DIVE Archives | TRAVELS WITH TAM

My first dive in Mozambique

July 18, 2013 By Tam Warner Leave a Comment

May 11

Today was my first dive. It was a completely different experience than I’ve ever had before. I fought terrible seasickness, for one thing. Apparently, the med I am taking for malaria preventative causes seasickness. Must take dramamine. Here is how it goes here with Peri Peri divers: from the dive shop you go down the “stairs of death” to the beach where the boat is being backed into the water by a Tracker. Everyone gets on the sides of the boat and pushes it out (it is a zodiac, but large). The women jump into the boat first, then the men, then you battle the waves to get off of the beach. The water is really pretty calm right now, but it is a bitch to get out of the wave line. Once out of the wave line it is open sea, and it is “yeehaw, ride ‘em cowboy”. I appreciate the zodiac, if it was a hard boat my spine would be in shards. We looked for whale sharks on the way out, no luck, and got to Manta Reef in 30 minutes or so.

I now know the “protocol” for diving here in Tofo. Weight belt first (I was overweighted for the first few dives), fins, tank (they put the tank on me, but holding it up was totally uncomfortable), mask, and negative entry. What is a negative entry? All air out of the BCD, roll back and just keep going. So, I had a few technical difficulties. First, the camera I had set up perfectly was suddenly set completely differently. I think someone opened the housing to look at the camera and in the process shut the flash trigger. So, there I am, at 20 metres, with no flash or strobe. The visibility was poor by Cozumel standards, probably 10 meters or so, 30 feet. The water is full of plankton and huge jellyfish, yes, the jellies from Finding Nemo. BUT. OMG, there is so much on the reef! The fish look like they’ve been on steroids! The trumpetfish are big and fat, I took photos of a scorpionfish twice the size of the scorpionfish on Cozumel. I saw a purple spotted eel, a four legged starfish, and then things started going wrong. I’m diving, checked my air and I had 150 bar. my jacket is overinflated, and I have 50 bar. Obviously, technical problems. So, I basically became completely nervous that I was running very low on air, and I didn’t want everyone to have to come up with me. I popped up without a safety stop, and that is never a good thing. When the dive master asked me why no stop, I said I was shaky from low sugar…not wanting to admit I ran out of air. I paid a price for that later on in the trip.

Waiting for the boat I really felt ill. To get back on the boat the skipper has to pull you up out of the water (or he has to pull me out of the water, most of them are strong enough to get themselves back on the zodiac, dammit, so humiliating). By the end of this trip my shoulders are going to be completely pulled out of joint.

Everyone got back from the dive, and off we went to look for whale sharks again. We found dolphins, and a Giant Manta ray. The manta was absolutely beautiful, just under the top of the water. Of course my camera was put away, but I have plenty of time to photograph mantas (I hope). One of the divers, a woman from Singapore, was very seasick and spent the ride back getting sick and being completely miserable. Tomorrow I dive again, and I must remember to take my Dramamine!

I just finished a game of Uno with the group, they are now playing spoons, of all things! I grew up playing spoons on Christmas Eves on Freeport with my family….they are having a great time with it. I took a video of them playing, I’ll post it in a day or two. They are an enthusiastic crew! Pieter, our young man from the Netherlands, is absent, as usual…he has a girl he is interested in who is at Fatimas, a bar and hotel on the beach. Most of us are here in the house tonight, four of us are diving tomorrow. 630 a.m. comes early.

I enjoyed a nice lunch at Albatross today, it is just a short walk up the hill (everything is up a hill or down a hill here….mostly up). The Mozambiquens are so very nice and polite, they always have a smile on their face. Tonight, Patty from San Francisco fixed a lovely corn and potato chowder, followed by flambe pineapples with rum. Wonderful meal.

I am off to bed, hopefully my dive tomorrow will be wonderful.

Mozambique fellow volunteers visit!

July 17, 2013 By Tam Warner 3 Comments

Felix, one of the young men I volunteered with in Mozambique, has come to visit me in Cozumel! He is traveling Mexico with 3 of his friends from Oxford University. Felix is now an Oxford graduate! Time for real life….but not quite yet.

