auchmeddan

First, this is the photo I meant to post the other day.

I’ve got a bunch of vacation days and Time-in-Lieu to use up, so I’m taking next week off to relax and dive. I’ll hopefully end up with a lot of photos to put up in the photo gallery.  Although I’m finishing soon I feel like I need a week off as I’m getting kinda bored now that I’ve handed over all of my clients to other engineers.  Between now and then, I’ll be relying on Howard Stern to keep me sane at work. 

After my enforced break from diving (while my gum healed) and all the nights I’ve spent studying for my CCDA it was nice to knock the exam on the head on Friday, and start to relax knowing I was going to spend Saturday and Sunday diving in seas that were predicted to be about 1ft - perfect diving conditions. 

Saturday ended up being even better than I hoped as we headed out to a reef site Jules had told me about** where she had previously seen a bunch of grouper in a cave/swim-through, and it didn’t disappoint.  We were diving with Dave and Carmen and I was excited for all of us when we hit the cave and found 7 Grouper (mostly Black Grouper, but by size and markings one or two looked like Goliath Grouper to me) and a school of Horse-Eyed Jacks and Gray Snapper.  To put this in perspective of Size:

Horse-Eyed Jacks and Snapper are 1-2 ft long.
Black Grouper are 3-4 ft long.
Goliath Grouper are over 5 ft.

To be among this many big fish was very exciting, and while the Grouper tend to stay a little distance away we were practically able to swim through the Jacks and Snapper and look them in the eye. The only downside was my Camera was fogged from previous dives and unusable, but considering how much fun the dive was I could live with it.

In the wee hours of Sunday morning we were both woken by a thunderstorm that went on for some time and, unbeknownst to us, knocked out our internet connection at home.  The storm brought the seas up on Sunday from the predicted 1ft to more like 3-4 ft swells.  While this makes the diving less fun, it ended up forcing the boat to go all the way back to (the slightly calmer) the same site again and this time I had a working Camera!

The rougher weather on Sunday created a much stronger current in the cave than there was on Saturday, and in turn this created a lot of particles in the water which cause “backscatter” from camera flashes and made most of my photos unusable.  Fortunately, I took one photo of a Grouper without using my external flash and ended up with a nice silhouette.  I’ll post the photo when we get internet access back at home.

** - I removed the name of the dive site as I know people who might read this and then head out there and try to fish.  Groupers have not been common sightings here for the past few years and appear to be starting to come back again.

I’ve had toothache on and off for the past few weeks, with pain that has varied from a constant dull throbbing to extreme stabbing. Despite an attempt at a temporary filling a couple of weeks ago, I had to rush into the dentist last week when the pain was bordering on unbearable (with painkillers).  In about 3 seconds flat I agreed to have the tooth extracted. Fortunately, it’s right at the back so it’s not one anyone would notice. 

The downside of having the tooth extracted is I had to pass on diving this weekend as I didn’t think it was wise to expose the wound to either pressure or (bacteria-filled) sea-water. Jules did get out though, and saw more Black Grouper than I could have aimed my camera at.  Typical! 

To make up for my house-arrest we went to Flatts on Sunday to feed the fish some crackers, and we ended up feeding the ducks as well.  I was able to lure one of them pretty close, as the photo below shows.  It wasn’t diving, but at least I got out and near nature for a while.

    
       

 

About 3 weeks ago I went out with Anson Nash of the Bermuda Conservation Society, who was looking for a volunteer to assist with the inspections of the dive moorings.  We pretty much covered every mooring on the South Shore, right up to Castle Harbour.  He checks that none of the lines are fraying, and changes the pick-up lines on most of them.  A couple of them (Shell City and Hangover Hole) had the entire mooring Changed.  While it seems like quite a difficult task it didn’t take Anson very long to do it - He would prepare the mooring line on the boat and then dive down and attach it to the cleat on the reef.  It Was pretty interesting to see and be involved in, though I didn’t do much apart from hold his tools and pass him plastic ties.  One of the moorings we went to was Southwest Breaker, and Unlike the others it also needed to have the buoy changed as well as the pick-up line.  When we were out there diving last week I said to Michael “I helped change that”.  He just laughed knowing that I had very little to do with it.  I Was only out the one time but it was nice to know I was able to help, even if it was only as a dive buddy.

