Would you believe it I finally obtained the dive map from Budget Marine yesterday. I dropped off the four used tanks at Dive Friends letting them know one had lost about 1,000 PSI before we used it and pointed out where the leak was. Even though we’d managed a decent dive on it the manager gave us a free fill. Very nice of them. Our tanks still hadn’t arrived yet so I took another two.
Helen and I then packed our gear into the dinghy and went to a spot just north of Harbour Village Marina called “Front Porch”. It wasn’t clear where the spot was from the sea as my guess is is that the dive marker was on land. We asked someone in the water who gave us guidance to the spot – at least where he thought it was. One of the attractions to this spot was a wreck of a fishing boat sitting on the bottom at 80ft.
We donned our gear, always a little more awkward in the dinghy, and back flipped into the water. After making sure we were both ok we descended to find the wreck. We hit bottom at 102ft and saw no wreck. To conserve air we ascended to about 70ft and headed south, this being my guess as to the direction of the wreck. After about 5 minutes the wreck appeared out of the shadows. It was on it’s side in about 90ft with the open section away from us. We swum over it then peered under.
The dive then progressed as with the previous ones, running parallels along the sloping reef ascending 10-20ft each time. We spotted a sinister looking and very large barracuda lurking in the depths and Helen caught sight of a green moray hiding in the reef. Nearer the top of the reef we came upon what we both initially thought was murky water. It turned out to be a few of the corals spawing. Out of their tubular vents poured a fine mist like underwater volcanoes. That was a great surprise as we thought all the spawning had occurred during September and October.
Back on Dignity we rested for an hour before heading off for a walk. We wanted some leg exercise as we’d had none for a while. We walked along the seafront for a while before heading into the commercial district. We wanted to check out the supermarkets over that way before making any broader effort to buy any supplies. As suspected the prices reflected the geographic/political isolation of the island so we only bought opportunistically – ie, things we don’t normally see. In this case it was a couple of small packets of nan bread. We bumped into the Jacksters, Inspiration Ladies and their friends on Going South who were provisioning up having hired a vehicle they could share.
We walked further out of town before looping back and coming back in from a different direction. We picked up some fresh milk on the way. We again bumped into the Jacksters, et al, at the dinghy dock as they were loading up their supplies.
That was about it. Back on the boat we had our evening meal and I wrestled with the internet for a while. Something’s changed recently and it’s hard to get a decent connection. Hopefully I can get this blog out.
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