greg, Danny and Jonathan out on the northeast reef. We are also expecting another visit during that dive by the topside team along with the NEEMO-4 crew. I'll be sure to get some video...