The Greeks plan worse than I do, and you should always choose your dive buddy.
The day started well. I’m staying on a peak of the mountain, so a short walk from my eastern view and I see into the caldera.
The dive center owner picked me up around 7:40, we headed to Kalmari, got geared up and then drove to the beach for today’s dives.
Same beach as yesterday. The first dive was new, the second was a repeat.
Lots of little guys like this floating around.
I spooked some fish.
And then we got to a swim through.
Yes. It’s that little opening under the giant boulder. Just big enough for one person to go in at a time. Then you turn and swim up to get out. I videoed my turn.
Three things to notice. 1. It’s all murky because the idiot that went before me had terrible buoyancy control and kicked his fins all over the bottom, stirring up silt. 2. Just before I get to the top, there’s a little pause because my tank hit something and I got a little stuck (yikes!). 3. You may hear a warning alarm go off at the very top because my dive computer detected that I was going up too quickly.
As soon as we were out of the swim through… barracuda!
Sadly, my GoPro doesn’t let me switch off of wide-angle while underwater, so they are hard to see.
Remember the idiot from before who kicked up all the silt? Yeah, he was my dive buddy. A guy from France who didn’t seem to understand that buddies are meant to stay together. He went off to look more closely at the barracuda, leaving me without safety air in case something went wrong with my kit.
Didn’t seem to bother him at all. I kept slowing down so he could catch up, but he’d just fall behind again.
Looking the other way, this is how far I am from the rest of the group.
Then we surfaced, took a break, and got ready for the second dive.
The second dive was the same second dive as yesterday: The Reef. Didn’t take long before my buddy lagged behind again.
Although hard to concentrate when someone is acting so badly, there were some good fish to see.
Including a moray eel barely sticking its snout out of a hole.
I started hanging back with my oblivious buddy, way behind the rest of the group.
Finally the dive master halted everyone, swam back, and told him to keep up. He did for a little while.
We made it to the plateau where all the fish hang out and kneeled down for a bit.
Then we were done. Surfaced, packed up, and went back to the dive center. My consumption was terrible. Obviously anxious about an incompetent dive buddy.
At the start of the day, when being driven to the dive center, the owner said they were going to do a dive tomorrow, around a wreck, to pick up trash.
Did I want to come? YES!
Got back to the dive center after the dives, and I confirmed the logistics for the morning.
Then back to my place. Ate some food, drank a ton of water, and took a nap. When I awoke, I had a message from the dive center: no wreck dive tomorrow.
He had promised me a spot without checking with the organization running the show. They already filled all the spots.
Incredibly disappointing.
I’ll probably email the dive centers in Zakynthos and find out the real likelihood of cavern and wreck dives. They all advertise them prominently on their websites, but I have yet to find a group that actually does them!
Partially, I know, because we go in groups, and you have to dive to the skills of the least experienced. It’s the end of the season so they are staffed low and only take one tour out at a time. We don’t get divided up into beginner and advanced groups.
Ok. Ok. Rant over.
Let’s end on my new favorite bathroom sign instead.
Travel 