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Last night was spent on the dock. The crew had a chance to ‘re-charge their batteries’. When we’re at the dock there is air-conditioning, real showers and toilets and no anchor watch. They even got to sleep in a bit. When everyone was finally up we had a big cooked breakfast of eggs, sausage and pancakes. This high adventure stuff is rough.
When breakfast was finally over we headed out to the reef. The ocean was a little choppy and the winds were up but not enough to affect diving. We went to Toppino’s Buoy, ball #3 first. This is a nice reef with lots of fish. The visibility wasn’t stellar but there weren’t many jellies so that balanced out. Nobody got stung by the jellies; either that or the crew is getting tougher and just not noticing them.
After the first dive we had lunch and filled tanks. I couldn’t believe that they were hungry already after such a big breakfast but diving does make you hungry.
For the next dive we moved over to Toppino’s Buoy, ball #2. During the first dive the visibility was beginning to improve and by the time we were ready for the second dive it had improved greatly. Better visibility has several advantages the most obvious being you can see everything more clearly and the colors are brighter. Better visibility also lets you spot the jellies better.
The last dive was at Western Sambos Wrecker’s Reef. Western Sambos is a large reef area with a lot of mooring balls. The western end is called Haystacks (our very first dive) and the eastern end is called Wrecker’s Reef. This visibility was still good which made this a nice dive. The crew saw all sorts of animals including some lionfish, southern stingrays and a pair of VERY large tarpon. When a large fish like a tarpon, especially a very large one, comes into view it can really evoke a reaction from a new diver.
After the dive we headed back in to the dock. We would have to put up with more air-conditioning and showers. Tonight was steak night. Woo Hoo! This high adventure stuff is really rough! After dinner the crew took a walk to the local ‘stop and rob’, Captain Denny’s name for the local convenience store.
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