Galapagos Islands: Day 9

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Day 9. March 16, 2011: Diving at North Seymour and Black Turtle Cove, Santa Cruz

Diving at North Seymour Island
We got up at 6:30 AM for breakfast and the dive boat was supposed to pick us up at 7:30, but it didn’t show up until 9. The rest of the group left at 7:45 to go to shore at Bachas Beach. We sat on the covered deck, and watched a Galapagos shark swim round and round the boat. Anne's jellyfish stung arm was looking pretty mangled at this point. There were lots of round welts and blood caught inside some of the bumps. It was so swollen she couldn't move her wrist very well. She asked Williams if this was normal and he said “No, you might want to go into town and see a doctor” She was very itchy and Steve had to gently remind her not to scratch. We got picked up by the Sub Aqua dive shop, and there were 4 crew on the boat (Peter, Andres, Hector, and Andres II) and only 6 divers. We headed towards North Seymour to check out our buoyancy. We had 7 millimeter full wetsuits that took some serious acrobatics and pulling by Peter to help us get them on us. Hector gave us both 10 kilos (22 pounds)! Anne thought this was insane as her last dives were with just 10 lbs. He said that we needed more weight because of the thicker wetsuits and the salinity of the Galapagos sea water. Neither of us had any problems descending, although at the end of the dive Anne's poor little arm struggled to lift 22 lbs out of the water while holding on to a rope and bobbing in the waves. Our first dive was at El Punta. We went down to about 65 feet, saw a shark immediately at the bottom, then headed down a little more and out along the edge of the island. We saw a burst of fish and then a sea lion swooshing by. We also saw mantas and spotted rays, along with smaller rays. Steve hadn’t gone diving in a year and it was his second ocean trip, so right after Anne signaled "half tank", she saw one of the dive masters hand Steve his octopus. Evidently Steve was a bit nervous and was sucking air like there was no tomorrow (he actually had some of those kind of thoughts). A short while later, he took Steve and two of the guys up, and the other three divers continued for another 15 minutes. Anne was really enjoying herself (Steve can insert his feeling here. Comment from Steve: no, it wasn't a very pleasant experience for me. I was glad to be safely out of the water and breathing real air instead of the compressed stuff). After lunch, we dove El Chanel. It was shallower at about 45 feet and had very strong currents. There was a sandy bottom, and we saw some white tip reef sharks on the bottom. Steve counted 14 total, and they were just hanging out while we watched them. Then we saw a hammerhead shark, a green turtle, and more rays. It was a beautiful dive (comment from Steve: agreed. This was actually a very pleasant dive for me. I didn't freak out and I enjoyed myself because Anne held my hand and checked on me frequently), and Anne wished we could go on more. We struggled out of our wetsuits and then got back to the Galapagos Voyager at 2 pm. As we were rinsing our equipment off on the platform, Angel points out that the hose Anne was using was salt water! Since he was such a joker, we weren't sure if we believed him or not. Yes, we are on the ocean but why would you want a water hose that shoots out salt water? The answer from Angel was that they use the salt water to rinse and clean the boat. Anne put her finger in the stream and tasted it and let out a huge laugh! He then showed us the fresh water spigot. Ok, so we have been rinsing our wetsuits and masks off in salty water the last few days.

Then we head out in the panga to Black Turtle Cove. We were surrounded by mangroves in a secluded cove, and we could see lots of baby Galapagos sharks. Then we saw some green turtles mating (otherwise known to the naturalist as "happy turtles"). Then we paddled off into the mangroves, looking for more turtles and rays. There were lots of birds: great blue herons, blue footed boobies. After a while, we were getting a little bored. We finally head back to the boat, had snacks and a shower and Steve was asleep when Anne got out. He had a rough day. Anne was writing and letting him take a short nap before dinner. It was raining to the island side of the boat and nice and cool.

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