Yachting, 365 days and a lifetime: Day 199 & 200: SCUBA!

STANIEL CAY EXUMAS, BAHAMAS.....STILL HERE

The owner just doesn't want to leave the yacht club. I don't blame him though. I would much rather be here than Sampson, or even Georgetown with the exception of the Regatta's. We finally got our parts in for the generator. I flushed the coolant system a few more time after installing the new reservoir tank, putting on new zincs, and re-tightening all of the hose connections. Unfortunately the hose that connects the reservoir tank to the expansion tank was no good and I needed to find a way to get another one. By this time it was well in to the evening and time to call it quits. I had an early night and watched Avatar in my room for the first time ever.

Friday I woke up at 0500, too excited to sleep. I tried to lay there for another two hours but hardly drifted in and out of sleep. My alarm finally gave me the go ahead to get up and get ready for the day. I told myself to stay calm and make sure I get a good breakfast, go over all of my gear again, etc, etc... I was so excited because the owner granted me a day of diving. It was a good group, with the exception of one guy who wasn't very coordinated in the water. Jake, Kris (sp?), Dick and myself were the only divers. We had the motivation to dive Danger Reef but Jake, the dive master, called it off because it was a little too rough on the outside. Instead we dove Conch Cut and Jeep Reef.

Conch Cut was a drift dive, and I do have to admit my first official drift dive. As effortless as I though the dive would be I often found myself twisting and turning to try and get in the right position. It is like taking a slow boat down a river, you are moving fast over the ground but have no steerage. We saw a lot of lobster, a ray, and a ton of beautiful fish. Our bottom time was nearly an hour. Jeep reef proved to be the more enjoyable dive however.

Just before we got in the water Dick turned around and stated he wasn't feeling well and was going to sit this one out. It was a smart decision on his part, and it made Kris and I happy because he wasn't a very good diver. Immediately I could sense that Jake himself was much more relaxed and enjoying the dive. The coral was very cool and the fish were spectacular. Large grouper, huge barracuda, and too many lobster to count. We did see the Jeep (how the site got it's name) but other than old tires it was very hard to make out. Coral had claimed the walls and it looked more like a coral covered box on wheels. Last night while I was watching Avatar I kept thinking to myself, wow that would be so cool to live in a world like that. All of the colors at night time, the crazy animals and insects, and soaring between trees and mountains on a "dragon...thing". As I was drifting over the top of a tall coral head I pointed my head down, exhaled, and soared down the face of the coral head. Another breath leveled me out on the sand as I used a bit of momentum from my fall to glide across to the next coral head. Damselfish and blue chromis danced around the coral ducking in and out of their hideaways. A lobster tippy-toed across the sand. A four foot barracuda sat motionless with its mouth half open, watching my every move. I was as close to being on Pandora (the planet in Avatar) as I will ever be, and it was awesome. An ebb tide was starting to present itself as we came to the end of the dive. The huge coral walls were behind us and for the most part it was soft corals on the bottom. I sat at 15ft. for my safety stop and let the current take me. Motionless and weightless I sailed over Pandora. Like a little kid I spent all night pretending that Pandora existed after watching the movie. It was real.
Just like that I snapped out of my trance and noticed Jake floating right next to me. I looked over and he was in a sitting position pretending to read a newspaper (if he were using the restroom). I then noticed that I was in my "comfortable" position which also looked exactly like I was using the restroom. Jake started dancing and I went in to my own world and started doing front flips....why not. The last ten minutes of the dive was spent filling up our masks from laughing and being total idiots while performing our 15ft. safety stop. I think we may have stayed down a little too long if you know what I mean :-).

Back at the docks, I got the generator fixed and went up to the bar to hang out with my new group of friends. The night went by just like any other and I realized that it is almost better now when the bar is really empty because the people that are there all the time and the people who live here are the ones I talk to. It's going to be really hard to leave this place.