Punta Carrion
Our Check out dive was in shallow water (35’), and good
chance to check our weighting and any new gear before heading off to the surging
currents of Wolf and Darwin. My “ebay special” wetsuit worked great, keeping me
toasty warm even though I was just a wee bit heavy on my first guess for
weighting. We saw lots of cool critters on this dive, including marbled rays,
Panamic Horse Conch (which are bright orange with blue spots), Panamic Fanged
Blennys, etc….
Most of the divers in our group were diving dry, so were
experimenting with much lighter (or no) divewear. Those wearing “nothing”
underneath their suit soon found out why you have to wear something… those dry
suits pinch, bad! Ouch!
North Seymour
Friday, we did two dives at North Seymour, spotting
several white-tipped sharks snoozing in a cave, spotted eagle rays, sea lions,
and the amazing assortment of fish and invertebrates that proliferate among the
islands. During our first dive, one of our divers (Jon) handed his dive
buddy/girlfriend a wet note with a ring zip-tied to it. The wet note said,
“Shannon, Will you marry me?” Once Shannon got over the shock, she turned the
page and wrote back, “Hell yeah!” Definitely a memorable dive!
On
the second dive, we dropped down to check out the garden eels, which are much
bigger (and I might add braver) than the ones I’ve seen in the Caribbean. There
were hundreds of these fascinating creatures everywhere you looked. After
lunch, we headed over to shore for our first land excursion. A baby sea lion
greeted us as we stepped off the tender, and you had to be careful where you
stepped, as the blue-footed bobbies built their nests right on the foot path and
the sea lions let loose anywhere it pleases them. The boobies and frigates were
mating and nesting, consequently they were very entertaining (and somewhat
comical to watch). Of course I took a lot of pictures, which are remarkably
easy since you can get so close to the critters. They seem to have no fear of
humans at all, basically ignoring you unless you’re blocking the sun or their
route. What an amazing place.
After our land excursion we headed back to the boat,
pulled the anchor and started the long journey north to Darwin Island, which
would take all night.
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