Diving Into Blue

Every dive starts with a giant stride off the boat into the blue.

Greg and I each had a camera on this dive. And when we do, our awareness is heightened. Our attention is divided--what's on the reef or in the deep blue; where our buddy is; where Pingo is; where everyone else is. Our eyes and other senses are taking in our surroundings and processing the information quickly.

We both noticed one diver who should have moved on with the swarm--but she didn't. She was VERY focused on poking around on the reef and using her flashlight to find stuff. Pingo, Bruce, and Greg had continued around the coral head, and now it was just the other diver and me. She glanced up and around and her eyes locked on mine. She pointed excitedly to something on the reef. I had no idea what it was but nodded and gave her the "OK" sign. Now, it REALLY was just her and I as Pingo, Bruce, Greg, and the swarm were no longer in sight. She headed around the coral head and I followed.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the coral head, Pingo, Bruce, and Greg had found a lionfish, taken the requisite number of pictures, and were now looking for me. They spotted the diver and I, and I gave them a "look what I found" gesture. The swarm was within sight, and Greg tried to tell her in diver sign language, "That's your swarm. Go find your dive buddy. Go on. Git!" But I don't think she understood. Instead, she began poking around the reef again, using her flashlight.

Ouy! We wanted to help her, REALLY! And we tried at least three different times to tell her we weren't her swarm--they're over there--to no avail. Finally, we just gave up. But I had to keep an eye on her--I couldn't just leave her out there by herself!

So we tried a new tactic--keep an eye on her but ignore her. It worked! As we followed Pingo through a swim through, I took a picture of Greg who was in front of me. Greg took a picture of me...being followed by the Hitchhiker!
It's great that she was following us, but now what?

As we continued on, the other divers swarmed all around us.
(Greg is the diver middle, bottom taking a picture. Bruce is right upper corner in the full wetsuit. All the other divers=the swarm!)

They were up, down, left, right, hands and legs flaying all around. You couldn't tell where one started and another ended. They swarmed past us until all that we could see was a whirl of bubbles and appendages. They didn't stop to enjoy the beauty of the reef or the peacefulness of their surroundings. And mind you--this was just nine minutes into our dive!

They had all moved on--or so we thought--except for one that went unnoticed by her buddy, the Divemaster leading the group, and us.

Sometimes, even though divers are dumped at the same dive site, the Divemasters conduct the tour differently. I'd hope that this was the case on our first dive, and I had lulled myself in this false sense of security. This wasn't the case, though, as I quickly found out as we went through the first swim through within the first five minutes of our dive.Pingo lead our tour, followed by Bruce, Greg, then me. Greg stopped in the swim through to take a picture of a Red Banded Shrimp.
I did the same--I stopped, took my time, and snapped a few pics. I looked up, and Greg had turned to look at me, about five feet away. Next thing I knew, I saw arms and legs as one diver went over my head while a second kicked past me on the right. Just awesome! I knew then that the boat-load of divers were following us--taking the same route as we were.

Are you wondering what these divers have to do with the hitchhiker? Soon you'll see the connection!

Pingo said he had a surprise for us--he found a new fish. He'd never seen this type of fish before so he had to come up with a name for it. He calls it the Chicken-Fish! Interesting name--we can wait to see it!

It was our six dive of the trip--third dive on Sunday, June 13. The dive site is called White House--Casa Blanca. It's called this because of marker on shore--a white house!

The current on this dive was just rippin'! No kicking necessary until we had to travel from one reef to a parallel reef. Otherwise, it was Superman/Superwoman diving!

There were a few things that got away--one was a HUGE green moray eel swimming free! There was a swim through that was open from one side of the reef to the other. I thought it would make a great picture. Just as I lifted up the camera, I saw the eel swimming freely. It is an incredible site--but I was on the wrong side of the reef! The eel was there then it was gone--hidden by the reef. Meanwhile, Pingo was further ahead than I was, rounding the end of the reef. He too saw the eel and rattled and pointed excitedly. I couldn't get there fast enough but I was able to see the eel for a brief second before it was gone again, slithering into a hole. Nope, this wasn't one of the surpises!

We came to the end of one reef--it was flat with small patches of grasses. Greg and I were just a little behind Pingo, Lynn, and Bruce. We had stopped to take pictures of sponges and fish. Pingo rattled his noise-maker excitedly to get our attention. (You're gonna ask me how we knew it was an excited rattle versus something else. You're just gonna have to trust me on this one. It was an excited rattle and it made us go to where he was pretty quick!)

As we got closer, we realized why--he'd found a seahorse in the grass. It's like finding a needle in a haystack! The seahorse was about three inches long and had his tail wrapped around a blade of grass. This was a great find since we haven't seen any seahorses since before the huge hurricane in 2005! After Pingo, Lynn, and Bruce oh'd and ah'd, they moved on so Greg and I could do the same and take some pictures.

Then came our second surprise--the chicken fish! Bruce laughed a LOT when he saw the chicken fish! And we all relived the moment back on board the boat as we described the chicken fish to Liz and Jennifer!