Back in the Regulator

The point of the Key Largo trip was really to dive though. And we had some really lovely dives. The first day was a re-adjustment to the gear and the pressure and the processes, but it only got better from there.

Kristen and Tim saw sharks and a Goliath grouper. Kyle and I only saw mermaids. But the reefs were still beautiful and healthy with a lot of pretty reef fish, fans, and hard coral.

My favorite sightings were the huge stingrays flying through the blue. Before this trip, we'd only ever seen blue-spotted rays, which are cool, but much smaller. These guys had a very prominent barb and really did seem to soar through the water.

My favorite dive was the 95-year-old City of Washington wreck. It's our second wreck (we dived the Liberty in Bali), and although it's very broken up, there was still structure to see.

A little background thanks to Divers Direct:

The City of Washington was a schooner-turned-steamship built in 1877 with two masts and a small engine. She had three decks, a length of 320 feet, and a 38-foot beam. City of Washington transported both passengers and freight between New York, Cuba, Panama and Mexico. In 1898, City of Washington was anchored near the USS Maine in Havana's Harbor when the Maine blew up. Washington's crew jumped into action and rescued 90 crewmen. The dining salon became a makeshift hospital for the injured. The deckhouse and lifeboats of Washington were damaged by burning debris from the Maine.

With the Spanish-American War in full swing, the City of Washington became a transport for troops to Cuba. A much larger engine was added in 1898. After the war, the ship was converted to a coal barge in 1911. As she was being towed in 1917, the City of Washington struck Elbow Reef and sank within minutes.

One of the guys in our dive group had a camera and he sent me a few photos of us and the dive. He even sent a little video, cruising along the wreck.


We also got to try a little dive experiment that we learned about at our dive refresher course in Nashville last weekend. (We did an afternoon session in the pool because it's been nearly two years since our last dive.)

If you crack a raw egg under water at depth, it will hold together because of the pressure. We weren't very deep, but as I cracked the egg open, the whole thing slurped out of the shell. The white still clung to the yolk even as we batted it around. Eventually the white separated while I was swimming and a fish darted in to eat it. We played with the yolk a bit longer before a fish got it too.

All of these images and the video are thanks to (and property of) Daryl Duda, who generously offered to share them with us. Thank you!! 

Family Dive Trip

Our last dive trip was in August 2011. We found out we were expecting a Hamish a couple of months later, which put a hiatus on diving. Then we moved. And moved again. And lived out of our car. And moved again.

But over a delicious birthday dinner this year we started talking about our next dive trip.

This would need to be a different kind of dive trip. No week-long boat trip for Hamish. So we texted our favorite dive buddies that night--who recently welcomed Stetson (her pre-birth-then-internet identity a la "Hamish")--and proposed a family-friendly dive trip.

My first thought was Bonaire, but there were a lot of unknowns in this trip, and Stetson didn't yet have a passport, so we decided to keep it Stateside. The goal was about a week in the Florida Keys, taking turns watching the girls and diving for three days (6 dives each), trading off at lunch each day.

I'd say it was a great success. Hamish and Stetson loved each other. Stetson is the most cheerful chunky monkey baby ever and she breaks into the most awesome smiles when you look at her. She and Kyle were fast friends. She even took a marathon nap for him one afternoon.

Hamish added a new word to her growing vocabulary: baby! And she only smacked Stetson in the face 5 or 6 times (OUT OF LOVE). She especially enjoyed picnics every day since our rental house didn't have a high chair.

And she liked the house because she got to play in one of her favorite spots: under tables!

Oops. Stuck.

And Stetson brought really cool toys. Like these teething rings. I mean, bangles.

We rented a three bedroom house through VRBO in Key Largo, which gave the girls plenty of room to play, and it let us put them to bed each night and hang out together. We went out some nights, grilled/cooked some, and ordered pizza one night. Kyle and Tim went on a late night Key Lime pie run our second night and bought a whole pie that we ate on for the rest of the week.

The house was just a short walk to the community marina and beach, but we only hung out there one afternoon, though we took regular walks beside it. The sun was strong late into the afternoon. Our beach was on the bay side of Key Largo--so no waves--but it was Hamish's introduction to salt water and sand. She liked it.

On Saturday we drove 100 miles down the Overseas Highway to Key West, had Cuban sandwiches on the beach, and introduced Hamish to the ocean proper (though still hardly any waves).

While Hamish and Kyle played in the ocean, Kristen, Stetson and I enjoyed the shade.

After lunch in Key West we wandered around town for just a little bit and got ice cream before going to a gallery exhibiting the work of Andreas Franke, a diver and photographer whose "The Sinking World" project has some really haunting multiple exposure images on wrecks. Franke took images while diving on wrecks in the Keys (including one Tim and Kristen dived) and then exposed studio shots on top of them. Those results are interesting enough, but then he mounted the finished product back on the wreck--under water--for divers to enjoy. He removed the mounted images, now encrusted with algae and microorganisms, and displayed them at a gallery in Key West. We saw one original and several prints.

