Tuesday, June 17, 2008 Another early morning but a good nights sleep. The morning seemed like it was going to be nice but the water seemed a bit rough and there were clouds forming so we knew it was going to be a rainy day. Joe, Andy and I had breakfast again at Palm Bay. It’s a nice little restaurant and being right next to our hotel makes it easy to get an early start on digesting. We got back to our rooms to prepare for our last three dives.
Again we got to Sam’s before everyone else so got our gear ready and situated on the boat. It is nice to get things done early so we can relax and not get in anyone else’s way. Our first destination was Blue Corner again. It is such a great dive and the hooking is so awesome! It took about an hour to boat out there and man were the seas rough. Andy said they were about 4-5 foot swells. We were all already wet by the time we got to our dive spot. Jason went over the dive profile, checked the currents and then we were in the water and straight down so we didn’t get swept away in the surface currents. The currents were also quite strong at about 40-60 feet but it was a nice drift. We made our way along the wall and then made our way up to a hooking spot. We all got our hooks ready and as we approached the top of the wall, the currents really picked up. I had to kick hard against the current to stay in the group and then find a good spot to hook in. I inflated my BC and then relaxed and watched the view into the blue waters. There were dozens of sharks, lots of Barracuda, Jacks, Grunts, Triggers and many more struggling with the currents. It was our best Blue Corner dive yet! Jason signaled us to unhook and then swim down a bit and re-hook in. I am glad he did because the action was more intense farther down. Unfortunately within minutes after our first hook in, my camera battery died. I forgot to replace the batteries before hand and really was quite irked. Oh well, it was nice to just chill and enjoy the dive. We did our safety stop and waited for the boat to pick us up. When I surfaced the currents were so intense but so fun. I held on to the rope of the boat and waited to get on the ladder and climb up as the swells took us up and down. What a ride!
Once all on board we made our way over to a spot to relax and have our surface interval. We didn’t have lunch then because we planned on doing all three dives before even going back to Sam’s. The area we anchored in at had a nice shallow snorkeling spot so I of course got wet again. I saw lots of Boxfish, more than I had seen the whole time we had been there. I didn’t stay in long b/c I was getting tired and cold. After about an hour we made our way over to our next dive spot, Bid Drop Off.
The waters had calmed down a bit so the ride wasn’t so rough this time. Once we arrived at Big Drop Off Jason instructed us to still go straight down and wait about 30 feet since the surface currents were still quite strong. The wall was a nice relaxing drift dive and I saw many more anemones with Clownfish, lots of huge beautiful Sea Fans, enormous soft corals, lots of Acroporas, Anthias, Nudibranchs, Basket Stars and so much more! I was able to get some pictures because during out SI, I swapped out the batteries from my small dive light to use in my camera. I just wish I had thought of that before Blue Corner. Oh, and even a great video of a Green Sea Turtle very close up!
Jason took us to Bablomekang Island where we had lunch and Andy played with huge sand crabs. I had seen him walking away from out lunch table in a hurry towards the beach and then walk back with a curious demeanor about him. He got back to the table and placed a big sand crab that he had caught onto the table. The crab danced its way down the center towards us all. We all scurried just as fast as the crab to get out of its way. It was quite a funny event. We hung out on the island for a bit then headed back out to sea! Our next destination, Iro Maru Wreck.
We arrived at Iro Maru a short bit after leaving the island still with rough seas. This was a nice stationary dive so we just went down the line, checked out the wreck for about 30 minutes then headed back up. I saw huge Bubbles corals, Pearl corals, lots of Heliofungias, Rhodactus Mushrooms, Goniopora coral, and even a Hammer coral. It’s amazing to see what lives in certain areas where the water is murkier. Since I was diving on air and everyone else on Nitrox, Jason wanted to keep us in a group so we came up when my computer said it was time for me to surface. No one minded as it was getting chilly and as we were at our surface interval, we could look up and see that it was raining. Such a neat sight to look up from below the surface and you can tell what the weather is like above. We got back on board and took a short ride back to Sam’s.
Once back at Sam’s, we rinsed our gear really well and hung it out to dry. Since we are leaving late tomorrow night, we wanted to make sure all our gear was nice and dry so we didn’t have water weight in our luggage. Andy went ahead and ordered us drinks and munchies. Joe, Andy, Kelly and I sat around eating and drinking at Bottom Time Bar and Grill and enjoyed the evening after a long day of diving. We watched the rain come down and the staff at Sam’s move out the boats from the dock. They moved the boats to offshore anchors so they didn’t get banged around too much. Like I had mentioned before, Sam’s Tours Dive Shop has a great setup and great staff. We got all our gear together and finally decided to head out and get some sleep. I got to my hotel room and hung all my stuff out in the bathroom, it looked like a mini SCUBA shop in there. I was crossing my fingers for nice weather since tomorrow is our off-gas day and we are taking a kayak tour around the islands.
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