He arrived yesterday and we did a long snorkel from my backyard over to Chankanaab. I wanted to show Felix the dolphins and check up on the nurse sharks. The dolphins were so interested in us! After an entire day of performing for people, they seemed very interested to see us through the fence. There were 6 or 7 of them who really checked us out and followed us as we snorkeled. They were so beautiful…smooth and serene. And best of all, the cross fences which seemed to “pen” or corral the nurse sharks were totally gone! So were the sharks, although they had been around earlier in the day when my friend Lyn and her group snorkeled over there. Maybe we will see them tomorrow!

Today we dove Columbia Deeps, one of the southern reef systems in Cozumel, with towers of coral, very beautiful. Not much in the way of fish, but when one hasn’t seen coral like that, it is breathtaking. We then went to an area known as “Cielo”, a shallow aquamarine area filled with starfish. I didn’t see many today, but my friend Lyn went later in the afternoon and her group saw plenty of them! After our surface interval we dove Punta Palancar, the very start of Palancar Reef, made famous by Jacques Cousteau. It was absolutely crystal clear, and filled with fish, turtles, and a hunting green moray accompanied by a Grouper! I actually took a short video of the eel, which I will try to post. I’m not sure I can, but I will try.

We dove with an older couple (70s) and their granddaughter, delightful people, but after the first dive the older man had a rough time of it and stayed out the second dive. I was worried when we surfaced from our deep dive as they seemed to be struggling. All turned out well.

Tonight Randy and I were treated to a delicious meal, Felix cooked for us. He even made his own tortillas! While in Mozambique I stayed way out of the kitchen….I was absolutely floored by the culinary abilities of Felix and Patty, a woman from San Francisco who flambeed pineapple….incredibly wonderful. Since I have trouble making toast, I kept a very low profile in the kitchen. Tonight we enjoyed shrimp tortillas with guacamole and Mexican potatoes…Felix found a recipe and off we went to Mega, the grocery. Excellent meal, Felix even bought us Mexican white wine. Delicious!

It seems a funny thing, really, to consider that Felix is the same age as my son and his friends, and yet the experience in Tofo bound several of us together regardless of age. Tomorrow Marcel (Switzerland) and Dani (Munich) will join Felix (Cambridge, UK) and I (USA, originally from Ohio) here in Cozumel. We have a night dive scheduled for tomorrow night, their first! I will be sure to tell you all about it!

Dive, Dive, Dive!

July 14, 2013 By Tam Warner Leave a Comment

I am in my element! Today is the first day I haven’t been diving. I did a couple of beach dives with my cousin, Kathy, the first one was awesome. We went in at the Money Bar (a great oceanfront restaurant on the island, near our house), and came out right in front of Villa Coronado. The sun was shining, and I took some photos that I think are really good. Everything down there fascinates me. It is just amazing! Our second dive was not so great, I was very tired (beach diving is more work than jumping off of a boat in deep water) and we ended up too shallow, so the weight of the tank on my back was painful. Then the current became strong (of course) and we eventually had to take our gear off and walk in the ocean to get back! Remind me not to do two beach dives in one day, ok?

July 14: I am picking up this thread almost a week later. Yes, we have been diving, diving, diving! Charlie, Coop and Wes have been my dive companions. I am not 100% sure why they dive, they don’t seem to watch animals much, they are more interested in running in the sand with no fins on, or filming each other doing other whacko things. I am fascinated by everything down there….I never want to miss anything.

I am a little concerned though, the fish life on the reefs seems to have dwindled somewhat…whether the lionfish are making their presence known, or there aren’t enough sharks, or there are just too many divers, the reefs north of Palancar seem to be suffering a bit. I’ve been posting surveys for REEF, and plan to do more today.

It has done nothing but rain, rain, rain. It has been raining every single day, most unusual for this time of year. Usually it is so hot and relentlessly sunny (except for the occasional short rain burst) that you pray for rain! This week I am requesting dives farther south…Punta Sur, Columbia, Palancar Pinnacles. I am so excited, because some of my fellow volunteers from my trip to Tofo will be here tomorrow! It will be great to see Felix, and then Marcel and Daniela on Wednesday. I want them to enjoy really beautiful dives, pristine. I will keep you up to date on our week!

