Can I come home with you???

I have never seen puppydog eyes on a fish before!!!  

This little guy was cracking me up yesterday.  We had a quiet day, so I went out in the lagoon by myself in the afternoon and was just sitting on the bottom taking photos when I noticed him swimming around my legs, tickling me with his fins.  He followed me around like a little lost puppy the entire time I was underwater, and would swim up and sit in my outstretched hand.  Too cute!!!  (btw, he 's a honeycomb grouper)

A bad day at the office

Seriously - we did not see a SINGLE turtle yesterday.  Rough life, I tell you.  The boat drivers had the day off, so we had to do both our dives inside the lagoon.  What we DID see on the second dive was a small school of these guys, bumphead parrotfish:

They were about 3 feet long - pretty weird, no???  After making it back to dry land, we had to contend with the evil sand flies that decided I was Dinner.  And that was the the worst part of my day.  Not too shabby...

Busy, busy, busy!

Wednesday was a public holiday here (ANZAC Day; similar to Veterans' Day in the US) so the boat was busier than normal this week.  I went out on lots of dives and got to see some really great things, especially in the last couple of days.

On Weds, the wind was really strong and on our first dive, there was a rip current on the surface.  We dropped into about 60 feet of water and started swimming headfirst into the current, which was still quite strong at that depth.  I ended up getting pulled away from the group since I was carrying the line to our dive flag floating on the surface.  I waited for a few minutes to see if they might swim back in my direction, then prepared to ascend and return to the boat.    I turned around just in time to see a huge manta ray* gliding gracefully past me!!!  Surprise!    I was so thrilled that I didn't even mind missing the rest of the dive, especially since the rest of the group didn't get lucky enough to see mantas.  This one had three sharksucker remoras under it, two attached and one just swimming along.  The free-swimming fish ventured closer to me and started giving me the eye.  I got the feeling that he had heard about me from his cousins in Belize.**

Remoras:  lazy little bastards.

*For those of you who don't dive, mantas (and whale sharks) are one of the most exciting, elusive things you can hope to find underwater.  Mantas can grow up to 20+ feet across and do not sting or bite.  Click here for more info & pics!
**Backstory here

Minor Differences

The old commute

The new commute

The old motorman

The new motorman (AKA Captain Mick)

The old office

The new office

1770 Adventure

So yesterday I actually made it out to Southern Great Barrier Reef; woohoo, actual diving!!!  Boat days are a bit of an endurance trial.  I dragged myself out of bed a little after 5:30am, and the bus dropped us off at the house at 6:30pm.  Let's just say I had no trouble falling asleep.

Sadly, I forgot to bring my camera yesterday, but I am headed back to the boat tomorrow, so I will bring back plenty of photos to post.  Hopefully the underwater visibility will be somewhat improved so I can introduce you to George, the resident giant estuary cod at the place we dive, who's at least 4 feet long & about 300 pounds.

I managed to get my rescue diver certification wrapped up, which is a huge relief.  It resulted in a lot of REALLY perplexed Japanese tourists, I must say.  There was a small crowd gathered at the railing looking very concerned as I performed a simulated rescue on my "drowning" fellow DM trainee.  I was especially entertained by one woman who showed up for a day of sun and water adventure dressed in a long black velvet  skirt, black & gold brocade jacket, and loads of pearls.  We speculated that perhaps she had gotten her tours mixed up and would show up for a dinner theater engagement that night wearing her bikini...

The Great Aussie Adventure!!!

Just to give you all an idea of where I will be for the next year!  The Whitsundays are a group of 85 islands off the NE coast of Queensland, between Brisbane & Cairns.  This area is known as the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef.  If you're interested in reading more about the region, click here! 

Passing notes. Underwater.

I did not realize that it was possible to revert to the 6th grade without speaking, but that's why they made dive slates, I guess.  Spent quite a bit of my diving time passing notes back & forth with the ever-so-charming divemaster, who also enjoyed practical jokes such as swimming up above me, then suddenly waving his hands in front of my mask, followed by much (mimed) pointing and laughing.   Then there was the empty lobster shell utilized as a finger puppet, which he reached into a giant barrel sponge one day and then SURPRISE popped right in my face.  That was amusing, but I had steeled myself for another such attack a few minutes later.  I was taken aback when the barrel sponge revealed not another lobster head peering at me, but instead the middle finger.  I laughed so hard I spit out my regulator, swallowed about a lungful of seawater, and had half the group approaching me to see why I was attempting to avoid choking to death.  I had a hard time collecting my wits for the rest of the dive.  As soon as we surfaced and made it into the boat, I started cracking up and promptly punched Mr. Funny Guy.

He managed to redeem himself during my last dive at Glover's, though.  Despite the fact that the fishermen's nightly cleaning ritual at the end of the dock attracted nurse sharks & stingrays by the dozen, I had been whining for two weeks that I had yet to see a shark while underwater.  The guys badgered me to try out the shark cage attached to the dock, but the sun was so low in the sky at that point in the day that the underwater lighting was rather dismal, even with the flash on my camera.

