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OK, I’m now running low on D’s but tomorrow I’ll be all charged up again. Today we got up early, ate some Cliff bars (I brought 3 boxes with me and they are all gone!) grabbed our bags and checked them at the front desk of the Long Bay. The cab showed up right on time at 7:15 am. Just prior I had a feeling I was forgetting something and double checked my camera bag. I couldn’t find the Canon D10 water resistant camera and, when I went back to the room, I found out that it had fallen behind the drapes where my bag had been sitting. Yes!!! The cab ride was quick…only one more time over that steep and windy road! Oh, make that two…over and back.
After a short wait at the Jolly Roger dock a small outboard picked us up along with the dive instructors and the boat captain for the day. The weather had turned windy (as in, the wind was blowing!) and a bit gray. We were getting wet on the 15 minute ride around the West end of Tortola to the South shore of Jost Van Dyke, a sleepy island where Jost Van Dyke Dive (JVDD) has their headquarters and store. We got off that boat on the dock and walked to their store which is a short “block”, although they really don’t have blocks, just one dirt road…this place is pretty primitive. We had been hoping for some coffee…the islands don’t start very early and, at 8:30 we finally found a bare bones bakery called Christine’s Kitchen (I think), got some very dry banana bread and a coffee.
Right about that time I figured out that I had left my dive booties, gloves and prescription mask somewhere, either the Jolly Roger dock or the hotel. No problem, I grabbed a mask and snorkel form JVDD and was good to go. The instructor grabbed an extra pair of fins just in case my fins weren’t on the boat too, which turned out to be a good thing since Geoff then discovered that he didn’t have his fins! So we were both forgetful together which was a relief to me.
We motored about 10 minutes around the island and anchored for our first dive. We donned our gear and sat on the edge of the boat and did a back flop into the warm water. Jenn and Wes did the same with their instructor and went off for the first of three dives that would qualify them for their PADI certification. I started taking pictures as we went down to 60 feet in reasonably clear waters and reefs typical of this area. There were some parrot fish, angel fish, etc. and our guide pointed out some other interesting underwater life. For some reason, my air pressure was dropping faster than the other two divers so, after only about 30 minutes we had to surface. Of course, back on the boat they poked a bit of fun at me for taking too many pictures which used up my air (I didn’t really understand this…).
When all of us had taken enough time on the surface, we moved to a nearby area and Jenn and Wes changed tanks and went in for their second training session. The rest of us did free diving which, it turns out, is more dangerous as a higher number of people die doing it. August, our guide, when he was younger, could free dive down to 160 feet and some people can go to 200 feet or more! That is simply amazing. Now he can go to maybe 60 feet. Geoff could probably go down to 30 feet and I could go down to around 20 feet. It’s harder than you’d think!
After Jenn and Wes surfaced and got settled, we moved about 10 minutes to the East to Little Jost Van Dyke island which is REALLY primitive. Meaning, nothing there at all, just a small beautiful sandy beach. A number of sailboats were anchored off the shore as their owners explored the beach. I decided to not take the camera on this tank dive because I didn’t want to be accused of breathing too much air! Of course, as soon as we went down to about 30 feet, what would we see? About a 4-5 foot curious nurse shark that came straight at August, almost poking him in the mask. I was right next to him but Geoff was out in front. We tried to get Geoff’s attention but after about 2 minutes he turned around on his own and swam after the shark. Great fun! The rest of the dive was down a slope to about 60 feet and then swimming around looking for interesting things. Quite nice diving here.
Jenn and Wes finished their regimen and were now officially certified! They were quite happy about this and were both are excited to dive more in the future. Nice!
The ride back to the Jolly Roger was a bit rough as it had been raining on and off all day, there were squall areas here and there and we got a bit wet. No problem, we had just been diving! Back at the Jolly Roger I found my diving stuff and Geoff’s fins and sunglasses had been put safely away and we collected it. After Jenn and Wes had filled out their dive record we met with Colin, the owner of JVDD and talked about our plans for the week. There is an advanced diving class that he would give us for free if we dove two more days sometime next week at one of more the nearby islands (Peter, Cooper, Norman). Geoff got excited about this so we might do it. Not much studying involved…just more diving at depths greater than the 40 feet that Jenn and Wes are now qualified to do.
Next, we ate lunch upstairs at the Jolly Roger, stuffed ourselves and I found a cab that took us back to the Long Bay and then one more time over the hill to Road Town and Sunsail. Next we checked in, found our assigned boat and got an early orientation on our boat by a very entertaining guy who just happened to be checking out the equipment. Unfortunately, Geoff’s plans to leave early in the morning got short circuited since we have to have a briefing (along with all the other cruisers leaving tomorrow) on the area.
Off to the market we went to buy some very expensive groceries (they pretty much have a monopoly on the island…). Then showered at the Sunsail facility and walked to a local restaurant called CF’s which, after we walked in turned out to be the exact same place that we had all eaten at over 10 years ago when we last sailed from the same facility. Pretty funny that we would have found the same place, which was quite rustic and definitely local flavor. The meal was good although it took them maybe 15 minutes to bring two of the drinks, 30 minutes for mine and about an hour to bring Wes’s. The drinking age down here apparently is 16 by the way!
On the way home we stopped by another market where we found the prices for vegetables to be significantly lower so we stocked up on some more oranges, bought our liquor (not much) and another $100 worth of misc. stuff like charcoal. The walk home felt good and we are now safe and sound on our new home away from home. We have all called home on Skype and are ready for bed to rest up before our next adventure which starts tomorrow.
Pictures will be added to this entry when we get a chance. I’ll also tell you about our brand new Sunsail 384 catamaran in the next article. We don’t have an inverter so we can’t charge our computers, ipods, etc. once we leave except off shore at a restaurant. So, we’ll do the best we can. We’re looking forward to relaxing!
Marlene Shirley - So glad you found your camera lens, that would have been sad to not have it with you! Wishing I was there with you, what amazing experiences! I loved the description of falling into the WARM water, how would it be. Am anxious to hear how the rest of the trip is going. Love to all, Marlene