Still alive and kicking in Nassau

Hey all!

I survived the shark dive!!!  Yay!

Let’s see….when last we chatted I was heading out with the gang to check out the grounds of Atlantis.  We walked the length of the property which includes many shops, pools, water features, a casino and various places to eat.  Along the way, to fortify ourselves of course, we got some frozen fruit rum drinks that have all been classified as “daiquiris”.  I got the mango one which blended very well with the dark rum of the drink. 

We also picked up our tickets for the first game of the tournament tomorrow afternoon.  We have 4^th row under the basket so not super awesome, but pretty awesome.  The one screwy thing is that we only got vouchers for the next game.  They can be redeemed for tickets at 9am the day of the next game…so we are going to have to get in line and it’s first come first served.  Crazy way to do it.  Sam said he was going to go over around 4:30 on Friday to get in line.   There are a TON of Jayhawk fans here so it will be interesting to see what seats we can get.

We dove yesterday and did a wall dive followed by a wreck dive.  Not a lot of creatures to see beyond your typical fish.  The wreck was pretty cool to check out but otherwise, the diving was pretty underwhelming.  

More dinner!  Two for the price of one

Wreck Dive...almost Titanic action

More Wreck

Trumpet Fish

P Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney

Sponges and Coral growing on the wreck

We also hit the grocery store to stock up on food for the rest of the week.  There was also a liquor store next door where we may or may not have obtained a couple of cases of beer.  I will let you decide which way you want to go on that one.  It’s pretty weird to take a taxi to the grocery, have him sit there while you shop and then take you back.  We had enough stuff that the bellman had to bring over a luggage rack thingy to wheel it up to our rooms.  Probably the highlight of yesterday was going to dinner at the Poop Deck!  Yes, it IS named that and that is why I pretty much demanded we go there.  Poop Deck.  It never gets old!

Poooooooop

Deck

Today we did 4 dives total.  2 this morning, which were okay.  Again, not a ton of sea creatures and a storm came through so we got rained on a bit while in the boat.  Sort of funny thinking “I am getting wet!” when I am about to jump in the ocean.  Actually, the ocean felt awesome as it was warmer than the rain & air.  Like a nice warm bath. We did get to see a sting ray…and a boat load of lion fish.  We headed back to switch out some people and pick up those that wanted to go on the shark dive as well as grab some lunch.  It was a nice little interlude and then…it was time.

We headed out to the dive site where we would do the two dives.  The first started at “shark arena” but then headed out to check out the wall around the island (top is at around 45 feet….bottom at around 6500 feet).  The joke is not to try to go to the bottom.  We stayed at around 60-80 feet...but back to the dive briefing.  You get a dive briefing before pretty much any dive you ever do where they talk about the topology you will be seeing and describing the planned route, emergency signals and the like.  For this briefing they told us the sharks would be cruising around and not to be worried, but they would be there when we went in.  No big deal other than don’t hang out on the surface and splash around.  Get in the water and start your descent.  Similarly, when you are coming out of the water, get up, take your fins off and climb up the ladder without dilly-dallying around.  No need to look like a wounded seal at the surface and give the sharks any ideas.

To back up a bit, our group was at the back of the boat closest to the entry point for the dive.  With that on top of the fact that we were ready to go, I got to be first in on that dive.  Friends, hearing “the sharks will be down there swimming around” does not prepare you to step to the edge of the boat in full gear knowing with a step you will be in the water, looking down and seeing sharks in the freaking water!  But take that giant step I did and soon I was sinking down in among them.  And at that point it wasn’t that big a deal…at least most of the time.  I had my camera out snapping photo after photo as they circled around.  One even started coming towards me and I thought “hey, that will make a good photo” before then thinking “Oh crap, it’s coming right for me!!!!”.  Sophia and I both dropped down to the sandy floor and just watched as the sharks circled around us and the other divers.

Breaker breaker….”today” is now yesterday as I got sleepy last night and our internet ran out.  So verb tenses are about to shift and it might be jarring.  Now back to the dive.

The first afternoon dive, other than getting us used to having sharks circling us like…uhm…sharks…was a wall dive again.  A wall dive, for those of you new to my ramblings is just that.  Most islands have a wall where their relatively shallow waters drop off to ocean depth. You go to that wall, descend to whatever depth you are certified to go to (I can go to 100-110 feet, but usually go 80ish max) and then swim along the wall looking for interesting critters.  Eels, shrimp, fish, turtles, interesting coral, and many many more.  When anyone in your party hits half a tank, you ascend to the top of the wall and swim back the way you came.  Because you go to a shallower depth, you use less air and should get back with plenty.  Saw a pretty cool spotted moray eel, a boatload of lion fish and a relatively large grouper on that dive.  Not a bad one.

After that dive we loaded down with extra weight because for shark feeding time, we were going to be kneeling on the floor and you wanted to make sure you stayed on the floor.  Normally, if you are properly weighted, if you kneel on the floor, when you breathe in, you will start to rise a bit and as you breathe out you will sink back down (air rises).  We didn’t want that happening because you lose balance, flail arms, shark bites, not good.  The dive brief spoke about keeping your hands in front of and near your torso.  No reaching out: that shark might not do anything but the one behind that shark is thinking “Fred just got fed by that person…I am getting some too” and then your hand is gone.

Anyway, we dove down to “shark arena” and the helpers positioned us behind rocks in a circle.  I had an exposed left side with Sophia next to me.  Christine was next to her and then Sam next to Christine.  The shark feeder then came in with a metal case full of bait that he then fed to the sharks on a long rod.  It seemed like there were 100s of sharks swimming around, but they said it was more along the lines of 30-40 which is, for the most part, more than you would really want to have swimming around you hungry.  It was awesome!  They would swim around and come back in hitting you with their fins or brush against you with their tail.  I never really felt concerned…it was almost surreal to be honest maybe because I was taking pictures and filming it but still: so cool.  Definitely one that will be remembered.  You would love it, Mike!  The feeding lasted around 30 minutes and then the feeder swam off with some bait to draw the sharks away.  We then did our safety stop at 5 meters and then got back on the boat.  Super awesome tho…and to prove it, here are some pictures!  Click to embiggen!! 

Wonder what that is in the middle

Lion Fish

Brain Coral.  Pretty cool lookin', huh?

Puffer fish...unpuffed

Stingray!

Some Video of the Stingray

Pretty much what I saw when I was looking down before jumping in.  Hello.

Yep.  Sharks everywhere

Big Grouper just to add in some fluff before the shark attack!!

The guy in the middle is feeding them from the metal box.  He has chain mail on.  We do not.

Sharks everywhere

Can you count them all?

Yeah...it went on like this for a while.

Well I tried to load up a video of the sharks but it errored out :(  I will try again on the next blog.  Until then, I hope all are doing well!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jim