Club ED

So its been two weeks since I last wrote, mainly due to the fact that I have been too busy. We were drilling new moorings the first week which has basically knocked me for six and I have been recouping my energy ever since. We did our first run over to Grand Turk which was fun. We met Smitty who is a diving legend over here. He works as a guide at Grand Turk Divers, is 70 years of age and knows the reefs like the back of his hand. A great guy to get advice from and he blew my record for drilling with a 15 minute dive, drilled, cement and done. Just incredible, an honour to have dived with him.

I saw the biggest southern sting rays I have ever witnessed, two meters wide, off the coast of South Caicos island. Some beautiful diving down there. On one dive I saw a hawks bill turtle, eagle rays and a huge logger head turtle, very cool.

We had the best night dive ever with around five sharks feeding right under the boat. We sat on the sand and watched the show, it was a real honour to see these apex predators in their truest form.

The water has hit 29 degrees centigrade since we returned to TCI and I have ditched the wetsuit for shorts and a skin and its an amazing way to dive.

This last week has been my favourite yet with a group from Club ED, a dive club run by non other than ED. A true legend in his own right, diving has been second to non. A few of the guys have been killing the lion fish infestation and it has attracted great interest from the sharks. This has led to some incredible encounters with the high light being our final dive with five sharks, a dolphin and a turtle to finish. I luckily had my video camera with me on the dive and ill upload the finished product when I get round to editing it.

The guys were really fun and they took us out for dinner on the final night. We ended up at the casino and ED taught me the finer details of black jack. He did something right because I doubled my money and drank for free all night.

The group are heading to fiji next year and I plan to go with them. Clay, one of the guys from the group owns a sky diving drop zone out in Florida so im already planning a trip to go visit. What a great bunch of people, the next group has a lot to live up to.

Back To The Turks & Caicos (TCI)

I have tried to take notes this week, time just seems to fly by and I often feel I have missed out some odds and ends so here goes.

We went for a dive at “Double Caves”, San Salvador, which is one of my favourite sites from the Bahamas. You can only get on the mooring if the weather is good and this morning the conditions were perfect. I had already explored the cave that was directly below the mooring but I had seen a sink hole at the end of our last visit that I wanted to investigate. I briefed the group that I would enter first then call them in if I could see an exit. I found the hole, signalled for them to wait and descended into the cave. It curved into a horizontal tunnel heading towards the edge of the wall. As I descended it got darker and I was glad I decided to bring the torch. I was about to turn and give up when I saw a glimpse of blue, an exit. I called the other divers in and we headed out to the wall at 33m, it was awesome and a I was happy I was able to find it before we left.

Wednesday, 6^th June, I was on the bridge with the captain at around 06:30 on route to Samana Cay. All of a sudden he says “look, a manta just breached the surface!”.I looked out the window in time to see a huge tail fin crash into the water, clearly not a manta. The captain slowed the engines, just as we saw what appeared to be a pilot whale jump completely out of the water, bolt up right, then crash back into the waves. An awesome sight and a great way to start the day.

The final day in the southern Bahamas brought bad weather, well no rain but very strong winds. We arrive early and a diver went down to attach the mooring to one of our newly placed eye bolts. It was a true test for the new mooring as the seas were high and the boat was pulling hard on the line. As the divers entered the water I kept a close eye on the buoy as the line pulled tight it would sink and when the line went slack it would float. I watched nervously through out the whole dive and eventually the divers returned to the boat. I looked out towards the buoy and it was floating, I waited for the boat to swing and the buoy stayed afloat, we had broken from the mooring with one diver still under. I shouted to the engineer who confirmed my concerns and ran to start the engines. I jumped in the dingy and another instructor started to recall the final diver by banging on the bottom of the boat. We waited for what seemed like an age for him to surface before I sped over and picked him up. Only then could the captain kick the boat into gear and take us away from the shallow rocks we were being blown towards. I returned to the boat with the diver and we decided to skip the Bahamas and head back to TCI. We arrived back that afternoon, after covering some awesome seas, for a final dive in West Caicos. It was a busy week, but a good week none the less.

Bahamas

 

We have been here in the Bahamas for a month now, which has gone like the wind. The diving has been different, in comparison to the Turks & Caicos there is far fewer fish but the sharks are bigger and the topography is just breath taking. San Salvador being my favourite, why it has not been exploited for technical diving I do not know. There are so many incredible caves, canyons and deep walls I could spend years exploring the dive sites. We only managed a small amount of the west cost and it was awe inspiring. Some of the sites have the most incredible walls it feels like your flying over the grand canyon at times, with giant towers of ancient coral pushing up from hundreds of meters below.

Conception Island, uninhabited by humans, has a small turtle sanctuary and the coral is incredibly healthy with its own dose of big walls and drop offs. There is also a resident dolphin that lives there, apparently alone, who joined us for most of a dive there. One day I plan to get dropped off on Conception for a week or two, spend a week Bear Grylls style!

The group this week were fun, a group from a dive centre in DC. We had some great dives with hammers, turtles, dolphins and all the usual suspects. When you get great customers it all becomes easy and a pleasure to work.

We sail tonight bound for the Turks & Caicos and back to our regular itinerary. Its been fun exploring the southern Bahamas and I am sure ill be back one day, especially if it involves some time on San Salvador.