It was another wreck dive this morning. After this trip, I have a whole new take on weeks. I didn't get to do one in the Outer Banks this summer because a hurricane was rolling through and kicking up too many waves and too much sediment to see, so my only experience was a negative one with a ton of lionfish in Thailand. Here, though, the wreck of the morning was the Aguila. Not quite as long as the Odyssey at only maybe 150 feet, but had some swim-thrus and a giant mast at the bow that was a good forty feet tall.
We'll see how all the photos of Alisa and I playing on the bow turn out. Again, that "defying gravity" thing is pretty addictive.
On the way back up, Hector disappeared into a dark tunnel. He had told us there was a swim-thru, so I waited to see if it was a one-way deal and he'd come back out (in other words, that it wasn't the swim-thru but just him looking for sharks) or if he'd stay gone.
I'm hesitant about overhead environments, as any diver should be, but the thrill of it is also tempting, so I told myself that I wouldn't follow if I didn't see light at the end of the tunnel. I got to the bend, about ten feet in, and, when I dropped to the bottom, I could see the next chamber another ten feet ahead that Hector was in. So I followed.
It was a tight squeeze (just a little tap on my tank as I went through a little too high) to the next chamber, which, while well-lit, didn't have enough of an opening to get out vertically. So it was on to chamber number three, and then a completely vertical exit back onto the reef, with Alisa waiting with the camera. Practicing buoyancy while under a bit of pressure (and with less room for error) is now a fun challenge. Back before I had 50 hours of diving, it was an awful challenge. Shocking what practice does.
We were back at the dock in no time, and, because we left extra early to make sure we were the only group on the wreck, we had plenty of time to kill before the second dive started. It was a time of camaraderie - at this point, we'd had six days together to chat during our surface intervals and as we were setting up our gear. Now, the week was coming to an end with many of us taking our final dive before those 24 hours before a flight.
The board said it was "dive master's choice", and Hector chose "Lighthouse Reef." No lighthouse anymore, but a large, wide top of a wall where the ten of us could spread out. I told Hector as we got to the dive site that the only things left on my list were sea horses and sharks. Given that seahorses hadn't been seen around Roatan in the last few months, my hope was riding on a sleeping nurse shark.
We pretty much saw one of all the identifiable things I've been listing all week: a porcupinefish, a sea turtle, a trunkfish, a green moray, a tiny brown spotted moray, anemones. I specifically pealed off from the group (with Alisa being a good buddy and keeping an eye on both me and the giant trunkfish that everyone else was following) to continue watching a sea turtle as it coasted along, chiseling off bits of coral to chomp on, then rising up to get another breath of air.
I wasn't so far from the group, though, that I missed Hector banging on his tank. He was positioned over a sandy crevice, not more than two feet wide, with coral and rocks mostly blocking it. I approached, waiting for him to hopefully give the underwater signal for what he was seeing.
And there it was - his right hand coming up above his head, making a fin. It was a nurse shark! The little sleeping thing was maybe three feet long, with just a fin and a snout and a tail barely sticking out. We all got our turn to peer under the rocks for a better look at its face, and my final tick checked the box for marine life!
I was running oddly lower on air than normal, but with is hanging out in sight of the boat with less than twenty feet of water, I felt comfortable going down to 600psi as Alisa and I extended the dive to just over an hour. Bryan and Holly were hanging out down there with us, and his sharp eyes spotted a scorpionfish hidden in plain sight just before we ascended.
The scuba sign for ascend is a thumbs up. It's meaning above the surface echoes how I felt about my diving week coming to an end. All good. Even if it might take a few days for my right ear to defunk and unclog itself.
Lunch was a veggie pizza, which I over-indulged in (with help from the two pina coladas). I paid for it with some rolling nausea - a good reason to lay down and chill for the next few hours (after checking out the gift shop and getting a personal ride back to the cabana island).
Alisa headed off to her massage at five, after I'd finally finished the book I'd been toying with all week, nearly caught up with blogposts, caught up with correspondence, and swung in the hammock as an afternoon rainstorm rolled through.
Dinner was a bit anti-climactic, but we had arranged for a taxi to take up into West End - it was our final night, so I wanted to live it up and see what Roatan was like off the resort. We had a few different drinks at a few different places (one overlooking the bay, one on the bay, and then some dancing at the bar next to it). The street was kinda cordoned off from vehicle traffic, which was good since the sidewalks didn't reliably continue along the main road.
After getting a few dance requests that I rebuffed, when a guy at the bar started passionately waving at us, I pretty much ignored it. When he followed us out of the bar, I attempted to slow down a bit to force him to pass. Instead, he came up next to us and re-introduced himself as our driver back to the resort. Whoops! We were ready to head back half an hour before we were expecting, so it turned out fine that he was "following" us.
I fell asleep quickly, and woke up to drops of rain on the palm leaves outside my window. One thought was to snorkel in the morning; the comfy mattresses and late night meant that that didn't happen. No final lobster, angelfish, urchins, or anemones. Instead, a double rainbow across the ocean, and a reconfiguration of clothes in suitcases.
We ate a big breakfast, checked out at the front desk with all our expenses, and chatted and waited for our bus to come. The fifteen passengers all chatted together, then we spilled out at the small airport. Two and a half hours early.
I finished an entire book at Roatan Airport and on the three hour flight to Miami. Started the next one in midair and spent the layover eating a long dinner and finishing this blog!
So, as the flight boards back to DC, and I've changed into my pants and (Star Wars) sweatshirt (to match Alisa's equally nerdy Gryffindor sweatshirt), I've kept my sandals on. They are the last vestiges of the last seven days of balmy weather and beaches.
Well, except for the tons of pictures to sort through, the emails to write to our new connections, and the final driving leg for Alisa.
But, to Honduras, adios! And gracias!
No comments:
Post a Comment