Check out more photos on my Dive Log page!

Ocean Safari in Mozambique

July 12, 2013 By Tam Warner 1 Comment

Ocean Safari may10

Marcel, Ben, Pieter and I went on our first ocean safari today…sadly, no whale sharks. But I did see my first ever Hammerhead shark and Black Fin Reef shark. We also encountered two pods of dolphins, both bottlenose and humpback dolphins. I was not in good position to take photos of anything. The water is full of plankton, so in order to get a good photo you’d need to be within 6 feet, I think. It was my first time in a zodiac (a sort of rubber boat), well not the very first time, the first one was when we went to look at elephant seals in Great White Shark infested waters, so obviously the goal was to stay IN the boat. Getting in and out of a zodiac has its challenges. Also there are no piers here, so the boat has to be driven to the beach, pushed into the water by the passengers of the boat, you then jump into the boat and ride over the waves to get out of the bay. An adventure, for sure! There were twelve people on the boat, so you can imagine the rush to get into the water. I went in twice but quickly decided it was too many people to get close to the animals anyway.

I sat out a couple of times, waiting for the whale sharks who never appeared. The energy it takes to roll off the boat, swim in the swells, then get back in the boat is enormous. Fortunately for my sugar levels I took a peanut butter sandwich with me. And yes, you are allowed to dive with diabetes, as long as you have it under control. I have it under control.

The area where the whale sharks feed is a four kilometer stretch just outside the bay, quite different from the 22 miles plus you have to go from Cancun or Holbox. The dive sites aren’t far off either. I am diving in the morning, at Manta Reef (MANTA RAYS!) and the “Office”. The fish are so differently marked and colored here, I cannot wait to start taking photos. There are a couple of dragon eels on the Office, I hear, and I’d love to photograph them!

Our coordinators, Ross and Katie, are back now, apparently Mozambique’s border guards are a bit power hungry and love to refuse visas to people. They had to go to South Africa in order to get a Mozambique visa! Crazy, right? They are both very likeable. I’ve spent part of the day learning how to put data into the fish databases, and I took my fish test this morning (I passed). So…ready for surveys.

There is another young man I’d like Ally to meet: Darren, a whale shark researcher from the Seychelles. Lovely young man. His passion in life is whale sharks, and he even has whale shark tattoos. Crazy!

I have settled in. Ages in the house range from 21 to 52, most in their 20s but a few in their 30s and one woman in her forties. I love Tofo….it is so beautiful. From the boat today I saw areas outside our bay, cliffs and huge sand dunes, beautiful homes high on the hills. One area is powered by a wind turbine. If you want to buy in Mozambique, do it now, I predict you’ll triple your money in 5-10 years. The town is filled with Aussies and South Africans, the research base at Casa Barry is a major hot spot. Scientists and interns and volunteers are everywhere. I’ve seen several tourists, none American so far.

I highly recommend Tofo to the mid-life crisis crowd, I am so glad I came. I am on my own, away from everything familiar, and I feel energized by the freedom I am experiencing. I love my family with every cell in my body, but you know we all play roles during our lives…I have always been someone’s daughter, sister, mother, spouse; taking responsibility and putting everyone’s needs ahead of my own. It is refreshing to just answer to myself, to do what I want to do when I want to do it, without taking care of anyone or being fearful of hurting someone’s feelings. The people here just accept me and make no demands. Maybe we all need an experience like this at some point in our lives. It is giving me space that I have never felt before. I am resolved to enjoy every opportunity. Tonight is a talk on sea turtles at Casa Barry, I plan to go over an hour early and have a nice dinner. The volunteer house is not a culinary delight! I’m already sick of pasta.

My boys and Nurse Sharks!

July 10, 2013 By Tam Warner Leave a Comment

When Randy and I built our home in Mexico, our children were 10 and 13. We came every summer for one month, and of course the kids wanted a friend to visit, so that basically turned into A LOT of friends visiting! Wes had 3 he always invited, and they were always ready to come, Alec, Cooper and Charlie. The boys have known each other since preschool, and elementary school. They are more family than friends. Through the years we have taken them to every tourist spot on the island, and some on the mainland. We taught them to snorkel, then to dive.

