More Curacao protests slated for 2 Dec

[fallcreek196]

Hey Slim, Just back from Curacao. It is beautiful. Spent all my time on the west side with Sunset Divers. Beautiful sites. I took my 3/2, but I did get kinda cold. I did wear my shortie for a shore dive and it wasn't bad at all. Guess the accumlulative diving lower my core more than I thought. Anyway, I envy you your new home! Thanks for the advice. Hope to see Curacao again in my dive future.
Thanks,
E

 

[Tennessee Slim]

fallcreek196, I'm glad you enjoyed it. If you like the boat staff to be personable and friendly from hello to good-bye, Sunset Divers is tough to beat. Lynn has a real knack for picking divemasters who exhibit confidence-inspiring professional competence without being aloof. Just this weekend she added a new young woman who she recruited on pure intuition and I have to say she's a perfect complement to the rest of the staff.

My computer still says the water here is no cooler than 82.4 (compared to 81.7 on Bonaire two weeks ago) but the big difference is the air temp. Two weeks ago, the water was no cooler than 83.1 but topside was sunny and near 90°F every afternoon. Now some days barely break 80°.

Two weeks ago I took a chill on a 2-tank boat dive and rushed out to buy a long 3 millie. That night I downloaded my dive data and discovered it wasn't cool water that got to me, it was a cloudy, cool and rainy surface interval.

Turns out I had been losing significant body heat all along with my 2mm shorty; it just was getting replaced during the SI. But no more.

I still think I could put a sweatshirt and a rain jacket in my dry bag to minimize further loss, but you could be swaddled head to toe in Gore-Tex and a tropical squall could still soak you to the skin. A full 3mm suit is the more foolproof solution.

BTW, did you see the frogfish on Pelican Beach?

 

[fallcreek196]

Yep. Met Rachel this past week. She was great. I had a great time with all the folks at Sunset. They are a blast. Didn't see the frogfish, Clark was looking but we never saw it. Were you on the boat this last week? We were on the big boat all week. We did get soaked our last day there in one of the storms that decided to stay a little longer. We all donned our wetsuits as to not get wet, Lol. It was really a great week. Sad to see it end, but do look forward to visiting your beautiful island again.
E

 

[Tennessee Slim]

I have a sort-of nine-to-five job and don’t get out to Sta. Martha much during the week but I did dive with them last Saturday and Sunday. I try to night dive at least once a week and my last weekday visit to Sunset was the night Clark jumped from the boat and broke through the dock. You might have seen the patch proudly bearing his name.

A couple of lady guests had found the frogfish sitting on a very prominent orange coral head. That coral head is so easy to pick out of a line-up, it made finding the way back a cinch and Sunday they led the dive straight to it. How’s that for luck? Only my second dive with my first real UW camera and I get to shoot scads of pictures of a frogfish. The only regret was that the preggers female was no longer with the male (off spawning maybe?). But considering it was the first time I’d ever seen a frogfish in the flesh, I wasn’t what you’d call disappointed. Giddy, maybe, but hardly disappointed.

 

[fallcreek196]

Yes I did see "Clark's hole" and heard the story. I was in the group from Fort Worth. Cool about you seeing the frog fish. I'm not a photographer, but I did get to use my buddies camera for our last two dives of the trip and I think I got a few good shots. Got good at picking out the scorpian fish on the reef a couple of times. Never did see the seahorse at the house reef though.