The second all divers were on board after Cousins Rock until
7:30 am this morning we booked it up to Wolf Island – about 16 full hours – we cruised
all night and woke up to see Wolf Island emerging and taking form as we drew
closer. It was really exciting to wake
up in the night and just see us cruising through open ocean that was
illuminated by the moon. Wolf and Darwin
are two islands that cannot usually fit on a proportional map of the Galapagos –
they are Northwest of all the other islands by quite a bit! Humans are not allowed on the islands and the
only real way to visit them are with the diving boats, so with the exception of
the Aggressor Galapagos I (we are on AG II) there is only one other dive boat
up here – it is so remote and mystical!
 |
| Approaching Wolf Island after a full night of cruising |
Our first dive this morning was amazing and was much more of
what I was hoping for! We dropped down
to about 60-70 feet and looked out to see hammerheads emerging from the
blue! We all tried to find a good stable
place to grab onto and all watched happily as we were truly in a fishbowl full
of several different schools of fish and multiple hammerheads. At one point there was a school of 10+ all
swimming past and at another moment one swam over us and we were able to see
the frowny grimace on its face. We saw
turtles and other neat things, but this dive was really all about the hammerheads
– and not just regular hammerheads, but scalloped ones too! So awesome!
The water is much warmer here –
closer to 75* and the my first dive I went as deep as 79 feet for 56
minutes. Daniel has also been really
impressed with how well I conserve my air as I have been outpacing him for a
change! Seems like visiting the pool the
past six months and focusing on my breathing has helped a lot!
 |
| Watch where you put your hands! Stone fish! |
In between dives we took a panga out to a cave in the cove
of Wolf Island, rode the panga into the cave, used flashlights to watch male
and female sea lions hanging out on the rock ledge taking a nap together, and
then we dropped into essentially night time looking water and then swam towards
to beautiful blue light at the opening of the cave. There was a beautiful moment when the light silhouetted
a turtle who was cruising around. Once
outside the cave, I was approached by two sea lions who took a moment to visit
each of the snorkelers before retreating into the depths of the cave.
During the second dive the current had definitely picked up
and was doing some strange things. We
were all clinging to the rocks with all our might and at some moments it got
quite intense. In other sections there
was no current at all. As we descended
in I realized that I was descending directly on top of a hammerhead – who chose
to swim away before I had to redirect.
On this dive we saw more hammerheads, bunches of schools of fish,
turtles, huge moray eels, and an eagle ray who stopped by towards the end. At the end of the dive when Daniel and were
ascending to do our safety stop I managed to get caught up in a down current –
which I realized very quickly as I noticed Daniel disappearing and my depth
increasing rapidly – I went from 30 and climbing up to suddenly being plunged
down to 65 feet in seconds. No panic
though! I threw some air in my BC and
kicked up with one eye planted on my depth gauge and pulled myself out of it
quickly.
We enjoyed a delicious lunch up on the top sun deck with
chicken skewers, sliced flank steak, and a number of other yummy things. We also ended lunch with some hammerhead spottings
from the boat – and I have sat and typed my notes for this from my cabin with
the window open and the sound of all kinds of different birds cawing and
whistling back and forth. It has been a
wonderfully exciting yet serene day!!
The only deadlines I have are dive time and meal time and it is suiting
us quite well!
******
The third dive was AMAZING!
Probably the best in my life to date!
The second we were in the water and descended on the rocks we started seeing
several hammerheads and we all parked it along the barnacle rocks and watched
while taking very slow breaths. As we drifted
on we were suddenly confronted by a much stronger current which was also much
colder. Through this time the hammerheads
never disappeared they just multiplied while the current simultaneously
increased and got colder! There were
schools of fish cruising around and we also saw a Galapagos shark too (he was
longer than me!) Daniel and Bobby also saw an octopus and the current was so
strong that it ripped the regulator out of Daniel’s mouth and tore the bite
piece on his regulator to the extent that he had to switch to his secondary to
be able to breathe – crazy! I found that
it was easiest to clutch onto rock, let the air out of my BC, and settle behind
a rock to the extent that the rock got the brunt of the current. I could actually feel my regulator and mask
vibrate from the current. But all I
wanted to do was be able to stay in the water!
I breathed as slowly as I could and often held my breath (which was okay
b/c I wasn’t rising) so that I could enjoy the schools of hammerheads that were
flowing above my head. They just kept
coming and coming! Through the course of
the dive we easily saw over 100 – at one point from my left to right view I
counted over 35 scalloped hammerheads all at once – it was amazing!!! Gary ran out of air first and had to go up by
himself. Daniel was at 500 psi when the
schools showed up and was really dragging it out to head for his safety
stop. And I was gloating – I had 600 psi
left when I surfaced, but I left to stay with the group – and to stay close to
Daniel if he ran out of oxygen. By the
time Daniel got on the boat he was probably at 50. Yikes!
We were all completely elated and were all so excited when
we got out of the water – what an amazing amazing dive! It was another dive in which I caught myself
laughing in disbelief into my regulator – what a wonderful birthday present for
Daniel! His request had been just that –
lots and lots of hammerheads!
We thawed out in the Jacuzzi – although even at this point
we have had yet to have a dive that left us in full blown shivers. After that the Hals continued the tradition
and encouraged Bobby and Hannah to join us – off the upper deck of the boat we
went into the water – which felt refreshing for sixty seconds and then chilly
immediately after. The water temp here
is a nice warm 74*…which any other time would feel cold, but after 63*
yesterday 74* is awesome.
 |
| Cruising the hammerhead highway current - at one point we could see 35 hammerheads at a time! |
We ended our evening with a birthday cake for Daniel which
was still warm and a delicious chocolate cake very similar to the zucchini
bread I make. Happy Birthday Daniel –
you wished for hammerheads and boy did you ever get them!
No comments:
Post a Comment