11/30/09

Upon waking up this morning, we had breakfast on our veranda under sunny skies with the perpetual light trade winds blowing to make the 85 degree F temperature bearable. As we left for our dive, we met Gaylene at the dive shop which is attached to our apartment complex. (There are nine apartments here. All contain a full kitchen, a large living room, a large bedroom, a bathroom and a veranda. Wi-Fi is available for five dollars a day, but I choose not to know what the rest of the world is doing for right now.)

Gaylene is a dive master of about 26 or 27 years old. Her home country is Canada, and she has been in the islands for about ten years. (What a life, huh? You make your living by diving in The Caribbean Sea and dealing with people who are SO HAPPY to be there!)

Our first dive today was a site called Wind Sock (fairly close to the airport.) We got thrown around a little on the entry because of moving surf hitting rocks and coral.

The entire dive was 41 minutes and we dove to a depth of sixty feet.

We went down and headed north, under three huge tugboats that were moored at the end of a pier. Their motors were running, and we could hear the thrumming of the motors for the entire dive.

Saw the usual tube sponges and brain corals, but the highlight was the sighting of a large Great Barracuda who just eyed us from a short distance and then went on his merry way southward.

Coming back was a bit hairy because we again had to pass under the three tugs with running engines. On the return trip, I had to pass under them with only seven hundred psi of air in my tank. (Normally, returning with that much air is not a problem, because, if I am about to run out of air, I can always just surface and swim to show. However, that is impossible with three large boats over your head that have got their propellers running full steam.) When we finally got out from under the boats, Mary and I both surfaced immediately, inflated our BC’s, and then gently floated to shore.

The second dive of the day was at Kaya Kachi once again. This time, when we swam out to the drop-off, we descended to fifty feet and headed south. (The last time here, we headed north.)

Much to see here! A spotted moray eel, schools of yellow jacks. trumpet fish, sea cucumbers, rock hinds, parrot fish, trunk fish, midnight parrot fish, and two of the most curious French Angelfish that I have ever encountered. The angel fish followed us for the entire dive, and we took our safety stop for three minutes before surfacing at the end of the dive, they swam all around Mary and me, and almost let us reach out and touch them.

It was a peaceful, colorful, and meditative dive.  

Below are a couple pictures of Gaylene and some decrepit, old man outside of the Buddy Dive Shop. (Photos taken by Mary Ellen)