Holy smokes, did it rain in the night. We woke up to a puddle on the kitchen floor. Not sure where that came from, but Nathan thinks it came in possibly from the outlet the fridge is plugged into. Always a comforting thought.
Since we went to the grocery store yesterday, we had yogurt for breakfast this morning. We had a relatively leisurely breakfast, since yogurt is easy and our yesterday’s forgotten lunch is already made.
By 7:35, we were walking down the driveway to meet Cat Eye, with the satisfaction of knowing we had our lunches packed in our bags. Last night I put a paper towel by the door to remind us to pack them. I think next year I might pack an extra pen and one or two Post Its. We have been so forgetful this trip!
We got to the dive shop and started to get our gear ready, and would you believe Nathan’s forgotten his head sun protector do rag thing. It’s hanging right where he left it to dry in our little house. We asked Allie if she had anything that would work to cover Nathan’s head and she didn’t.
For the dive he’s fine. He has his hat, complete with paper towel liner, and sunscreen on his head. Its the afternoon after the dive that he will need solid UV protection while in the water.
Once everyone arrived and got their gear settled at the dive shop, we all made our way out to the boat. The waves are smaller today and there was no issue getting out to the boat with our stuff mostly dry.
There are seven of us divers, mostly locals, and our two divemasters are Garry and Marlon. Our first dive site is Shark Reef, which is on the Atlantic side of the island. The waves are pretty big, so we drove the boat close to the rocky shore of Glovers Island where it was calmer to do the dive briefing.
Marlon warned the Americans on the boat to stay with the group and not get lost. The current here is strong and will take you to South America and Venezuela, and we should do our best to stay safe and sound with the Grenadians. Believe me, an impromptu trip to Venezuela was not on my list to do today.
We all backwards roll off the boat, and I’m supposed to stick with Garry in the back, but the waves and current have other plans. Marlon was right near me, so I stuck with him. When we get down to the reef, the visibility is low and the current is very strong. The name of the game is hold on and don’t get lost!
I was able to get down to the bottom pretty quickly, and then we just let the current push us along. I was glad we had asked Allie for dive fins instead of our snorkel fins. Our snorkel fins are usually just fine on most of our dives, but they are not going to do us any favors in this strong current.
As long as you had either Garry or Marlon in your sights, you were ok. It was like being on a super highway and not being able to get into the slow lane to look around. Just stay calm and take it all in as you flow by. The current was so strong and the visibility so low that you couldn’t stop to look at anything, and Marlon had warned us at the surface that if you want to stop to take a picture, we all need to stop and wait for you.
We saw two nurse sharks, a ray or two, and a bunch of lionfish. I made it to half a tank of air, 1500 psi about 40 minutes in to the dive, so I’m doing pretty good on my air consumption. After 45 minutes, we did our safety stop and came to the surface and hopped on board the boat.
We again did our surface interval tucked into Glovers Island and then motored to Purple Rain for the second dive. The current was still pretty strong, but the visibility was better. Marlon and Garry saw barracudas, but I did not. Nathan saw another scorpionfish, but I just liked being in amongst all the little schooling blue Chromis.
One diver depleted his air early, so Garry took him up to the surface and the rest of us finished the dive after about 45 minutes.
We motored back to the dive shop, cleaned our gear and said our good byes. We set up our tent and had lunch before Nathan walked to the mall to find something to cover his head.
I floated in the water with my swim buoy until Nathan came back with his purchase – A bright orange Speedo swim cap!
The remainder of the afternoon was spent in the water. We decided to stay on the beach and have pizza at Antonio’s for dinner. They open at 5:30, so we have to linger in our swim gear, all sandy and full of sunscreen and DEET until after we eat.
The pizza and breadsticks were delicious, and the service was super fast, so by 7 pm we were on the bus back to our place.