I’ve pretty much fallen into a routine of going to the gym twice a week and diving the rest of the time.  Mondays and Thursday I go to an Aerobic Kick boxing class followed by Pilates.  The rest of the week I’m out diving with Bluewater, helping out with the trips they have on.  I mostly guide people around the dive sites but I’ve helped Tracy a couple of times with some Lesson and dive folks.  Doing this you get to meet a lot of different people, and I spent one of my weeks diving with Sandy and Bruce, a couple originally from Zimbabwe who are now living in London.  Ondrej managed to take them to a different site every day which is pretty good going as there are regulars that they tend to go back to time after time. I’m learning a lot and I’m becoming a much more confident diver.  I Wanted to be very comfortable in the water for our Shark diving trip in June, so “mission accomplished” I think. 

I Still dive on the weekends but I don’t guide or assist with lessons and just go diving with Dave.  Its much more relaxing as we tend to just hover around the reef looking out for anything that would be good to photograph.  Dave does the picture taking, while I guide us both around the site.  I Was at Cathedral Caves on Wednesday but didn’t really get the chance to investigate the caves, would like to go back with Dave and have a better look and maybe get some cool photos of it.  The one I did manage to see was beautiful, it was a narrow tunnel that opened out into a huge open cave that had light coming through from a gap in the rocks.  Its really hard to describe how spectacular it was.

The rest of my 58 days here are more than likely going to be spent in much the same way, with a little packing here and there.

The seas were pretty calm on Saturday, and we went out for a couple of dives at the Hermes and Virginia Merchant.  The vis at the Hermes was terrible, but Virginia Merchant wasn’t bad and we saw a huge Black Grouper on that Dive. 

On our way home I asked Jules if she fancied going for Sushi at Salt Rock Grill for lunch, which was my way of delaying the studying I knew I had to start in the afternoon. We went home to have a quick shower and dump our dive gear, and managed to catch the end of the Hibs Vs Hearts derby on the Radio.  As I was in the shower the Hibees went 2-1 up and won the match.  I ended up celebrating the Hibs win with a couple of pints as we sat in the sun and ate Sushi.  I continued my study-avoidance with more beer and Howard Stern on the radio, and we ended up sitting out on the Patio for the rest of the afternoon. Just around sunset we spotted a pair of Rays swimming along in the shallow water - a perfect end to a great day.

Unfortunately for me, I had picked up way too much sun on my head at Salt Rock and had developed a case of Sunstroke by the early hours of Sunday morning.  I was really bummed out at the prospect of missing the dives we had planned as the sea was completely “flat calm” and I was due to reach my 100th Dive.  After some gentle prodding from Jules I decided to go anyway.

I really didn’t feel that great as a headache, a sunburned head and cold water don’t go together very well.  However, it was worth the pain to get my 100th Dive in at a very calm Southwest Breaker.  The highlight of the dive was when Jules and myself found an Octopus being chaperoned around the reef by some coneys.  This was the first time I’ve ever seen an octo out in the open during the day, and it quickly moved to a new hiding place.

Photos of the Octopus on the reef, and the Coney with the octopus hiding under a rock are below.  More photos are up in the photo gallery.

  

Today was our first dive together this year, and to cut a long story short I ended up very cold and had to cut both dives short. As it was though, the dives were only the opening act for a really special moment.

On the way back from the dives, Ondrej spotted Whales and was good enough to take us a bit closer for a look. We had a great time crowded up front of the boat, waiting on the Mother and Calf to surface. We didn’t get to see a Tail, but we had a good time “ooh-ing” and “aah-ing” along with everyone each time they surfaced.

The best photos I managed to get are below. Click on the pics for a larger version.

Jules is out sunbathing just now. I’m heading out into the shade with a beer to enjoy the memories from today.

The weather at the beginning of this week was great, it was sunny and there was very little wind so when Ondrej, at Bluewater divers, emailed me to ask if I wanted to go for a dive Tuesday I jumped at the chance.

