Live from Deep Blue Utila

[Praxus]

Congrats on seeing the whale shark!

Wonder why you can't scuba around them and have to snorkle...

 

[Warmwater Wank]

Yeah Citydiver, nice score on the whale shark--and thanks for some great reports all week. At least we leave for the West End next Friday, otherwise your enthusiasm would make me jealous! // ww

 

[citydiver]

Dolphins! Dolphins!!!!
Well on our last day of diving this place once again amazed us...We were searching for whale sharks and saw a pod of rough tooth dolphins...Matt our trusty and now deemed the best DM any of us has ever dived with...seriously just an amazing DM! He said get ready and we will have a swim with them, so we all got our snorkeling stuff on and and slid into the water and had at least a 20 minute swim with about 12 to 18 rough tooth dolphins. It was just amazing and breathtaking. There were about 10 of us in the water and the dolphins were just swimming around us, then they would dive down, come back and it was just the most ubeleiveable sight. Sometimes there were 3 together, sometimes 4 or just one by himself would swim around us and play. My husband has a bunch of video clips and in one clip you can count 7! We also had Dan one of the DM who was doing a course with one of the divers and he is doing some research on dolphins and he said it was very rare to see rough tooths, that they are deep water dolphins...we were just so lucky! Dan was really great, told us they are ususally gentle and not to worry. Of course they are wild animals, but our experience was nothing short of out of this world. I have always wanted to swim with dolphins, and let me tell you this was the way to do it...just wild in the ocean.
When we get home I will upload them to You tube and post a link....
That Swin is some captain, he and Matt were just awesome at spotting stuff! We had a amazing week and easily the best dive trip I have been on....
Let me know if anyone has questions...
Back to the cold cold city...and back to work...damn damn

 

[sytech]

Thanks for the play-by-play.

Hope you get back to NYC with no delays. I'm in N.J. and conditions are very icy.

Can you tell me what kind of camcorder/housing your husband was using for those clips?

Sy

Dolphins! Dolphins!!!!
Well on our last day of diving this place once again amazed us...We were searching for whale sharks and saw a pod of rough tooth dolphins...Matt our trusty and now deemed the best DM any of us has ever dived with...seriously just an amazing DM! He said get ready and we will have a swim with them, so we all got our snorkeling stuff on and and slid into the water and had at least a 20 minute swim with about 12 to 18 rough tooth dolphins. It was just amazing and breathtaking. There were about 10 of us in the water and the dolphins were just swimming around us, then they would dive down, come back and it was just the most ubeleiveable sight. Sometimes there were 3 together, sometimes 4 or just one by himself would swim around us and play. My husband has a bunch of video clips and in one clip you can count 7! We also had Dan one of the DM who was doing a course with one of the divers and he is doing some research on dolphins and he said it was very rare to see rough tooths, that they are deep water dolphins...we were just so lucky! Dan was really great, told us they are ususally gentle and not to worry. Of course they are wild animals, but our experience was nothing short of out of this world. I have always wanted to swim with dolphins, and let me tell you this was the way to do it...just wild in the ocean.
When we get home I will upload them to You tube and post a link....
That Swin is some captain, he and Matt were just awesome at spotting stuff! We had a amazing week and easily the best dive trip I have been on....
Let me know if anyone has questions...
Back to the cold cold city...and back to work...damn damn

 

[jbeach69]

Congradulations Citydiver on what sounds like a truely wonderful dive trip! And great reports. You have all of us 'land locked' divers green with envy. A whale shark and dolphins on the same trip.. wow... I have been in the water with dolphins there myself and know a little about how you feel. And once had the pleasure of being on scuba when about six adult bottle nose dolphins came up to me. it as great.... again, you had a great trip... thanks

 

[jbeach69]

oops, getting old, forgetting how to spell, sorry about that, still you had a great dive trip....

 

[get10wet]

For the past few months, I have been obsessed with reading about others' experiences on Roatan. My husband and I have been "dry" for several very cold months and want desperately to get back into the (warm) water. Thanks for sharing your excitement with us! Can't wait to see the video clips.

 

[citydiver]

Ok...so we are stuck here! We were suppose to go home on Saturday to Newark, but the weather there cancelled our flights and it has taken us several days to get continental to get us home. They tried to tell us we will pick you up next saturday, which would be nice, but our boss's would not like that! We are heading home on Tuesday and have been enjoying all the extra diving...
SYTECH...my husband was using a Canon SD550 camera with the housing. His camera can take video..it was not a camcorder.
So our adventure continues....
get10wet...no problem, happy to make life above the water more bearable! We are on Utila though not Roatan, which is one of the other bay islands!

 

[zubaz]

Thanks for the geat stories! I am heading to Roatan in June and your posts are fantastic. I have not been there in almost 10 years and your posts have brought back fine memories.

We have plans made already, but I will be looking at Deep Blue for future Bay Islands adventures.

 

[citydiver]

Soooo home at last..it's cold here!! We were forced by Continental to stay an extra 3 days in Utila..thanks to their incompetence we got to dive more and see another whale shark!!!
This one was amazing, he was about 30-35 feet long according to our trusty capt Swin. I thought he seemed 50 feet..but I think Swins eyes are probably better at these things. He swam with us for a long time, he was great! We got 3 jumps on him and some amazing video! He just stayed at about 5 or 10 feet for about 20 mins or so. He would go down, but come right back up.. He was really amazing and just so big! Once when I jumped in he was swimming right towards me and I just felt my heart skip a beat!

We had a wonderful and truly memorable trip. Deep Blue took care of us when our flight was cancelled and welcomed us back with open arms!
Now it is back to work, so we can start saving for our next trip...hmm where oh where shall we go!