November 26, 2024
We woke up to the heaviest rain. There’s something about rain that makes you want to stay in bed, but I think Chover said it best. “Delicious for sleeping” was what he said about the rain when he picked us up for diving.
We again got to the dive shop early. I think we’re having some translational errors. We want to get picked up at 7:15, and he’s getting us to the dive shop by 7:15. Oh, well, we’re always ready for him, and hang out here or at the dive shop, it makes no difference.
We’re diving in a big group with Mariam, our divemaster, the three divemasters-in-training, and Nathan and I.
We got all the gear on board the boat, and Captain George drove us to the first dive site, Utopia. We were about to get our gear on, when Orlane, a French divemaster-in-training screamed “a snake” in English. We all turned towards the water and looked into the sea. Did we see a snake swimming?
Non. The snake was curled up on her BCD looking ready to strike. She had been sitting right there in front of it the whole ride. Where the snake came from is anyone’s guess. He certainly wasn’t there when the BCD was put on the tank.
We motored to shore, and Owen, a young fellow from Oregon picked up that snake behind its head and hopped onto a dock and ran that beast to shore.
We all gave our gear a thorough examination after that, looked in the pockets, and decided the safest place for us was in the water.
The first dive today was pretty dark, so I was glad I had my flashlight. We saw neck crabs, a tiny teardrop crab, and a huge channel clinging crab.
We got back on the boat, and George drove us to the Labyrinth. After our surface interval and snack of papaya, we hopped back in the water. The Labyrinth had more coral walls and parts of the swim through were quite narrow. I got quite deep on this dive, down to 68 feet, and at one point my no decompression limit was 9 minutes! Mariam checked in on me, looked at my computer, and we ended the dive in shallow water for the last 5-10 minutes.
I was the last one out of the water. The two guys that are with us go through their air faster, but I’m able to come out of the water with 1200-1500 psi usually. Not bad!
We motored back to the shop, unloaded the boat, and started walking towards home. It’s been raining off and on all day today, and the walk home was no exception. We had to stop for grocery basics (rum, chips) and to put pack covers and rain jackets on.
We got home, prepped lunch and ate on our porch swing until the rain and wind forced us inside. The remainder of the afternoon was spent indoors, logging our dives and looking at fish books. We think Thai food at The Pelican is on the menu for dinner. I hope it stays dry until then!
