Saturday, February 24, 2007
We did 2 dives this morning, to Horseshoe Reef and Motorcycle Reef. At Horseshoe, we saw 2 rays, a turtle in coral and a turtle at the surface, an eel that I barely glimpsed, and lots of other fish. One diver got stung by a small jellyfish and her neck got all red and swollen. She and her husband were the second couple we met from Montreal. The first Quebecois we met, Guy, spoke English, French, Spanish, and enough Italian to get around Italy without using any other language.
My computer kept beeping during this dive because apparently I was breathing too fast. I also had to make a deco stop (decompression stop) because we went to 84 feet for longer than my computer thought we should. Instead of hanging in the water like a barracuda, I flailed quite a bit and kept ascending and descending a few feet.
Our second dive was to Motorcycle Reef. We saw 2 barracuda—I thought they were eyeing me and kept glancing at them nervously. Most of the barracuda we’ve seen in Akumal are 1 to 2 feet long, but I did see one in 2004 that looked to be 3 or 4 feet in length. None of them has ever bothered me, but I’m not willing to approach one. I think that would be like approaching a cougar or a bear.
I saw a turtle eating coral—I wonder if it’s a regular part of their diet or they need the roughage?—with 2 small yellow remoras attached to its back. It swam up and the remoras eventually fell off. We saw another turtle in coral and so many other kinds of fish that I lost track.
The sun came out as we reached the dirt bike in a patch of sand that gives this reef its name. It shone down on it, making it into some ghostly presence that seemed about to take off into the distance. Apparently somebody dumped this bike into the reef, and when somebody diving down there sees that it has fallen down, they set it upright again.
On both dives I got out of my BCD more easily. I didn’t feel queasy at all after the first two dives—I guess I got used to the motion of the boat going up a wave and then falling down into the trough.
Diving is sometimes a pain in the ass, especially when I’m not excited about carrying a 40-pound tank on my back, but it’s also wonderful and a huge challenge. I’m always learning from it. I wonder when I’ll feel that I really know what I’m doing. I’ve done 28 dives so far, and I don’t feel that way, especially about buoyancy control. In any case, it isn’t at all what I expected. I think I thought it would be like some transcendent experiences I’ve had in nature in the past, but it’s much more demanding than going on a hike, mentally and physically.
There was a great wind today and a lot of whitecaps in Half Moon Bay as a write this. There are also many people snorkeling in the bay. A boy walked by with black curly hair like that of a Greek god and dark skin, except where and coated his feet. A great-tailed grackle perched on the thatched roof of a hut, sounding like a rusty hinge.
posted by Price of Silence @ 8:57 PM
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