Loneliness Antidote

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Today we started off at Doc’s Dive again with hopes of spotting the same turtle from Friday. Unfortunately the dive was cut short when a few new divers drained their tanks too early so we were not able to swim up the chimneys. The visibility was not nearly as good due to the rough surface conditions churning up detritus in the water column over the past couple days. It’s still better than anything on the Atlantic coast of the U.S. No turtles, but we did sight a large crab under a ledge, a moray eel that I followed down to 100ft, and some lionfish.

The next dive was Mr. Bud, a wrecked fishing boat around 50ft., very similar to Prince Albert. It was neat to swim through some of the compartments, a little spooky at times. We didn’t sight anything terribly special, it seemed like there wasn’t as much life here compared to other sites, but it was still cool. Noel and I are going to be such spoiled divers after this trip.

For the afternoon dive we went to 40 Foot Point, a fantastic wall dive. At the beginning we sighted a hawksbill turtle, but it was booking it in the opposite direction so we were unable to make a capture, but at least we didn’t get skunked for the day. If we can sight a turtle on one out of three dives I think there’s a pretty good chance we’ll get to catch one soon. Swimming over the reef drop off was absolutely stunning. It goes from 20ft to well over a hundred instantly. Looking down over the ledge, all one can see is deep, deep, cerulean blue nothing. Huge, colorful tube sponges grow out vertically from the wall at intervals and corals fan the current whipping around the point. The highlight of this dive was definitely the three large, silvery tarpon that schooled up the wall together and disappeared over the reef.

While walking back to my room after dinner I noticed the darkness of a new moon. As the stars shone down, I realized that the familiarity of Orion’s Belt was nowhere to be found. Tropical breezes rustled the palms, waves shushed over the reef, and mysterious constellations filled my world. Loneliness was a million miles away.

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