It was a pretty quiet boat for divers, only 5 in total, 4 certified divers and one lesson and dive. Surprisingly there were about 6 folks coming along to snorkel. Everyone was getting themselves sorted on the boat and there was a huge splash. We all looked round and one of the snorkeling folks was in the water. After finding out she was ok I was trying not to laugh, Michael wasn’t so subtle he said “well I guess you don’t need to go snorkeling now?” with a big smile on his face. Turned out she was leaning on the ladder at the back for support while she put her foot in the water to test the temperature. As the ladder isn’t locked the force she used while leaning on it was enough to push it down, so when it went down so did she. After all that she ended up not going out to snorkel, she got seasick.

The visibility was really good today and I was really exited when our first dive site was the Lartington, you can sometimes find a lion fish here. Found him in one of the small boilers found in the middle of the wreck. They are just so beautiful looking, hope the guy I was guiding managed to get a good picture. Also on this dive I noticed a big coney hanging around a bit of reef so I went in for a closer look. On closer inspection there was a pretty big octopus hiding between two rocks. Don’t think he liked my presence so he shot off under another rock, was still cool seeing him swimming away.

The second dive was the Constellation/Montana, wasn’t really expecting to see much but right in its usual spot in the boiler was the local spiny lobster. Surprisingly there were a few shoals of fish around the site and lots of juveniles, it was great swimming through them. Also on this dive my favourite fish, the smooth trunk fish, made an appearance. Watched him for a little while, hope the folks I was diving with didn’t mind stopping to watch him swimming around.

If I was a photographer today was a great day for taking photos, the sun was out and the fish were out in full force. Wished Dave could have been diving with me, looking forward to my first dive of the year with Dave, hope it’s a day like this one. The two guys I was guiding were pretty good. Pat from Norfolk in the UK seemed like he had been diving for ages. Brian from the states seemed newer to diving but after the first 15 mins seemed pretty comfortable in the water and I didn’t have to chase either of them down during the dive. All in all the diving today was really good and I really enjoyed myself, it’s nice just being able to go out when I like :-)  

I got into the water for the first time this year on Sunday, when we went snorkelling at Church Bay. Jules has already got a dive in this year - the benefit of her being available during the week if the boat happens to go out.

The water is still very cold just now (by our standards anyway) so we were both snorkelling in full wetsuits, but the advantage of the cold water is good visibility. After we were finished snorkelling we found a shallow, sheltered pool of water that was harbouring a number of juvenile white/silver fish and some juvenile sergeant majors (photo below).

I was supposed to be studying this weekend for my 2nd MCSE upgrade exam, but the weather was too nice to stay at home.

I looked out the window this morning and wasn’t convinced that it was a good day to go and play volleyball. However, I had already emailed Michelle to say I’d be there and I hate it when people say they are coming and don’t turn up so I thought I should head on out there. The wind was blowing pretty strong down our way, lots of white caps. I figured if its blowing from the west, the wind on Horseshoe beach wouldn’t be that bad as it faces South. At least the sun was out???.

When I turned up just after 2pm I thought they’d be well under way but I guess the weather had given most folks second thoughts about turning up. In the end we had 10 people, perfect number. There were lots of missed chances and sand dives (mostly from myself and some from Franco). We also cant forget the shots that you never in a million years believe are going to go over the net, got one of those

We had played maybe 3 or 4 games (and somehow I’d always ended up on the losing team, oh well) and the dark clouds had moved in. We thought we were going to escape but unfortunately not. Some of us stuck it out hiding under our towels where others ran to the shelter of the Lifeguard station. The rain only lasted 5 mins and so back to the game we went and yes I was still on the losing team (maybe next week). With the heavy rain then the sun coming out we got a beautiful Rainbow. Mark Quesnel stopped the game to capture it, just have a look at the photo.

After a couple more games the rain stopped us for good and as we all rushed to take the net down and run for our scooters, cars it really started to pour, thunder and lightning the works. Still it was a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon, hopefully the weather will be better for next weekend.

For some reason the SuperBowl BBQ turned into (what we like to call) a “Canadian BBQ”. This seems to involve ridiculously large flames. See pic below of Mark attempting to burn off his eyebrows

Jules deserves a ton of credit for preparing food, and making a huge pot of Chilli which went down very well with everyone.