diving in the dark

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Today the resort decided to take us diving at West End, a good 40 minute motor to the west of here. On the first dive at Carol’s Place we spotted an adult hawksbill with a bunch of remora buddies, a large goliath grouper, and a nice size snapper that always seemed to be swimming on my right shoulder throughout the dive. The second dive was at Half Moon Bay Wall, one of the best dives yet, with lots of large grouper, a couple of juvenile hawksbill turtles, and a moray eel. The waters off West End are designated marine park, which means you can’t fish there so I imagine that the reason why we were seeing larger fish during these dives was due to that fact. After some lunch we decided to explore the town of West End for a bit. We happened upon Steve’s Paddleboard Shack where I rented a standup paddleboard and took it out over the reef in Half Moon Bay for a while. Afterwards we sidled up to Sundowners, the realest island tiki bar I’ve ever been to, and had a snack before catching a taxi back to Fantasy Island.

This evening I got to do my first night dive just off the resort on the Prince Albert wreck. We started the dive at dusk and by the time I finished it was pitch black except for our dive lights. It’s definitely a spooky feeling and I can see how it would be easy to get lost if you wandered off even for a minute. We found a large moray eel in the wreck, a small octopus, and a huge, sleepy parrotfish enclosed in its mucus bed for the night. The highlight was the absolutely massive ray digging a hole in the sand for itself. On the ride back to the dock we were all thrilled from the successful dive and looked up to the stars which were especially bright. I felt pretty amazing.

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