On Sunday, we were done with photography and ready to get get in the water ourselves. Good thing Hamish and Stetson are such good buddies.

Disneyland for Divers

We weren't sure about diving in the Philippines because I couldn't get a clear sense of whether or not it was the right season. It was definitely low season. None of the dive operators I contacted had scheduled trips to Apo Island (where I wanted to dive) and several weren't even going to other sites. But that doesn't mean the diving would be bad necessarily. It's more likely to mean that the water would be rough for the trip to and from the dive site. Some would have been willing to go with a full boat--usually 4 or more divers--but we were alone and I had no idea if I'd find people who wanted to go diving when we got there. When we left Singapore, we didn't have anything booked and we really weren't sure if we'd get to dive or not.

I offer all this as an excuse for why I did not bring the underwater camera--which our friends had loaned us--on some of the prettiest dives we've done.

Our first night in Siquijor I heard a guy call Apo Island Disneyland for divers. A tiny little volcanic island between Siquijor and Negros, we'd heard Apo is one of the best dive sites in the Philippines and is the site of the country's first and most successful marine reserve. But Disneyland?

We talked a bit more; he had been recently and said the diving was great. Visibility was good. The boat trip wasn't bad. We decided to head back to Dumaguete on Sunday night and see if we could arrange a trip for Monday. The guesthouse where we were booked in Dumaguete ran trips to Apo, so we emailed them on Sunday morning to let them know we were interested.

The first thing we asked when we checked in late Sunday afternoon was about an Apo Island trip the next day. They needed 4 divers to go, but another couple had mentioned it, so they'd ask them. Later that night the front desk let us know that the trip was on.

We ended up being a group of 6 divers and 2 dive masters. We rode in the back of a truck from Dumaguete to Dauin, where the boat was, before taking the 7km boat ride to Apo.

The trip was infinitely better than either ferry ride although it took about the same amount of time. Being in the open air is so much nicer. It's been a while since we've been on a dive boat that isn't a liveaboard though.

There was no where to go between dives but relax on deck and enjoy a picnic lunch and stunning scenery.



We dove three sites in the crystal clear water around Apo, and it really is like Disneyland. The visibility was phenomenal. Every time we entered the water I was sure I was going to hit bottom when we jumped in because it just looked so close. I was shocked on the first dive to look at my depth gauge and find that we were 30 meters down. The light was so good, I would have guessed we were in much shallower water. (I paid attention after that. That's a good way to get yourself a trip to a decompression chamber.)

We saw several critters on my wish list: a frog fish the size of a dinner plate (a black one though, not any of those crazy colors), some awesome shrimp including a boxer, really fantastic varieties of coral, and Mandarin fish (!!), though they were being very shy. [Links go to Google Images]


I, of course, wished the whole time I had a camera so I could show you the incredible things we saw, but Kyle, as usual, was glad I didn't. (I get very, um, involved in the camera when I have it). Regardless, I'm so glad it worked out even if all we had to show for it were dive hair and entries in the dive logs.

No Phones, No Lights, No Motorcars

(Actually, we had lights.) 

As we alluded to on Friday, we ran off for a quick dive trip this weekend. It was the same boat that we dove on last August for our anniversary dive, and it really makes for an amazing trip.

The MV Diverace spends half the year (or so) in Phuket, but when the Phuket monsoons come through and the dive season is over there, it comes south to Singapore. From April to August, the boat runs dive trips from Singapore and it really makes for the best dive trips (if not the absolute best dives).

I've mentioned this before, but you aren't supposed to fly for 24 hours after diving. So a dive trip anywhere outside of Singapore involves a flight there, usually one night on land if you get in at night, get on the boat first thing the next morning, dive, then return to the port, another night on land, and then catching a flight back to Singapore. This is very important to staying safe and healthy, but it does add expense and time to the trip that you're not actually using diving.

Diving from Singapore, however, requires none of that. Leave after work on Friday, take a 20 minute cab ride to the ferry terminal. Hop on the boat. Dinner that night on the boat, wake up the next morning in Malaysian waters, dive all day. Sunday morning get a few dives in by lunch time and take a leisurely cruise back to Singapore's harbor. Dinner on the boat. Breeze through customs thanks to the awesome customs machines. Home by 8:30 on Sunday night.

No flights. No hotels. No vacation days. No internet. No phone. No drama. Just great diving. Good Thai food (this boat has a Thai crew). Lots of relaxed, unplugged, time together.

The view from the boat heading back to Singapore at sunset.

