Action Me

Here’s another photo by Troy, this time of Action Walter in Action in the Water.  And if you don’t like looking at me, you can look at the fish. Win/win!

Being on a live-aboard dive boat is sort of like being in the nicest military on earth.  Everything’s very regimented and works according to a strict schedule: reveille 0630, breakfast 0700, first dive 0800, snack 0900, second dive 1100, substantial lunch 1230, third dive 1400, snack 1500, fourth dive 1700, substantial dinner 1830, fifth dive 2030, after which there’s an open bar, albeit with no snack because Ailsa the cook is already working on tomorrow’s meals.

But however regimented the environment, everyone’s very pleasant and helpful and hospitable, the food is very good and in eye-boggling quantity, and wine and beer is free, and if you don’t want to participate in any particular exercise, you don’t have to go, CPO Sharkey won’t chew you out, and you can curl up with a good book in a hammock if you so desire.  (And though I went on every dive and have the medal to prove it, I devoted much of the rest of my day to naps, and nobody made me chip paint or swab the deck.)

Unfortunately the weather was not always ideal, and currents could stir up the sand and lower visibility.  I was on a couple dives where the visibility was effectively zero.

Still, I saw lovely corals, impressive sponges, sharks, giant puffers, tarpon, jacks, big turtles, lots of big lobsters, crabs, weeny shrimp, wee crabs, spotted eagle rays, far too many lion fish, various kinds of morays, flamingo tongue, large and photogenic tunicates, nudibranchs, stingrays, lots of barracuda, one perfect little seahorse, drumfish, grouper, jawfish hovering above their little holes, moon jellies, and all the usual suspects (parrotfish, triggerfish, etc etc).

With the exception of the jawfish, I’d seen all these things before, which made the week a little less exciting than some of my other dive trips.  Maybe after 25 years, I’m getting a wee bit blasé.  On the other hand, my schedule only allows me to do this once or twice per year, so I’d rather see something new or spectacular.  I’d just prefer not to have to travel all the way to the South Pacific or Southeast Asia to see something new.

So next time I may be traveling a little further abroad.  I’ll have to start checking out the various ports of call.