We got our breakfast of French Toast, then hopped aboard the Isantamaa for our first dive of the day. I love diving both because of the sea life but also because of the variety of shapes of the ocean floor. Some dive sites are just meadows of coral, which some have very distinct ridges, or a bunch of pinnacles, or a mix of all of them. This morning's dive had swim-thrus ("tubes" that could fit a diver), as well as coral pinnacles with sandy bottoms in between. The sandy bottom was really far down during our ascent, but we could still make out the outline of a stingray.
We had half an hour, so I relaxed in the sun on the deck. Because, tada!, today was the first truly sunny day! All day, no rain, and a balmy 90. What a way to spend a Wednesday.
"Dive Master's Choice" was the site for the 10:30am dive, and it was a wall teeming with life. Hiding under a sponge was a brown spotted moray, with some memorable fish (drum, trumpet, tarpin, remora) and the endearing sea turtles. We were shallow enough to see some sea urchins and anemones as well.
Lunch was difficult. Not only was there an extremely delicious-sounding vegetarian entree (stuffed portabellos) written on the menu whiteboard, but there looked to be an easily modified quesadilla that we could make into our starter instead of split pea soup. Alisa, of course, made me ask for our custom order. What a friend I am to do it for her. Just minutes later we heard the table next to us get told that they were out of quesadillas, so we happily snacked on that. To top it off? A super moist and dense brownie.
The afternoon dive was to Bear's Den - there is a cave that they don't guide divers into anymore, but there's a super long swim-thru. Hector said it was 40ft long, and it got pretty dim in the middle of it. I've been really proud of my buoyancy (except for a little slip up this morning where I dropped a little more than I intended, and right on fire coral that stung me too), and these swim-thrus have been proving it.
Hector found some sea worms (nudibranch) to play with at the beginning and end of the dive. There were quite a few divers for this trip, so Alisa and I tried to find our depth on the wall that would keep us out of the fins of the other divers. She would say we weren't totally successful, but sometimes, you just gotta turn the other cheek when you get kicked in the face.
With the wonderful sun, we played with the paddle boards. (I felt like I was on a log roll, dancing to stay up; better than not getting up at all, right, Alisa? Though perhaps she was smart to avoid the two or three belly flops.) We switched to kayaks to go over to the dolphin island again and snorkel until sunset.
A kitty greeted us on the island, and got a few ear scratches in return.
Right as we were getting cold and planning on getting out so we could catch the sunset, Alisa went out far enough to essentially a coral reef. Most of the area for snorkeling that we had covered was swathes of sea grass with individual coral heads ("bommies") poking up in the sand after a while. It was diving in miniature, with all the fishes and nooks to find fun things, like sea stars and urchins.
The sunset was yet again into clouds, not the ocean. We paddled our way back to the cabana island, which was where tonight's fiesta was being held. For the moment, all that meant was that we could pick up our first pair of pina coladas while still dripping from snorkeling.
We drank those while changing and shower, then came back to the picnic shelter when we were done with them. As dusk grew to dark, we chatted with a couple from Missouri about dive trips, airplane etiquette, the other divers on our boat, and the Caribbean duo that was playing pop favorites with an island twist (Ed Sheeran, anyone?)
There was a drawing to win a massage, a crab race, some local dancers and drummers, and a limbo contest that we left during. It was a nice shake-up from the "routine" of the dining room terrace overlooking the islands, sea, and possible passing cruise ships.
After being up early (and after a final "Monkey La La" adult beverage), Alisa and I went to sleep pretty quickly with the room gently rocking (from the boat, I'm sure, and not the rum).
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