Alec, sadly, could not come this year, so the “Fab 4” is not intact, instead we have the “3 Muskateers”. We are just so happy they still want to come and dive! Randy isn’t diving this summer due to a health condition, but the 3 are here and diving with me! We’ve done several dives, including a night dive.

Two of them just graduated college, my son, Wes, and Charlie, and Cooper is managing a restaurant (or two or three). Real life hovers on the horizon, so I know these times are precious. Soon, they will be working and leading their

Haven't changed much! — Haven’t changed much!

adult lives, and it will probably be difficult to get everyone here at the same time. Of course, we talk about how they can bring their girlfriends, wives, partners, and eventually (omg!) their children. We have incredible memories here with them. Two years ago we had the boys and a group of girls, and they told me, “we like it better when you plan everything out for us.” LOL.

We didn’t dive today…and it is absolutely POURING outside! It has rained a lot during July, more than I can remember. Today we are also having thunderstorms. I usually like the rain, but I am ready for a real sunny day in the Caribbean.

If you noticed on my Facebook page, Travels with Tam, I posted questions regarding nurse sharks that seemed enclosed between four fence walls at Chankanaab Park. There appear to be a couple of bulges, so those must be areas they can get in and out of. I have been assured they can come and go, there is a hole in the fence. I’ll have to keep going over to see if I can ever see them out of the fenced area, would love to get photos of them freely moving around! There are tons of silversides, and a few groupers as well. Will keep you posted!

Exploring Tofo

July 9, 2013 By Tam Warner Leave a Comment

May 9

The volunteer organizers have been out of town since I’ve been here, stuck at the border into Mozambique. The other divers and I have had quite a bit of free time. Most of the group are just learning to dive, and spent the day in a classroom doing dive tables. I have been learning my fish….the fish surveys involve butterflyfish, rock cods (groupers), parrots and surgeonfish. So I learn 60 fishes for doing the surveys. I think I’ve just about got them, though.

After I looked at the fish, I decided to go over to Casa Barry, the lodge where the Foundation for the Protection of Marine Megafauna is located. I was so interested to come to Tofo because of Dr Andrea Marshall and Dr Simon Pierce, manta and whale shark researchers I saw on National Geographic (or Discovery, cannot remember). Andrea Marshall came to Tofo to do her dissertation, and has now been here for 10 years. I met her this evening at a whale shark talk given at Casa Barry. I certainly hope to attend talks that she gives on the manta rays while I am here.

So, I decided to walk to Casa Barry ( you walk everywhere here ) and my new young friends lunch at Casa Barry >Leslie, Marcel and Ben asked to come along. It was very sweet of them to come with me, so we had a nice lunch (the food was delicious) and then took a nice long walk on the beach. The tide was out and there were all kinds of things to look out. Sponges, tidal pools, groups of mussels that looked like rocks they were so thick, and huge dunes. Local people are out collecting mussels and whatever else they can find, they are also fishing off the beach. The people are so very poor here. The currency is the metical, and 1.00 buys 25 meticals. Children are selling bracelets and jewelry in the market for 20 meticals. The bank in Inhambane gave me huge bills, like 1,000.00 meticals, and no one has change for them. Tomorrow I plan to visit the market.

I’m very happy that in spite of my age the “kids” seem to accept me. I was very surprised when 3 of them came along with me to Casa Barry. I have so much admiration for them…I have found out that some of them are older than I thought, but here they are, taking time from their lives to do volunteer work, to travel the world, meet new people. Some of the older people (in 30s) have either quit their jobs for 3 months or so to do this, or taken leave, they have saved up in order to do this. It is a great group of people, always interesting, so many different experiences all over the globe. Many speak several languages, all are open minded and excited to try new things. Me likee.

We attended a whale shark talk this evening and now everyone is hanging out. Suzanne, from London, is the only volunteer here that is not on the whale shark project, she is here to work with children. She spent the day at an orphanage in Inhambane (she is supposed to teach in a school) and it sounded rather harrowing. She said the babies are very hard to take…I can only imagine. If my friend Lyn was here she’d be over there adopting some. The children in the markets are heart wrenching enough.

Tomorrow I will explore further.

DIVE

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