Woke up to a message that my dives had been canceled.
It got really windy last night (woke me up a few times) which kicked up a lot of silt and killed visibility. The dive shop I was with — like those in Greece — have to cancel instead of face sea sick passengers, or negative reviews because of the visibility.
But… I messaged them back and said “how about some shore dives?” Their response:
Are you very fussy on visibility?
Ha! I learned to dive in 2m vis in a Texas lake.
So they found a dive master willing to take me out. I got two private shore dives just on the beach in front of the dive shop. Not too deep, no seals, but still fun.
The visibility wasn’t great
But it was fine.
The first dive didn’t go so well. It had been a while since my last one; I needed time to remember how everything worked!
I got a few photos of critters in the sand:
Some of the brilliant colors:
An octopus sleeping in a hole:
And the hint of a shark tucked way back in an old pipe (the grey blob in the middle-right):
Then we were done with the first dive. I looked at my dive computer back in the hotel. You can see right off the bat I’m messing up. I go down, have trouble staying down, and pop right back up. Embarassing!
After a little break we went again. This time I did much better.
Seaweed covered the sea floor of the area we went to next, undulating with the ocean:
We found a bunch more life. (And I wasn’t bouncing around like a noob so I could capture more of it).
The lobsters here don’t have pincers, but there are a lot of them:
It was a bit chaotic swimming through all the kelp:
We ran across a handful of pyjama sharks, about two to three feet long and not usually out at day according to the dive master:
We chased them around for a while. Well… more like they swam circles around us as we tried to follow them:
A few longsnout pipefish, a cousin of the seahorse:
And a few sea hares:
There was also a lot of krill, but they’re too tiny, and move too fast, for me to photograph.
Then we were done. Back to the shop, clean our gear, and get on the list to try for a pair of boat dives tomorrow. Hopefully the weather plays nice!
I went back to the hotel, showered, dressed, and went looking for food.
Before eating, I walked down toward Boulder’s Beach to see the African Penguins:
(I got hungry so didn’t make it all the way to Boulder’s Beach where there are supposed to be even more. Maybe tomorrow.)
I found a little side-beach hidden behind some buildings and got a lot closer:
They were just hanging out. Probably annoyed I kept walking around taking photos:
Then my stomach took over and I went for food with a view:
Once fed, it was back to the hotel. Sync my dive computer. Load and edit photos. Charge batteries. Consider color-correcting videos, but remember I don’t know how and don’t have the energy to learn something new. Instead: relax.
I spent a little time trying to figure out where I can go to get the COVID test I need before US entry. It’s not entirely straightforward.
Anyway. Boat dives tomorrow. š¤
Travel 