The divers headed off bright and early again. From the terrace we watched them do a sea-launch directly in front of our house. Sweet!! Checked with Sue if she caught sunrise and she told me that she had missed it. Disaster! I questioned if she simply had not being able to rouse from the bed. "Oh no" she told me, she'd gotten up at 5:20 and discovered that it was quite bright, waited until 5:30, figured she'd missed it and went back to bed. I looked at her aghast, sunrise had been at 5:35!! Sue understandably was really annoyed and is going to try again tomorrow.
At 10am the rest of us headed to the dive centre as we were all going snorkeling this afternoon in the hope of finding a whale shark (largest non-cetacean animal in the world. On average about 9.7m in length and 9t in weight).
Had a short briefing video on what to do and how to react if we saw a whale shark; then out to the beach for my first sea-launch. Skipper asked us all to point the rib towards the ocean and help move it into deeper water. Once the water got to knee height Sue got in, although to be fair she technically fell in ass over tea-kettle. We all collectively gasped as her head came perilously close to connecting with the metal stands used to secure the dive cylinders. Thankfully she survived unscathed. Karen got in next and then I jumped in knowing I would be of no use to the guys pushing. We made it out beyond the breakers smoothly enough and the sun beat down mercilessly on us.
Right, let's see some mammals please. Spotted a few dolphins but these appeared quite shy and did not want to play in the surf of the rib's bow. We had quite a few humpback sightings but disappointingly no sign of a whale shark.
A quick look around the boat had me grinning like a maniac. All of us fair folk were sensibly covered up. Caps, rash-vests, long sarongs - not an inch of bare skin was on display for fear we'd fry! Tis 32 degrees out here, plus we are on the water, so gotta also watch out for reflective burning!! Steve was using his fins to shade his legs from the knees down, hmmm myself and Kirsten noted that smart move and made to cover our feet and toes with our fins simultaneously. Cheeky acknowledgement grins from across the rib! In comparison to us vampires, the Latino girls on the rib were stripping off their rash-vests and soaking up the sun as best they could, baring as much skin as possible. What a sight we must have seemed.
As we started making our way back to the shore Kirsten was convinced that whale sharks didn't exist as she has never seen one, despite previous search attempts. Suddenly there's a hive of activity, the boats are circling and people are falling off ribs in extreme haste. "There, there" shouts the guy in the bird's eye seat pointing to a spot in the ocean.
A few of us dip into the water; ooh that's a lot warmer than I expected. Head down, bit of finning, follow the crowd, water is a bit murky from all the boats engines. Last time I was snorkeling it was in the Galapagos, the sea was calmer, crystal as; plus I had both a wetsuit and the added security of a fitted life-vest. Now I'm 'recklessly' doing it with just a rash vest in choppy water.
Sadly I do not have the water confidence to do this. Started to feel a wee bit claustrophobic (breathing was way too fast and shallow) and vulnerable (we're in deep ocean here). Head up, try a few deep breaths and let's give it another go. Grab my bearings, fin again towards the crowd but no, I'm extremely conscious about how far away from the boat I am getting; I'm really not a happy bunny, acutely aware that I'm not too hot when out of my depth (unsupported by buoyancy aids) - damn!
Swam back to the boat and floundered terribly in attempting to get back into the rib. I've no upper body strength what-so-ever; know this is no excuse and I should probably do something about that, but life's too short for gyms. (That's the lazy person in me talking). Anyway I can worry about improving upper-body strength when I get back home (I won't!! But that's the time to do it, not now).
Back to my dilemma. I grabbed the ropes around the top of the boat, pushed myself down in the water to get a bit of a launch up, jumped up (kind of) and proceeded to simply slither back down the side of the rib, just re-ripped my wounded hand for my troubles. Great! (Boats in the Galapagos had nice ladders from which you could haul yourself into the boats - I really gotta stop comparing to there!).
Luckily Lu and Sue had remained in the boat and together with a few helpful punts from Karen and Kirsten who were in the water, I somehow managed to be dragged aboard. Sheesh!! What an ordeal. I'm not going to be getting out of the boat again in a hurry, that's for sure. I shamefully will admit that I was glad to see that Karen also had issues boarding and needed the same punting and dragging assistance as myself. It is comforting to know that you are not the only one, hehehe, I'm a terrible, terrible person.
Kirsten though showed us all up with a very elegant mount, pretty much unaided, and she's 20 weeks with child people!!! Chatting to Karen and Kirsten revealed that none of us had seen the whale shark (if there was one). In fact, judging by the reactions of the rest of the people on our boat, no-one saw it. Ah well, all the more reason to have to come back to this place in the future...
As we neared the beach we could spot our house a mile away. The only ginormous property on the beach. Wow! Beach-landing was on the cards. We all were advised to grab on tight to the ropes. Full steam ahead towards the beach we tore. There was a huge jerk on impact but everyone was good. Hopped out of the rib and made our way back to the dive shop for lunch.
The divers were back from their first dive so we all caught up and exchanged tales. Francois had decided to complete a Nitrox course while out here. This would mean that he could dive with the 'big guys' and stay down longer. Study is the name of the game for him this evening. (Must have done a good job too, as he passed!).
Jim and Sue again went swimming the the ocean, foolishly undeterred by the risk of jellyfish - Sue got stung again, this time on the foot. Karen went for a paddle in the backwash and she got stung. Incidents are rapidly increasing at an alarming rate.
Today is Tony's birthday - how bad celebrating it in one of the most stunning dive spots in the world, with an incredible bunch of fantastically awesome friends around you!!! Pete was again on the case with dinner. We were spoiled for choice with three very tasty curries, (vegetable, chicken and prawn). Both Pete and Kirsten even managed to turn out the tastiest birthday cake I've had in a long time - condensed milk is the way forward, I may now be an avid convert to the stuff.
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