Up just a tad before the alarm I had set, to get my morning stuff out of the way before I took off to go diving. Seems like forever since I’ve sank beneath the waves, but in reality it’s been less than 2 weeks. Gathered up my stuff (dive gear and cold beer) kissed my Queen and away I went. Heavy gray clouds and a strong wind did not give promise to a smooth day on the water, but I was looking forward to going for a swim none-the-less~~ Some rain on the way to the boat made the expected outlook even dimmer, but I’m learning that don’t mean diddly on this island and I arrived to a greeting of several of the staff bidding me a happy new year and for all practical intent, happy to see me. The boat was a lot fuller than it was supposed to be, but that happens on occasions and this particular morning I was good with it. The sun tried valiantly to pop out a couple of times, but the wind made no effort to lay down and it made for a very [thinking of the word I want to use here] ride out to the dive site. Moored up on the first dive site: North Star [a favorite of mine] – wasn’t long before we were in the water and under way. Visibility started out fairly decent at about 80′ but sadly degraded as we went. As the crowd started sinking over the edge of the wall – I caught site of a small Hawksbill turtle and swam back up as fast as I safely could. I took 8 pictures of her and got one to turn out good. (We were both swimming at a pretty good pace). Happy with the shots I took – I kicked it in gear and caught back up to the group. One shark on the way, but she stayed down and well out of camera range……lots of nice topography on this dive, so I got to get a little bit creative with my picture taking……..
Second dive turned out to be a drift dive. First time I have done that with this group….. and it did not disappoint~! Lots of gorgeous scenery…. but I got into sharks. Let me say that again…… SHARKS~! There were at least 5 of them~! May have been up to 7…. but they were swimming and circling so fast….. I’m not sure of the count. One came close enough to me, I actually used my camera to push him off of me. I am disappointed, as I wish I would have used my hand so I could feel the texture of his skin. Lesson learned…. next time.. hand~! Because they were moving so fast and there were so many….. I blurred most of the shots (deep ((80′ and low light)).. but I managed a couple of salvageable shots. WOW-WOW-WOW~!! Even though pictures and video lack what I would like…. my brain now has those images burned into it~! AWESOME~!!!! Still reeling from that encounter, I caught an image (of what looked like a smooth curvy rock wall base) — checking it out, it turned out to be a 6′ Green Moray Eel~!!! (My very favorite sea creature) Because where she was located, I couldn’t get as close to her as I wanted….. and efforts to roust her from her hiding place failed – I didn’t get her swimming….. but still got enough photographic evidence, you can enjoy her with me.
Already well over my word limit….. I’ll quit here and share pictures today and tomorrow…. Doing the safety diver gig tomorrow, so probably some fun pictures from that as well, before I head back to the muddy trails……………….
Good Night Ya’ll – – – – – – – – – — — – – – – – – – Thanks for stopping in~!
