The Awesomeness That is Osprey

Day 6

The 15^th of November is a very memorable one that I’m sure no one on the boat will forget.  Risa and I were paired with the elderly Sally and Andy as our guide.  Like I said, we were his faves.  We boarded our tender and were the first to reach the dive site known as North Horn.  We crossed our fingers and every other appendage for Hammerheads again.  Andy had Jesse drop us off farther than the others since we were all brilliant on air.  As soon as we back rolled into the water, we noticed the current change.  Andy even asked us which way the current was going to reconfirm his observation.  It was going opposite of where the boat was and this was to be a Drift Dive.  And so the swimming began.  We burned through our air so fast, but in the meantime did not want to miss any opportunity of seeing anything!  Risa and I were at about 30m most of the beginning while Andy stayed with Sally making sure she was ok.  We saw multiple Grey Reefies, White Tips (some came so close to us too!), and several Remoras.  We were giggling so much when the remoras first joined us because they were all over Andy!  We teased him a bunch asking him why he was so dirty since the remoras were on him almost the entire time.  They then moved to Risa and then to me.  (But they mostly stayed with Andy and Risa because they’re dirtier apparently.)  While we were doing our safety stop, in the shallows, I turned to see a large tail of some kind of shark.  I couldn’t make out what it was and that’s when Risa asked if I saw the Hammerhead!  WHAT??  That was a Hammerhead??  Risa said nobody believed her that she saw one, but I did because I saw the tail.  Stoked!  We counted it as spotting a Hammerhead even though no one believed it.

(Andy's so dirty, he needs Remoras to clean him up. Ew!)

As soon as we surfaced, strange things were afoot.  Apparently, we were the only divers to make it back.  Andy began to help the lookout right away as well as us.  All of those on the boat looked for any sign of divers, mainly the Safety Sausages we were all given in the beginning.  Finally, Teresa spotted one way out there.  They sent the tenders out to pick up the frustrated divers.  This is where we denied being part of Team America.  As soon as they boarded Spirit, a debriefing began.  They began to lose faith in the crew, asking if they even did a current check, etc.  Of course they did a current check, it was in the predive briefing we listened to.  Had these people not listened?  Team America began to put all the blame of the current change on the crew.  Risa and I were baffled as to how these people believed the crew had anything to do with a current change.  It happens.  It was a freak thing, but the ocean did it, not the crew.  You cannot predict these kinds of things.  Risa and I are witnesses that the crew did everything in their power to find the missing divers.  It makes me wonder just how professional Team America is.  After all, they are instructors, dive masters, etc, and yet they complained they waited on the surface for so long, but with only one safety sausage.  That’s right.  Apparently, most of them had removed them from the BCDs for some idiotic reason.  No wonder it took so long to find them – they didn’t follow protocol.  Not the crew’s fault at all.  (Your team Andy!  This is where Andy complained a lot about his team.  He then told Maty that we, the Hawaiian girls as we were known as, were assigned to Maty’s team.  Little did Andy know that made Mat’s team the best one on the boat!)

Anyway, to make smooth things over, the best dive of all came next: The Shark Feed!  North Horn definitely became a favorite real fast.  Before going in, we asked Chantes for a tip on where the best spot was.  We entered the water with our new found friends, Pippy and Aron.  As we descended the line, we could already se the sharks circling.  Such an astounding sight!  We grabbed our spots and watched the frenzy begin.  We sat in a horseshoe in the “amphitheater,” trying our hardest not to hurt the coral.  Andy tied off a garbage can of tuna heads and then dropped it so there was a chain full of heads.  TONS os White Tips, Grey Reefies and even our beloved Hammerhead!  Suddenly one of the giant Potato Cods approached the tuna heads and grabbed a bite.  He sat there on the line for the longest time, just eyeing everyone, claiming his bite!  It was hilarious!  Andy told us later that sometimes the Cod are even more aggressive than the sharks!  When we got the sign the feed was over and the sharks had calmed down a bit, we searched for shark teeth.  I was able to find 1/2 of one and kept it.  It belonged to a Grey Reefie and I was excited.  Then we swam down to where a plaque had been placed for a girl named Tracey.  This had been her favorite dive spot and they scattered her ashes there and placed a plaque.  Not a bad idea…

(Me, taking it all in with the Grey Reefie.)

The last 2 dives were at a site called Silver City.  They were pretty cool dives, but we were still on our shark high from that feed…  Nothing beat that dive!  We took about a bajillion photos and still have dreams about the feeding frenzy.  Just fantastic! 

This day is also the day we realized it was the crew that was making our trip so fantastic.  Team America had basically shunned us, as it was apparent at every meal.  In the dining room, they never left open seats for us.  It’s amazing to see how different people can be.  I don’t think Risa and I could ever be so inconsiderate or oblivious as this.  We learned to grab our food and join the crew in the lounge where we laughed and had a bit of banter at every meal.  It was better this way.  They were more our kind of people.  Just humble divers with great personalities.  Them along with Pippy and Aron made our trip for sure!  We wouldn’t trade any of them for anything!

(Playing with  raw egg underwater.  Teresa, Pippy, and Maty.)