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, 6th 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.
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