When I was in town yesterday I went into the shop, and both the women who do the bookings were like “Oh hey Megan! We checked and it looks like the people going out tomorrow are experienced enough for the pinnacles, so unless there’s a terrible current you’ll be going!” Just what I wanted to hear.
So I set off this morning. The taxi picks me up just outside the Ecolodge which is super nice. I don’t have to hike down the mountain with all the scuba stuff on my back. I always whip out my iPhone and quickly check my email as we drive through Windwardside. We picked up one guy at a hotel there so I had a few precious minutes to download emails and check facebook. When the guy got in the taxi he was like “ooh do you have wifi on there?? Can you send a quick email to my mom to tell her I’m here safely?” Might I add this guy was about 35. So I guess I can expect to still report into my mom until I’m 35? Haha Mom, I don’t mind ;)
There were three of us in the taxi, and we were assuming that the rest of the group was going to meet us down at the harbor. But to our luck, it was just us!! The boat that was going out next to us was PACKED. I think they had every tank slot filled, not much room left. I’m not sure, but I’m guessing it was the boat from Scout’s Place. They had 22 Germans check in yesterday for a week of diving. I was quite content with my small group. It was me, a French woman named Marie, and a guy from NY named Matt. Matt and I both had our underwater cameras -I decided to hook up the external flash this morning, in the hopes of going to the pinnacles, so it looks quite complicated. He took a few photos of me on his camera as I did with mine. We swapped email addresses so hopefully I’ll get a few of those in the coming weeks :)
Me before the first dive
The first dive we did was a pinnacle!! It was called Outer Limits. Pretty much as soon as we got to the bottom of the mooring line we saw a nice big nurse shark :) I still haven’t seen a real shark here, but hey, there’s plenty of time. Plus the whole week I’ll have when the fam gets here! I guess I should explain a bit what the pinnacles are; they are basically underwater mountains, but they come within about 80-90ft of the surface. They have every type of fish, and you sometimes get to see the big stuff. Since it’s pretty much in VERY open water, as opposed to the dive sites closer to the shore, there is a much higher chance of seeing something amazing. The bigger animals tend to stop in at the pinnacles for a bite to eat. We saw all sorts of sea life, and I managed to get some decent photos. One thing that’s different about diving here is that there’s no set time limit for the dives, just your own no decompression limit. I don’t know if I like it that way because I get carried away down there. When I have a time limit I stick to it, but when I have to monitor it myself I kinda forget… haha We were at about 110 ft for part of the dive, meaning our bottom time wasn’t all that long. I saw a turtle and swam down after it, and apparently went a bit too deep after ascending a bit and the dive master got worried. All was ok though, I had plenty of air and wasn’t near my NDL. Good to remember though.. haha
Color!!
The second dive we did was called Lou’s Ladder. It was in Ladder Bay (fitting name) and was very nice. Not as exciting as the pinnacles, but still a nice dive. Our dive master for this dive was awesome; her name is Ellie and she was just SO enthusiastic about everything. She knew I was eager to see anything I could so she pointed out everything she saw. Even the stuff I’ve seen a million times, but I still appreciated it. Hopefully I’ll get to do more dives with her.
Christmas Tree worms again
Well that’s all for this dive trip, I’ll probably go out next Monday or Tuesday, so hopefully I’ll have more exciting stories then!!
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