(No dive pictures this time--no camera. But if you are in dive picture mood, you can check out some of ours above. See? I finally updated the thumbnails across the top of the blog. And some of them are dive pictures. Whoo hoo!)

Jonesing

we're in Malaysia getting our fix

Birthday Trips and Christmas Presents

We went to the wedding of good friends here on Kyle's actual birthday, so we saved our celebration for this past weekend: a quick dive trip to the Similan Islands in the Andaman Sea, northwest of Phuket, Thailand. And we got to break in our Christmas presents from our families: new dive boots and fins. Yay!

Once again our incredibly generous friends Amanda and Reuben loaned us their underwater camera. I think my photos are getting a little bit better with practice. 

These were great dives.There were just so many fish, all sizes and colors and it was beautiful.

This turtle was having a hard coral snack and was completely unfazed by our presence. He just chomped away while we hovered. Awesome.

There were a few boulder dive sites this trip and I loved the boulder dives. We could swim through tunnels and holes and up over these massive rocks covered with coral. (Check out Kyle's fancy new fins. Merry Christmas to him!)

This moray eel stayed tucked in his hole but he watched us for a while. 

These are Andaman Sweetlips and they are awesome. Pinstripes and polkadots!

This blue spotted ray was also very chill, resting at the base of the rock in the sand.

This is a picture of a thermocline. See the distortion? It's not blurry like bad photography, it's wavy. A thermocline is a layer of cold (cold!) water in the ocean. You swim right through it and suddenly everything looks and feels different.

Between dives we got to spend some time on one of the Similan islands, climbing on rocks, playing in the crystal clear water and baby-powder-fine sand, and generally enjoying paradise. We are fans of liveaboards that include chill time on practically deserted islands.

We spent our surface interval (i.e. the time we have to stay on land before it's safe to fly after diving) in Phuket before coming home last night. There were tropical drinks and massages and yummy Thai seafood.

Portrait of a happy birthday boy.

(I'll get all the pics up soon/eventually. But for now... these are your teaser.) 

Inside my Head

In case you were curious what goes on inside my head while we're diving, there are a few things:

1. Where's Kyle? Don't lose Kyle!
2. Don't hold your breath. Breathe!
3. It's going to be sad when I look at these pictures and they're all blue and not nearly as awesome as what I'm really seeing.
4. Don't lose Kyle!

But more than anything it's this, over and over again:



Music by Mosaic.

From the Desk of Nemo

We've got anniversary stories, dive pictures and dive video (actual video during a dive!). But that's going to take a few days. In the meantime, Nemo thanks you for your well wishes and wants you to know that we had an absolutely amazing anniversary

Under the Sea

I've tried all week to make a montage of dive videos, but every time I try to stitch more than one video together, it crashes my computer. Hmph. So instead you just get this one. It's my favorite! (plus it's super short... so this works in your favor)

Portrait With Bubbles

(almost done, I promise!)

Part of the fun of diving with a camera, we found, is taking pictures of each other! That probably won't be the case on the next 11 dives, but it is really cool* to flip through all of the evidence that we were totally underwater on the Great Barrier Reef!!

*For us anyway. I can understand that this may not be as cool for you. In which case feel free not to read further. 

However, remember how I said taking photos underwater is hard? The outtakes are rough.

Underwater

This was our first dive trip with an underwater camera (many, many thanks to Amanda and Reuben!!) and I learned several things about underwater photography: [All these pictures are ours (!!) except the one of Kyle; our divebuddy Anna took that one.]

1. It is hard to keep still underwater. [Crazy-colored giant clam]

 2. It is hard to focus if you're not keeping still. [fishes on the reef and rooting around in the sand]

3. Hard corals are way easier to photograph than fish, turtles, soft corals, sharks, each other, etc. Mostly because they keep still. [nice, still hard coral]

4. Bubbles get in the way, but sometimes they're pretty. [pretty]

5. Everything is blue. Everything. You lose color underwater and the deeper you get, the bluer it is. [Kyle swimming over the reef with hundreds of tiny fishes]

6. If you see a shark, you'll be too deep to get a good picture. But you totally still saw sharks!! [White-tipped reef shark!!]

7. There's just no way your pictures are going to do it justice. [Loggerhead, I think, and a really giant giant clam. I could have easily put my hand in that hole.]

Seen but not pictured:

• a 150-year-old turtle that was as big as our kitchen table. No lie. We saw "Brian" on a night dive (hence, no pictures) when he was hanging out in his cave watching us
• a very poisonous lionfish
• a lobster (only seen by Kyle)
• a school of maybe 20-30 bumphead parrotfish all swimming in formation and then hiding behind a coral bommie
• a sucker fish that really wanted to attach itself to Kyle leg, but that kind of freaked me out so I shooed it away
• lots of other pretty fishes that were too fast or too deep for my underwater photography skills