The Bolter
Registered
We woke to another beautiful day. The sun is shining and the daytime temperature ranges between high seventies and low eighties (perfect!). The evenings are cooler and we are tempted to leave the windows and doors open
but
its a little too humid and we dont want any uninvited creatures or insects to stop by in the night. This morning we learned the valuable lesson not to leave our shoes outside and/or on the ground after my husband put on his Keens only to discover that a small crab had taken up residence in the toe.
A handful of the divers in our group are getting rather sick. Some attribute it to allergies, others to the closed air from our 30-hours on a plane to get here. People are popping Sudafed, Claritin, and, for the most sick, Amoxicillin from the dive shop. Im lucky to be feeling great other than the sea sickness I felt on the first day. My dive instructor gave me Bonie and told me not to take the Dramamine I had brought. Im not sure why. Apparently theres much debate among the group about the pros and cons of each medication. The Bonie knocked me out the first night but by Day Two I was back up to speed and feeling fine on the boat.
The first dive was interesting for all the small caves and ledges along the reef wall. There is long-hanging strings/ropes of coral over some of the ledges covering the caves behind them like curtains. Inside we found all kinds of sleeping critters including a pregnant black-spotted puffer fish and a sleeping blue-spotted manta ray. Marcus showed us a tiny spotted harlequin crab living on a sea cucumber. So tiny only ½ in diameter. My favorite was the soft coral crab, a tiny little white/translucent and pink guy who hides under the small pink flowery buds all over the white coral. Hes perfectly camouflaged and uses the buds like an umbrella to hide him.
For the second dive we had to descend as soon as we hit the water because of the strong current. This means we also had to drop down as quickly as possible. Aaaghh! My desire to bolt started before I even got into the water. This is a little nerve-wracking because Im not the quickest equalizer. My dive instructor told me to stay at whatever depth I needed to but that I would have to follow the guide from above until I could slowly make it down to them. I said to myself, Arent currents stronger at more shallow depths? If I cant equalize and I have to stay at 20 ft. will I drift faster than everybody else at 40 ft? I kept my concerns to myself and jumped. Lets just say I equalized faster than Ive ever done in my life .
We spent at least 10 minutes swimming against the current which was exhausting. But, we did this over the top of a gorgeous flat coral bed so how much can I complain? At the end of the bed was a drop and bend. Once we were through the bend the current was mild and we could slow down and enjoy the site. There were large hills of potato coral with sandy gullies in between where we found a pair of red fire gobies, a bright blue mature ribbon eel poking two inches out of the sand with its mouth open, a lizard fish, a beautiful shiny leopard cowrie, an anemone crab, and a spotted boxfish. This site was teeming with fish including a school of huge (1 X 1) round batfish/spade fish. I dont think I could every get tired of watching a clown triggerfish biting at coral with his beak that looks like teeth.
Our guide Marcus always reminds us during our briefings to look out into the blue because you never know what youre going to see. I dont remember to do this too often since there is so much to see among the coral but I did look out when something yellow caught my eye. It was a school of orange spine unicorn fish. The crazy guys who do the deep diving came back with reports of octopus, black-tipped reef sharks and manta rays. Its just incredible out here.
Oh my goodness! As we were heading out to the third dive of the day we watched two large and very primitive looking boats each with two beautiful bright blue sails. These boats looked like something out of Waterworld and I was told that these are sea gypsy boats. Sea gypsies are a group of indigenous nomads who live on these handmade boats and make their living from the sea. So cool!
On the third dive Marcus took a basket down with him and, using his dive knife, he collected about 10 crown of thorns and brought them up to be destroyed. Apparently these starfish with long venomous spikes eat live coral and they are very destructive to the reef.
I am so glad we came on our first trip with our dive shop. Having our instructors with us has been invaluable. At first I was a little annoyed and stressed out because I was constantly being told to get horizontal, dont use your hands, check your computer, move closer to the reef, etc., which was followed by a post-dive de-briefing of what I did right and wrong. At first I just wanted to yell, Im certified. Leave me alone! But, although I have a C-card, I really shouldnt be left to my own diving yet. Lets just say Im not a natural (thus the bolting). But, during a discussion at dinner on the first night some of the other divers shared with me that Im very lucky to have this sort of one-on-one training. One said, There was no one around when I was first diving to tell me all that. I had to learn it on my own and some of it took years to figure out. So, I was humbled. I felt guilty for being so ungrateful and I resolved to take advantage of the opportunity and enjoy it.