So on the penultimate day of my atoll adventure, I scoffed when the divemaster waved excitedly at me and showed the hand signal for shark.  I nodded at him, shrugging it off as more good-natured teasing.  He continued to wave me over in a very perturbed fashion.  I shuddered at what surprise lay in store, but dutifully swam in his direction.  All of a sudden, in a flash of sand and a flip of grey, a nurse shark flounced off, clearly annoyed at having his afternoon nap disturbed.  If it's possible to smile through your reg, I certainly did that day.  Sadly, I wasn't quick enough for photos.

The other remarkable diving event of this week was a big loggerhead turtle swimming near our group who headed up to the surface for air at the same time we did - very cool to watch.

Belize Week 2, AKA Survival Training Camp

Contrary to what the title of this post may lead you to believe, I really did have a good time at Glover's Reef Resort - it was just a very different experience than Off the Wall.  My home for the week was an over-water hut, which was quite picturesque, and even featured a deck out back for sunning.  On the plus side, there was a fantastic breeze, even on those very warm, sweaty tropical afternoons.  Not so great when meal time rolled around, and I sat there attempting to light an open gas burner for a good half hour.  Wind gusted through the hut as I tried in vain to construct a makeshift shelter out of dishes, pans, and whatever else I could find.  Fortunately, there was a separate outdoor kitchen area in a slightly more protected area of the island, to which I ended up resigning my cooking efforts.  In my humble opinion, gnocchi with pesto sauce was a major accomplishment!

Other major differences included a plethora of mosquitoes & "no-see-ums"/sand flies since there was no chemical treatment on the island; well water in the outdoor showers & sinks, which had a distinctive odor; and less overall sense of community among the staff and guests.  I would recommend this particular spot for a family or large group traveling together, or a couple wanting a great deal of privacy; however, the setup was less than ideal for a single (sociable) traveler.  After a week on the island, I was going a little stir-crazy.  This is not to say that the other guests were not friendly - I met two gentlemen from Mexico who were very pleasant and shared several meals with them as we faced a common battle with the kitchen.  Many of the guests simply chose to keep to themselves outside of diving excursions etc.

To give a fair overall picture, meals could be purchased as a package for the week or individually in the island "restaurant," but with a family-style set meal and no other options, I opted to feed myself.  I did supplement my rations with fresh baked bread which could be purchased from the kitchen twice during the week.

Fishing excursions were an option as the resort's boat went out twice daily to catch fish both to sell and for meals in the restaurant.  I decided to join the sunrise outing one morning, which certainly made for an exhilarating start to my day!  As the only guest in the boat, I had the privilege of trawling for barracuda on my own.  While this was an exciting prospect, it was also slightly terrifying once the toothy fish made it into the boat.  My native guide had brought a club resembling a small baseball bat, with which he whacked the flopping, writhing, angry barracuda on the head - several times.  Now covered in barracuda blood splatter, I thought we were in the clear, but the damn thing started moving again, sliding around the boat, those jagged nasty teeth coming a little too near my feet for comfort.  I fought to haul in a total of four of the fearsome fish, including one really big guy, and when we made it back to shore, most were still struggling.  They do not mess around, but I ultimately emerged both unscathed and victorious.

Restraining order, stat!!!

There was some high quality entertainment one afternoon during my stay at Off The Wall when a pair of remoras were stalking me like they were paparazzi!  At the end of my very first dive in Belize, a small remora followed us up to the boat and tried to nibble on a fellow diver's toes, so I was already understandably wary of these unusual fish.

In case you're not familiar with them, remoras have a large flat head with a sucker disc which they use to attach themselves to sharks, turtles, boats, divers...you name it.  Basically, they're lazy bastards looking for a free ride.  They feed off the larger animal's leftovers.  I've heard conflicting accounts as to how painful it can be to remove a remora that has attached to your skin.  I was not particularly interested in finding out firsthand!

I noticed that a pair of remoras seemed to be circling me.  I tried to swim in a different direction - they followed.  I tried ignoring them - they came closer.  I tried kicking water at them with my fins.  Evidently they interpret this as aggressive behavior and want to investigate even more closely.  Needless to say, I was on the verge of a minor (underwater!!!) panic attack at this point, when my divemaster swam up behind me & grabbed the back of my tank.  He motioned that I should calm down.  I frantically pointed at the mean scary fish that were chasing me and got a nice glare in return.  Somehow he managed to convey "just ignore them" with no words, and I tried to focus on keeping my eyes forward for the rest of the dive and just breathe.  

The damn things still ended up trailing me all the way to the boat, which I was promptly teased and laughed at by every single member of our group for the rest of the day.  Even my parents joined in on the mocking - my father suggested that 'it might be the tattoos,' and my mother concurred with 'watch out, they might try to eat them off you.'  Wishful thinking, Mom - I made it to the next island in one piece!!!