Diving Day 2

 

Sunday May 4, 2014

Awoke early this am to pouring rain.  (Rainy season usually doesn’t start until the end of May, but it sure has started early this year!)  Linda came down to let Buddy out and to be sure I was up and at ‘em.  She had called the dive shop and they assured her we were still going today.  OK, I was game!

 

Poor Linda was freezing.  Kurt loaned her his rain jacket to bundle into.

When we arrived, wearing plastic rain ponchos, hauling our stuff, everybody else was already there.  The crew was loading the gear and we had a snack of (scrumptious) watermelon and bagels.  Then off we went, in an open boat, in the rain.  Now rain is one thing, but going fast in an open boat in the rain is another!  We have “sideways rain” in Ocean Shores, but this takes sideways rain to a new extreme!  Because we are traveling fast in the boat, it is sideways “buckshot” of rain!  Just had to have our backs to it and go along with it!  The guys and I, (Phil and Mark from yesterday) were doing fine, but Linda was getting very cold.  (She has lived here too long!).  She finally bundled up in Kurt’s (our dive master) rain jacket and a towel.  She looked kind of miserable.  The rest of us would just grin and bear it!

Mark and Phil from the San Francisco area.  They left the wives at home and had been diving for 8 days.

We were headed to Glover’s Reef, about two hours away.  For the first hour we were traveling in the “lagoon” going very slowly periodically as it go extremely (2-3 feet) shallow.  Then our captain, Derek, had to find and maneuver the boat through an 8’ wide channel to get out into the open ocean.  And he did it without a GPS!  These guys grew up on these waters, but how in the world he found this spot with only his compass (remember, we are an hour from shore, so there is very little for “landmarks”) is mind boggling to me!  So now not only was it raining ( and we are still traveling in an open boat and going fast) but we were on the open ocean!  WooHoo, big swells as well!  Like riding a wild horse!

Devon, our captain and Kurt, our dive master.

Along the way we would occasionally see tiny (I mean tiny) islands with a house or a few cabins on it.  There are little resort islands dotting the area.  If you have the money and the means you can stay way out on a little island for awhile!  Unfortunately, it was so rough and rainy, I could not get any photos.  But it is amazing to see.

In spite of rain, wind and high surf, I am enjoying the boat ride!

We finally arrived at our dive site.  We were looking forward to getting in the water, because we knew it would feel warmer than the air.  It has been about 83 degrees in the water!

Our first dive was in the “aquarium”.  Perfect description!  Now here were a lot of colorful fish!  It was beautiful!  I don’t have any photos because I felt I needed to just concentrate on diving rather than try to handle a camera.  I will have one when I am more comfortable and experienced in diving.  (But having said that, I got lots of compliments on how well I dive and how relaxed and in control I am, so that was good!)  It was so beautiful down there.  We went to 80’ and were down a total of 46 minutes.  It felt like 20 minutes.  The time just flew by. 

No photos from me so I got pictures off the internet.  This is a reef shark.  The ones we saw were not as large and we saw them from the top.

Back on the boat for our mandatory surface time, then down to our new spot “Middle Caye Wall”.  Again, absolutely beautiful.  Even the corals and sponges had more color here.  We dove to 70 feet and stayed down for a total of 46 minutes.

We saw several of these ferocious fellows.  Even one swimming around!

After a yummy lunch of chicken salad sandwiches (with tiny chopped green pepper and cilantro in it, YUM!) we moved to our last dive site, “Southwest Caye Wall”.  Here there were not as many colorful fish but we say reef sharks and spotted sting rays!  Wow!  I wish I had the camera!  Oh well, the “pictures are in my memories for now.  There will be other dive trips in the future!  Anyway, we went down to 60 feet and the dive time was 46 minutes.  Wonderful dive.

We did see one of these huge spotted sting rays.  And it was close enough to see the spots!

We headed back to home, all happy and tired.  We took a different route for the two hour boat ride back.  Did not have to navigate the narrow channel!  The rain had stopped and the seas were not as rough, so it was a nice ride back.

What a two day adventure of diving!  It was fantastic!  Will definitely be back!  Anybody that wants to dive in from Placencia, check out the guys at Seahorse Dive Shop.  They do a good trip at a good price and take good care of their guests.  I highly recommend them!  (Phil and Mark had been diving with them for 8 days!)

We saw lots of different tropical fish... all of these?  Don't know, but it gives you an idea of the
 types of  beautiful fish we encountered.

Linda and I took our tired and wet selves back to her house for a much needed shower and clean up.  I worked on the blogs and she cooked a nice spaghetti dinner.  Linda, Charlie and I had a wonderful visit.  Charlie is working on a genealogy project and had very interesting information on some relatives that were killed in the Civil War.  He is going back to Wisconsin in May for a memorial for one of the men.  Fascinating stuff!

Finally dragged myself back to the little cottage, did a tiny bit of work on the computer, then off to bed.  I fly to the “steaming jungle” tomorrow!

Good night!