Day 2 of diving was simply.. how can I put this? Oustanding! Or perhaps stupendous? Whatever the most fantastic word you can think of to illustrate such a beautiful day full of 5 dives, that’s how we would describe it.
We continued on Ribbon Reef beginning with an annoyingly cheerful, "Good morning! Breakfast time!” by our favorite girl (although not so favorite at this time of day), Chantes. Risa and I, as most of you may know, are not morning people. We grudgingly got out of bed to find our roommates already up and dressed. We made our way upstairs and barely looked at anyone. Like I said, not really morning people, as the crew came to realize. I swear, every morning we were teased as we stumbled around the boat, skipping the first brekky (breakfast) and donning our dive gear. This is when we heard them say something like, “Hurry and get the camera!” Luckily, we woke up just in time to avoid a photo taken of us pre-dive – well, for now…
(I'm not sure when they caught us, but this was on our CD of pictures.)
Before each dive, our Trip Director, Andy, would give a briefing. The first and second dives were at a site called “Wonderland.” THIS was going to be fun! This is the day we Andy and Matt joined “Our Team” unbeknownst to them – Ashley, you know what I mean ;) As Andy was trying to gather everyone into the “Dive Briefing Corner,” Risa and I read the list of what to look for: Henry, Nudies, Flatworms, Nemos, Cuttlefish, Turtles… And that’s when we decided it would be fun to say ‘Great Whites’, since that is Risa’s dream. Andy apparently overheard us and decided to write it on the board since we were the only ones (even though we were the youngest, but were more mature than most). We were very amused to hear other divers read the list out loud and say Great Whites.
(Pretty Nudi.)
Anyhoo,, on the first dive, we went with Andy as our guide. We saw flatworms, nudies, a white tip reefie and even swam through a swim thru -- what we thought had tight quarters. This was the first dive we ever saw a Cuttlefish in our lives! Risa just wants everyone to know that they are quite tastey but make your breath smell really bad (Risa’s rents know all about this one).
(Definitely more awake while under the water.)
The second dive, which was just after 10am, after a gigantic brekky of eggs, sausage (not fans), bacon, beans, toast with Nutella (for me) and PB (Risa), was guided by Dermot, an Irish import. This dive was to be drift dive. Now Risa and I have never gone diving off a little tender. We are used to the boats you do giant strides off of so when we heard we were getting on a tiny raft-like boat and doing a back roll into the water, we were a little nervous. So Pete, the man who refers to Risa as “Babe or Baby Girl” and me as “Sweet Lips” (and also First Mate), told us we all need to back roll at the same time and if you know you’re not going to go, to wait. Fortunately, this forced Risa into joining the rest of us at the same time and we survived our back roll entries. This time we saw tons of Pelagics but had to fight a tougher current than planned. We both sucked a lot of air so this made our dive time only 55 minutes instead of the normal 5 hours ;) (BTW, this is when we realized we need to start watching our computers a little closer because we reverse profiled on this one… When you dive, the first dive should be the deepest and then you work your way shallower as the day goes on. Well.. we decided to do our first dive at 23.3m and then do our second at 28.1m.. Oops! That’s not even the beginning it…)
At the end of this dive, Andy was flabberghasted as to how well we did on air. He told us we need to breathe when we dive because it’s not safe otherwise. He continued teasing us about our gills the rest of the trip.
Next up, after working up an appetite and eating an amazing lunch, was at Pixie Gardens. This time Andy realizes we were always going to ask for a guide and never go on alone. It just feels safer ok? And plus, the guides always find the cool stuff and know where it is. After this dive, he stopped asking if we wanted a guide… So, the English import, Lauren, aka Lozza, guided us. We saw several Leaf Scorpionfish, pointed out by Andy, as well a Cuttlefish laying eggs! This dive lasted 65 minutes and we both still had about 100 BAR at the end of it.
(Leaf Scorpionfish.)
The next dive site was Challenger Bay guided by Dermot. I don’t know what Dermot did to piss Andy off, but he was matched with us a second time. We were basically passed around to anyone who upset Andy. Apparently, we became that employee’s punishment. Here we saw tons of Groupers, Flatworms, Nudies, and enjoyed our first observation of Sweet Lips. These fish are great with their black, white and yellow colors. They made us giggle every time!
(He thought he found a good hiding spot.)
(Flatworm in the cave.)
The last dive of the day was at the same site, Challenger Bay. This was our first night dive of the GBR – well, Risa’s real first night dive! We were guided by Chantes and were excited to have glow sticks placed on our tank valves! Here we saw some Trevally, a sleeping Puffer, shrimp with their glowing eyes. This was not our favorite dive because we are quick to get cold. As we began to make our way back, I of course managed to get stung by a ‘stinger.’ We were a little confused as we got to the boat and they wanted to pour, what Andy was saying, was freezing cold water down our wetsuits… We have the pictures to prove them… It ended up being hot water (thank you Teresa) and we more than willing to eat dessert after peeling off our wetsuits. Like I said, the schedule is either diving or eating, which we were completely ok with.
Coming up next, the teams are picked...
0 comments:
Post a Comment