Fantastic Hooking on our Fifth Day

Saturday, June 14, 2008

This morning I actually slept in a bit and woke up at 6 am. Well, I guess I really didn’t sleep in, but more than the previous days. I met Joe and Andy for our regular breakfast place across the way to Palm Bay and we all had the American breakfast which came with eggs, choice of meat, fresh fruit, juice and coffee or tea. We checked out over the balcony and there were all sorts of fish swimming around. The day was beautiful and mostly sunny but definitely looked like rain. Oh well, we are getting wet anyways!

Once at Sam’s Tours, we geared up and were on a different boat this time. We had been on the Whale Shark the past couple days but this time we were on the Tiger Shark. A slightly different layout which made it a bit more cramped but we all managed. We took a ride about an hour out towards Blue Corner through German Channel. Our dive plan was to do Dexter’s Wall and then the south side, or up-coming side, of Blue Corner. Then back to Sam’s to drop off the divers only doing two dives and go back out to a Wreck Dive.

Our boat ride was about an hour and quite bumpy this time. We finally arrived at Dexter’s Wall and Jason briefed us about the dive. If there were changing currents, we were to just turn around and drift with the currents. I like the drifting b/c its lazy and by keeping your buoyancy you see all sorts of beautiful life along the wall. Joe, Andy and I were first in and once we descended we saw a turtle swimming ahead. I turned to Andy to make sure he saw it when I was face to face with a turtle just chilling on the wall. I got Andy’s attention and slowly approached the turtle. I got so close that as it started to look for an exit, I was able to pet its shell. Andy thinks he even got a nice shot of me with the turtle. I hope so. I was so excited and ready to explore more! I got to see lots of huge anemones with Pink Skunk Clowns as well as Domino Damsels living under the anemones, Puffers, Trumpetfish, Butterflies, Sharks, Christmas Tree Worms, Squirrelfish, beautiful schools of Purple Anthias, clams and so many more awesome things. We also came across another turtle grazing on the sponges along the wall. It spotted us all and slowly started to swim away, but not before I was able to pet this one too!

We had lunch on the boat and I did a bit more snorkeling but was a bit nervous as we were right above another drop off and I kept seeing these nice big fish in the distance that at first glance seemed like it could have been a shark. I know I was safe but to be extra safe, I got back in the boat. I am not afraid of sharks but statistically you are more likely to be attacked at the surface of the water snorkeling, surfing etc. than you are in their depths with all your scuba gear on. I had sushi again and did some sunbathing. After a good hour or so we drove a short distance back over to Blue Corner in hopes to finally be able to dive the up-coming side and hook in to get our specialty. Once in the water I could feel the currents were going to be strong. We drifted along for a bit and then Jason motioned for us to get our hooks ready and make our way up and over the wall. Once we started to get close to the top of the reef wall, the currents were extremely strong. I got hooked in, and my line was knotted but I was able to pull myself to it and get it undone. Then put some air in my BC and up like a balloon I went. Being hooked to the reef is so thrilling and with the currents this strong, I almost felt like I was going to loose my mask! We got to watch schools of Jacks and Barracuda fight the currents but he sharks seemed to make it look effortless. We were finally able to get our specialty done! We deflated our BC’s then unhooked and drifted along the top of the wall into a nice cut in the reef. A few Napoleon Wrasse joined us and we played around with them. I got to pet them all over and they seemed to like a little scratching. Jason even hugged one, wish I could have done that! We hung out for a bit with the wrasse, sharks and even a Moray Eel before ascending and heading back to Sam’s Tours dock.

As we were heading back the skies were getting darker and it started pouring. The rain would sting as it hit you since we were going quite fast in the boat. It died down a bit closer in and as we were getting ready to dock I mentioned to Joe and Andy that I was going to hold off on the next dive. Nothing was wrong, I was just tired and wanted to relax a bit since we have already done 14 dives and still have a good 9 more to go! Plus tomorrow is going to be a long day. We got some drinks at the bar in Sam’s dock, watched some of Nick’s videos that he taped with another group, filled out our specialty paperwork and got our pictures taken. I also went through my log book and had Jason sign off on my dives. We just sat and chatted then came back to the hotel to clean up and get some rest for tomorrow.