We were up bright and early this morning for another great breakfast before heading to the marina for an 8:30 departure. Our dive crew was funny, friendly and really wanted to take care of us. All we were responsible for was breathing our air and chewing our food...they would take care of the rest :-).
We were soon all on board and pushing back from the dock. As we were heading out of the marina we were told to watch for spinner dolphins and sure enough they appeared right away to escort us out. It was cool to see them playing around the boat. After a short ride out we arrived at our first dive site 'Golden Arches' , named after the arched coral and golden fish...not the burger chain LOL. Soon it was time to suit up and get ready to splash in. After cursing my way into my new 5 mm wetsuit I was the first to hit the water. I hung on to the line on the boat until our group was all in and then we signalled to descend....but there was no descending for me or Wade! Our new wetsuits are not only thick and hard to get into they are considerably more buoyant than our old ones. We anticipated this and added more weights before we jumped in but didn't add quite enough. So, we signalled our dive master and headed back to the boat for more weight. One of the dive masters on the boat saw us coming and met us part way with more weights. Great service! He gave us each 4 more pounds and boy...I sunk like a ROCK! I think I'll give back 2 next dive.
We soon joined our group on the bottom and had a great dive. It is different scenery here than what we are used to seeing in the Caribbean. Lots more hard corals and no sponges or soft corals. Lots of fish and some new ones that I hadn't seen 'in person' before. There was a bit of current and surge pushing us around a bit but nothing like the ripping current in Cozumel. We had no troubles stopping to take photos on this dive. There were some spotted eels and some cool macro critters...I got a pic of one of them (that I can't for the life of me remember the name of...little purple guy with a yellow border) but I really could use a macro lens for my camera :-).
At the end of the dive just as I was climbing the ladder a huge pod of dolphins swam through the rest of the group. I'm hoping one of them got pics as I missed the whole show while trying to get back into the boat without getting bashed by the ladder as the swells were growing quite big by this time.
After everyone was back on board the crew brought out some snacks and beverages to keep us entertained during our surface interval. The boat was really rocking in the waves by this time and a couple of folks were turning a bit green so our captain got us underway again to try and smooth things out a bit. Not a chance ... we were soon on an ocean bound roller coaster which was quite exciting and fun for some of us...and not so good for others. Our second dive was called due to the risk of getting on and off the boat in such conditions so sadly we headed back to the marina. I was happy to see the crew putting safety first and ensuring we lived to dive another day :-). Apparently the wind NEVER blows from the direction it was blowing today so conditions like we faced were rare...kinda the same story in Cozumel with the currents shifting directions on us all the time. We are beginning to think that our dive group has some sort of weird magnetic force that messes with the tides LOL!
We spent the afternoon enjoying some Kona coffee...had some lunch...then joined back up by the pool. I spent more time with my camera trying to capture the cool variety of local birds as well as the spectacular surf that was rolling and pounding into the shore.
Soon it was time for dinner and we decided that we'd go to Bubba Gump's again...it was just as good the second time! We may even try it a third time...we haven't found a bad menu selection yet and the service is amazing!
Tomorrow we are hoping to do a shore dive in the morning if the surf has smartened up and isn't going to pound us into hamburger...then we have a night dive from the boat with the Manta Ray's tomorrow night! If this keeps up we may have to learn to surf!
We were soon all on board and pushing back from the dock. As we were heading out of the marina we were told to watch for spinner dolphins and sure enough they appeared right away to escort us out. It was cool to see them playing around the boat. After a short ride out we arrived at our first dive site 'Golden Arches' , named after the arched coral and golden fish...not the burger chain LOL. Soon it was time to suit up and get ready to splash in. After cursing my way into my new 5 mm wetsuit I was the first to hit the water. I hung on to the line on the boat until our group was all in and then we signalled to descend....but there was no descending for me or Wade! Our new wetsuits are not only thick and hard to get into they are considerably more buoyant than our old ones. We anticipated this and added more weights before we jumped in but didn't add quite enough. So, we signalled our dive master and headed back to the boat for more weight. One of the dive masters on the boat saw us coming and met us part way with more weights. Great service! He gave us each 4 more pounds and boy...I sunk like a ROCK! I think I'll give back 2 next dive.
We soon joined our group on the bottom and had a great dive. It is different scenery here than what we are used to seeing in the Caribbean. Lots more hard corals and no sponges or soft corals. Lots of fish and some new ones that I hadn't seen 'in person' before. There was a bit of current and surge pushing us around a bit but nothing like the ripping current in Cozumel. We had no troubles stopping to take photos on this dive. There were some spotted eels and some cool macro critters...I got a pic of one of them (that I can't for the life of me remember the name of...little purple guy with a yellow border) but I really could use a macro lens for my camera :-).
At the end of the dive just as I was climbing the ladder a huge pod of dolphins swam through the rest of the group. I'm hoping one of them got pics as I missed the whole show while trying to get back into the boat without getting bashed by the ladder as the swells were growing quite big by this time.
After everyone was back on board the crew brought out some snacks and beverages to keep us entertained during our surface interval. The boat was really rocking in the waves by this time and a couple of folks were turning a bit green so our captain got us underway again to try and smooth things out a bit. Not a chance ... we were soon on an ocean bound roller coaster which was quite exciting and fun for some of us...and not so good for others. Our second dive was called due to the risk of getting on and off the boat in such conditions so sadly we headed back to the marina. I was happy to see the crew putting safety first and ensuring we lived to dive another day :-). Apparently the wind NEVER blows from the direction it was blowing today so conditions like we faced were rare...kinda the same story in Cozumel with the currents shifting directions on us all the time. We are beginning to think that our dive group has some sort of weird magnetic force that messes with the tides LOL!
We spent the afternoon enjoying some Kona coffee...had some lunch...then joined back up by the pool. I spent more time with my camera trying to capture the cool variety of local birds as well as the spectacular surf that was rolling and pounding into the shore.
Soon it was time for dinner and we decided that we'd go to Bubba Gump's again...it was just as good the second time! We may even try it a third time...we haven't found a bad menu selection yet and the service is amazing!
Tomorrow we are hoping to do a shore dive in the morning if the surf has smartened up and isn't going to pound us into hamburger...then we have a night dive from the boat with the Manta Ray's tomorrow night! If this keeps up we may have to learn to surf!