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GALAPAGOS! |
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Trip Log—Galapagos |
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Trip Log |
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Dive 5 — Wolf Island
This dive was in a similar spot. This time when we went down it was quite active, lots of the same fish as the first dive. We rounded the corner and the current was ripping. Oops, before we got into the current, we hung out into the “blue” and saw many sharks and turtles. We are seeing Galapagos Sharks and Hammer heads. When we got back to the rocks we rounded the corner and I saw people hanging on to the rocks so we hung on too and watched as huge Galapagos Sharks and Hamerheads and green turtles appeared and swam by. The rocks we were hanging on to were filled with thousands, no millions of small fish, juvenile rainbow wrasse mostly, very colorful.
Lunch! Gene and I skipped the afternoon dive, wee were just pooped and the night dive was something we wanted to do, so we relaxed and read.
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Dive 6 — Wolf Island night dive — 50 ft. for 40 minutes
This dive was a little confusing about how to do it. We went off the boat for the first time, and our guide that day (Fabian) took off before we got in. Everyone was kind of on their own, so we didn’t stray too far since we didn’t want to get out of sight or out of the site.
We saw lots of shrimp, lobster, turtles, scorpion fish, and what we thought might be baby scorpion fish. Was good dive and we came up at 40 minutes.
Dinner was great, and off to bed and off to Darwin! |
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Day 4 Boat was still on the move to Darwin Island when the 6 am wake up bell sounded. Antonio will be our guide today.
Dive 7 — Darwin’s Arch 75 feet for 47 minutes
Dropped down to a ledge and swam out to the edge — Antonio gave the signal to hold on (strong current here) and wait. Millions of fish swarming and schooling. I’ve never seen this much fish life anywhere in my diving. At 6 minutes into the dive, Antonio started rapping on his tank, we all swam forward as fast as we could follow him… looking and looking, hoping to catch a glimpse of a Whale Shark, since continuous rapping on the tank was the signal for Whale Shark.
He stopped kicking and turned to face us. I didn’t see it. Had we missed it? He looked at us and pointed straight above us. I looked up and it was like we had swam under a ship. This HUGE creature was looming over us, I turned to grab Gene to tell him to look up. He was already looking up and pointing like a kid who was seeing his first airplane. I was stunned at it’s size and how close we were. Were we 25 feet under it? We were only at 60 feet! Some people swam up closer… many had their cameras and were flashing away. We drifted up and I swam as close as I dared. I didn’t know what we could/should do! Although it was not obvious at first, this shark was swimming away from us, and soon it was just a shadow, its 12 foot tall tail… slowing moving…. Amazing!
We swam back to the ledge to hold on. Later I would learn that this first shark was estimated 40 to 45 ft. As I held on to that ledge, and watched other sharks, Hammerheads and Galapagos Sharks, big and small, alone or in groups, I felt I’d seen the ultimate. I was happy just thinking about it, for about 3 minutes. And then the signal again! We swam forward again. Yes it was another one!! And closer, or did I just know what I was doing this time? I swam up along side. It was an incredible size. I can’t believe how close we are, I could have touched it. We saw 2 more this dive, before Antonio gave us the signal to start out of the area that came to be known the Theater, and over to the sandy bottom where there were thousands of barber butterfly fish, which was known as the “cleaning station”. Here is where we made our ascent. Doing our safety stop, and surfacing… these were some happy divers! |
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Breakfast was great — everyone was in a great mood, the energy was so high. Darwin’s arch visible from the boat and many more dives to go. Whale Sharks before breakfast!!! Who would of guessed. Wow! Maybe it’s time to get the camera out? |
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Trip Log continued |