It rained again in the night, and it was a little hard to get up this morning. Our place is super cozy and quiet. So much different from last year where we heard party music all night, every night in Utila. Its very easy to sleep here. The air conditioning is swell and the built ins next to the bed help to drown out any extraneous noises.
We can’t dilly dally at all this morning. Our taxi driver Cat Eye is picking us up at 7:40 to drive us to the dive shop. So a quick breakfast of coffee, yogurt, caribbean granola, and local honey is what Nathan whipped up for us today. Actually, I made my own breakfast today, thank you very much.
By 7:30, Cat Eye had WhatsApp’d that he was the green taxi, so then we felt rushed so as to not keep him waiting. We got ready as quick as we could, and hustled, carefully, down our 21° steep driveway. (Nathan has by now measured with a nerdy app on his phone).
Cat Eye and his green taxi was right where he said it would be, and we hopped in for the short ride to the dive shop. There were a fair number of buses about, so perhaps we could have just caught the bus instead. The price difference is extreme, 40 EC or 5 EC. $5 EC is $1.85 US, so taking the bus is both cheap and easy, plus I love the cultural glimpse it gives us of everyday Grenadian life.
At the dive shop we were the first divers to arrive. There were three of us going to Wibbles, and two others with advanced certification going to a sunken Costa cruise ship from the 60s. I felt a whole lot more nervous today than I did yesterday. Nathan tried to blame the coffee, but shoot, after 25+ years of drinking coffee, I don’t notice the effects of caffeine anymore. I told Neal, Allie’s husband and one of today’s divemasters.
The waves at the beach are pretty big, and just getting out to the boat is an adventure. Apparently the waves come in 5s, so we wait for the right time, and then venture out to the boat. I promptly get soaked and tossed about, but Garry is right there helping me. Even still, I feel like a prize idiot for not being able to manage to not get thrown about.
Once on the boat, we had a 10 minute boat ride or so to our first dive site. I was still pretty nervous, but doing ok, and we all put on our BCDs, fins (not in that order) and mask. Backward roll off the boat and I’m doing ok.
We gathered up to descend, Nathan, me, Neal and Paul, and below the surface we went. I got to 6 feet below and then I struggled to get any further. I stayed below the surface, with the other three deeper than I, and the current is taking them, and I can’t even get below 6 feet. Eventually Neal used hand signals to tell me to go back up to the surface. The boat saw me there, turned around to come get me, and I climbed on board.
They asked me what was wrong, and I said I couldn’t get below 6 feet and Zhane gave me a few more weights and then redeposited me at Neal’s surface marker buoy. I went down to where Neal, Nathan and Paul were and Neal decided to have everyone surface and have the boat reposition us in a better spot.
Third time was the charm and we all finally descend as a group and get our dive on. We saw gigantic lobsters, squirrelfish, eels. I stuck really close to Neal, and tried to not die.
The dive did not last very long, for me at least, but I did it. We surfaced, and the boat picked us up and took us to the next dive site.
We had cookies and water on the boat and after waiting out our surface interval, we were briefed on the next dive site, Sponge Valley. All five of us will be diving together with two divemasters, Neal and Garry.
I was the gaper holding onto the surface marker buoy line to descend, but to be fair, both Nathan and I agree that these descents are a little disorienting. The water is quite cloudy, and you really can’t see anything until the bottom, which is between 40 and 60 feet. That said, once down, I was good and we proceeded with a 50 minute dive at 60ish feet. We saw a southern ray, trunkfish, cowfish, and I again saw some enormous lobsters.
Back on the boat, we had more cookies, and Zhane drove us back to the dive shop beach where we again had to battle epic waves to get back on shore. We cleaned up our gear, and high tailed it to BBC beach, which should be much calmer water.
We walked to BBC and the water is calmer, but holy hell, there’s some annoying booze cruise thing beached on the sand. Nathan and I walked past the Rhum Runner, and the drunk and giggly masses and set up our tent on the quiet end of the beach.
Before we knew it, the Rhum Runner left and we had the quiet beach back. We read on the sand and soaked in the water. Nathan again attempted to snorkel, but the visibility is not good, so I’m not sure what for. Within a few hours, another boozy Rhum Runner arrived with more booze cruisers, so we decided it was a fine time to leave the beach.
We walked down the road, caught a #1 bus, and wouldn’t you know, another white dude got on it too. There’s a first. He seamed a little out of his element, and we stayed chill in the back of the ride until we knocked to get off at the True Blue roundabout.
We quickly showered and walked to dinner at One Love, which is the closest place to our house, and is easy and welcoming.