Thursday, June 12, 2008 Another fantastic day! Woke up nice and early at about 4 am and watched the sun come up, and when the sun comes up early, we were told it is going to be a nice day. It wasn’t just a nice day, it was gorgeous. I finally really got to see the islands with bright blue, almost clear skies. I met up with Joe and Andy for breakfast again at Palm Bay and this time I had French Toast…yummy. We were then picked up and taken to Sam’s to get ready for our next dives. Jason was our Dive Master again and we were scheduled to dive Blue Corner, New Drop Off and Chandelier Cave. We are doing Blue Corner again to hopefully finish up our Specialty Dive as long as the currents allow us. There were another five divers with us again as well.
Blue Corner was different this time as we came in from the opposite side and were hoping to drift along the current and then find a place to hook in. The currents switched and we ended up taking a nice, exercising swim up current and over to where we started our dives yesterday. We were unfortunately not able to hook in so we were also not able to finish our specialty dive that visit. It was still a beautiful swim and I was able to see many sharks, barracudas, sea fans, clownfish with anemones, tangs, angels and we even had a smaller Napoleon Wrasse swimming along with us the entire way hoping for a snack. Towards the end of the dive I spotted a turtle hanging out in the reef and then was motioned at another one basking near it. I finally got to see Green Sea Turtles! So magnificent! We dove for about 45 minutes then got back on board to find a spot for lunch. I had Sushi and a chicken meal this time and it was so delicious. We had anchored in near an island where it was nice and shallow and right near a drop off so I decided after lunch to do some snorkeling. The things you can see while snorkeling don’t compare much to SCUBA because you can see so much more, closer with SCUBA, but the snorkeling was great anyways, and to top it off, I got to see more turtles!
After about an hour and a half we went off to our next dive site which was not too far from our lunch spot. We were briefed on our dive of New Drop Off. If the current was too strong we would just ride the current into Turtle Cove. We started off fine towards the drop off and after about 15 min. Jason motioned for us to turn around as we were starting to fight the currents. We rode the currents back into Turtle Cove and let me tell you, there were turtles almost everywhere, under you, above you to the side, resting in the coral. I was in ocean heaven! I was however becoming a bit nervous on this dive as the currents were quite strong and I ended up at the front of everyone else and with no one to watch and steady myself it became a little bit frightening. Andy has been such an amazing dive buddy because he keeps an eye on me and rode the currents out with me making sure I was OK and comfortable. I also had to keep repositioning myself because my feet tend to float a bit, so concentrating on staying close but not too close to the reef wall, checking my gauges, making sure that I wasn’t bumping into anyone else and trying to stay calm was getting a bit too much. But again, Andy was such a great help and continued to make me feel comfortable and relaxed so I could enjoy the rest of the dive. After about 50 minutes we surfaced and headed back to Sam’s to drop off three of the divers and take a very short boat ride to Chandelier Cave.
For anyone who is interested in caving and diving, I highly recommend you visit Palau for this dive. You start off not far at all from Sam’s at about 20 feet down and then into the first of four caves where you can surface and breathe the air. There are all sorts of stalactites and stalagmites which for the gorgeous caves. Anyone who took their dive computer on this dive had them constantly beeping as you go down for about 20 feet then back up into the next portion of the cave. We took our dive lights and Jason had us all turn them off at the surface of a cave. If you were to look through the water you can see the light at the entrance, the only way in and out of Chandelier Caves. I was almost not going to bring my camera due to the poor visibility and then darkness but I am glad I did because I got some really great pictures. Before we exited Jason explained to us that as we past the first cave coming in, he likes to turn his light off and follow the natural light out. He said we do not have to if we are scared but to cover the light as to not ruin the experience for everyone else. We all ended up turning out lights out which was awesome and even more exciting to swim out of the dark into beautiful sunlight rays. Once we exited we got back on board to dock at Sam’s and finish up some SCUBA right there at the dock under the boats since that is one of the best areas to watch the Mandarinfish explore for foods. I got to see Urchins, tons of Mandarins, aggressive Damsels, Cardinalfish, Pipefish, Filefish, Puffers, huge Clams, Butterflies, Starfish, crabs, limpets feather dusters, tiny blue damsels, and lots of other amazing life right there at the dock of Sam’s Tours. I had fun pointing out to the other couple these things and I think they really appreciated it and understood more how to look for things. I finally decided to surface and met Joe and Andy, who had already been surfaced, put their gear away and was enjoying a beer and fish sticks. I just didn’t want to get out of the water, and only being in about 8 feet, my tank could have lasted for hours. I got my gear all rinsed out and put away then relaxed for a bit.
Jason, our Dive Master, then drove us and another couple into town and dropped the couple off at their hotel. He then drove us through town to show us the good eating spots and some shopping places. It was quite a small town but things were always busy. Joe stopped at the Bank of Guam to use the ATM and then we headed back to our hotel. I ended up misplacing my room key and, fingers crossed; I am hoping it is just back at Sam’s. I am “borrowing” another room key so I can at least have power since the key holder needs to be in the key slot for any power to work. I am also hoping my AC works better, it started spitting ice at me after breakfast.
Once showered and dry clothed, Andy, Joe and I went around the corner, almost directly behind our hotel, to Kramers and had dinner. I had a grilled tuna salad and after only about a third of the way in, I was so full. The tuna was excellent and the salad fixings had a nice kick to them. It was only 8:30 pm when we decided to head back to the hotel and get some sleep. We are all exhausted from a fabulous day of diving! And I got a bit of sun too so that just adds to the exhaustion…at least I can come back with a tan nowJ.
1 comment:
Those turtles are beautiful!
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