A handful of the divers in our group are getting rather sick. Some attribute it to allergies, others to the closed air from our 30-hours on a plane to get here. People are popping Sudafed, Claritin, and, for the most sick, Amoxicillin from the dive shop. Im lucky to be feeling great other than the sea sickness I felt on the first day. My dive instructor gave me Bonie and told me not to take the Dramamine I had brought. Im not sure why. Apparently theres much debate among the group about the pros and cons of each medication. The Bonie knocked me out the first night but by Day Two I was back up to speed and feeling fine on the boat.
The first dive was interesting for all the small caves and ledges along the reef wall. There is long-hanging strings/ropes of coral over some of the ledges covering the caves behind them like curtains. Inside we found all kinds of sleeping critters including a pregnant black-spotted puffer fish and a sleeping blue-spotted manta ray. Marcus showed us a tiny spotted harlequin crab living on a sea cucumber. So tiny only ½ in diameter. My favorite was the soft coral crab, a tiny little white/translucent and pink guy who hides under the small pink flowery buds all over the white coral. Hes perfectly camouflaged and uses the buds like an umbrella to hide him.
For the second dive we had to descend as soon as we hit the water because of the strong current. This means we also had to drop down as quickly as possible. Aaaghh! My desire to bolt started before I even got into the water. This is a little nerve-wracking because Im not the quickest equalizer. My dive instructor told me to stay at whatever depth I needed to but that I would have to follow the guide from above until I could slowly make it down to them. I said to myself, Arent currents stronger at more shallow depths? If I cant equalize and I have to stay at 20 ft. will I drift faster than everybody else at 40 ft? I kept my concerns to myself and jumped. Lets just say I equalized faster than Ive ever done in my life .
We spent at least 10 minutes swimming against the current which was exhausting. But, we did this over the top of a gorgeous flat coral bed so how much can I complain? At the end of the bed was a drop and bend. Once we were through the bend the current was mild and we could slow down and enjoy the site. There were large hills of potato coral with sandy gullies in between where we found a pair of red fire gobies, a bright blue mature ribbon eel poking two inches out of the sand with its mouth open, a lizard fish, a beautiful shiny leopard cowrie, an anemone crab, and a spotted boxfish. This site was teeming with fish including a school of huge (1 X 1) round batfish/spade fish. I dont think I could every get tired of watching a clown triggerfish biting at coral with his beak that looks like teeth.
Our guide Marcus always reminds us during our briefings to look out into the blue because you never know what youre going to see. I dont remember to do this too often since there is so much to see among the coral but I did look out when something yellow caught my eye. It was a school of orange spine unicorn fish. The crazy guys who do the deep diving came back with reports of octopus, black-tipped reef sharks and manta rays. Its just incredible out here.
Oh my goodness! As we were heading out to the third dive of the day we watched two large and very primitive looking boats each with two beautiful bright blue sails. These boats looked like something out of Waterworld and I was told that these are sea gypsy boats. Sea gypsies are a group of indigenous nomads who live on these handmade boats and make their living from the sea. So cool!
On the third dive Marcus took a basket down with him and, using his dive knife, he collected about 10 crown of thorns and brought them up to be destroyed. Apparently these starfish with long venomous spikes eat live coral and they are very destructive to the reef.
I am so glad we came on our first trip with our dive shop. Having our instructors with us has been invaluable. At first I was a little annoyed and stressed out because I was constantly being told to get horizontal, dont use your hands, check your computer, move closer to the reef, etc., which was followed by a post-dive de-briefing of what I did right and wrong. At first I just wanted to yell, Im certified. Leave me alone! But, although I have a C-card, I really shouldnt be left to my own diving yet. Lets just say Im not a natural (thus the bolting). But, during a discussion at dinner on the first night some of the other divers shared with me that Im very lucky to have this sort of one-on-one training. One said, There was no one around when I was first diving to tell me all that. I had to learn it on my own and some of it took years to figure out. So, I was humbled. I felt guilty for being so ungrateful and I resolved to take advantage of the opportunity and enjoy it.
