Another spectacular day today, although perhaps a bit shorter than planned. We were supposed to do a three-tank day, but after the first two dives, we had to put in for fills, and that took so long that most people opted out of the last (going to be twilight) dive, in favor of an early night for an early morning tomorrow.
Today began slowly, as it took far longer to load the boat than anyone had thought. This was the Walker boat, and it was quite full. It didn't seem quite as spacious as the Abernethy boat (although we did have more divers). We steamed out to Corridor to start the day again, and lest anyone thing that it was disappointing to dive the same site a second time, it was not that at all! We had significantly less current today, so we got further along the line of boats (less time spent burning gas crabbing into current, or trying to stop to look at something). I got to see the Goliath Grouper in the hole of the Mispah (still don't really know how it's spelled). What a huge fish! I think I could have stuck my entire head in his mouth, and he looked as though he wouldn't have minded.
I found quite a few bristle worms today, but still no nudibranchs, even though the sponge-encrusted sides of the wrecks look as though they would make great habitat for them.
There were lots of reef fish, and the big green moray again, and as we reached the rock pile before the Amaryllis, I found a beautiful spotted moray, but Peter was too far in front of me to turn back and photograph it. The Amaryllis itself was like a salt water aquarium, including a large green moray out swimming, and a small turtle covered in barnacles. At about 40 minutes, we hit gas limits, and Peter shot a bag and we ascended. The surface was so calm, it was delightful to float on the big blue waterbed and wait for the boat.
Back on board, and a quick surface interval before the second dive -- or so we thought. As it turned out, the Fundies reeval students, who needed shallow water for their skills, were to be dropped off after the people drifting the Playpen. But at the last minute, after I was on my feet and hanging onto the bar by the swimstep, they decided to drop the students first. So I spent a long time standing, as they dropped those folks and then motors several minutes back to OUR drop site. I do not like standing in doubles for very long, even when the boat isn't pitching very much!
Finally, it was our turn, and I was hurrying to get onto the swim step and move over to the right to make room for Peter, when suddenly I caught my fintip and realized I was going down. Luckily, I was able to guide my fall so that I just crashed on my side into the water -- no impact with anything, and I was completely ready to dive, anyway. However, something about the weird entry must have disarranged my neck seal, because by the time I got to ten feet, I realized I was getting a torrent of water down my back. Abort or dive? I knew from prior experience that I could do an hour's dive in that water temperature with that undergarment when wet, and I wasn't going to be much wetter if I stayed in the water, so I did. As it turned out, I managed 40 minutes before deciding I'd had enough, and they were a fun 40 minutes indeed!
The site began with a boulder field full of gorgeous sponges and corals, and then we reached a barge full of boulders, which gave almost total shelter from the current. We poked around there for quite a while, and then came down on the far side of the barge, into another boulder field, where Peter found a spectacularly camouflaged scorpionfish, a couple of lizardfish, some gorgeous blue and yellow goblet sponges, a large conch shell, and several bristle worms. We spent a long time meandering around there, and then let go and drifted to the next set of boulders. There, Peter took some pictures of me with corals and swimming, and I think I even took direction well.
At this point, we could see one team behind us on the boulders, but the guide and the rest of the group had disappeared. My memory of the briefing was that, once we had done the jog west to the boulders, we were to drift NNW to another wreck, so we set ourselves up to do this. We were now floating over sand, and shortly put up a beautiful, big ray, who gracefully flapped off into the haze. Another three minutes or so, and no structure had appeared, and I was finally tired of sloshing and starting to get cold, so I thumbed it. Once again, Peter shot the bag, and we did a lovely ascent and deco, again arriving at a largely flat surface where we watched the sailboats until pickup.
Back to the dock, where 11 sets of doubles were schlepped up the ladder and into Dan's truck. While they went for fills, Kate ran me back to the hotel to get dry clothes, and to pick up her dry suit undergarment, which she was going to lend me, so I could do the last dive. We came back, ravenous, to tear into the sandwiches Errol and Dan had provided, and wait for the tanks. And wait. And wait. Finally, it was about 3:45, and they hadn't arrived, and it was becoming clear that, if we took the hour to load that it had taken to unload, we were night diving. There were some who were fine with that, but others of us were equally fine with going back to the hotel for a relaxed evening, since there is an early start time in the morning. Errol seemed very worried that we were upset about the logistics not working as well as he had hoped, but honestly, I had two absolutely beautiful dives on a stunningly gorgeous day, with perfect diving conditioins, and what's not to like about that? And my stuff was all soaking wet, anyway . . . now, I'll get a fresh and hopefully dry start to tomorrow!
Lynne.
