Luckily, I happened to meet a young man by the name of Nazem Youssef. Naz works at the PADI international headquarters and is a certified instructor. With my work schedule and my cycling activity it seemed that something kept on coming up that kept me from getting back in the water. So in mid March I made the commitment to take the PADI Refresher course. I met Naz at the pool and a couple of hours later I felt completely comfortable.
The proof is in the pudding right? Well the pudding set perfectly. On April 2nd I did my first "real" dive in a long time. I knew all was good when I dropped in and felt totally at home. I don't like being out of the water with all my dive and photography gear, I guess like a fish out of water. It makes sense, really.
I was aboard one of the catamarans from Tradewinds Cruise Club and this would be my fifth trip. Each one of their locations has a flavor all their own. Four couples, the captain and mate; that's it. A week of relaxing, swimming, diving, eating and a little touristy stuff. No phones, television or radio and no wake up alarms.
You're catered and pampered while still staying active. It's nice to wake up in the morning and jump off the back of the boat for an early morning swim before breakfast. I could go on, but this is about the bubbles, so here are a few pictures from the various dives. Excellent viz, friendly eels, three different kinds of rays including my first ever experience with a manta ray and tons of "stuff"!
These dives were in Tobago and for the entire week we were the only people in the water. Lots of coral growth, sea fans, brain coral, nudibranchs, you name it.
Here you can easily see how clean and clear the water is. The Tobagonians are not really keen of water, not even fishing it. There isn't a marina on the entire island of Tobago although there are surely enough bays that could easily hold some. We did happen to catch two nice size Dorado that we had for lunch.
The Spotted Moray was almost as curious as I was. I managed to get four pictures before I move on. It sat perfectly still even though I got within a couple of inches.
This Flamingo Tongue Cyphoma was kind enough to show its underside as it hung precariously to a piece sea fan that had broken away.
Here, a Flamingo Tongue and a Fingerprint Cyphoma gather their dinner on a piece of coral growth. There were pretty abundant throughout all the dives.
There are many types of gobies. These two had their own little hideaway in the coral head. You don't go looking for scenes like this but you have to be aware that you'll probably find some very unusual things and keep your eyes WIDE OPEN.
For me, this was the one. One diver spotted a barracuda about 20 ft away. I've seen them before so I didn't pay too much attention. Another diver pointed toward a lobster... I happened to turn around only because I remembered to look behind me as much as in front, below and above. There it was, a beautiful manta ray about 20ft away. I snapped one shot and "yelled" as loud as I could. The divemaster heard me and off we went after the ray. This second picture was at a distance of about 30ft. Then with one or two real flaps of his huge wings the manta disappeared into the blue.
After that sighting on the third dive nothing else mattered. There wasn't a care in the world, I didn't care if I never took another picture of if I ran out of air. The four of us came out of the water like a bunch of kids that just had the time of their lives, carrying on and trying to put the moment in perspective for our spouses and the other people on our catamaran.
So that's it, I'm back in the water. In a few weeks I plan on taking a day trip to Catalina Island although I'm not looking forward to wearing a wetsuit since the water will probably be 60F, not 80F like Tobago.
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