Well, I must say this trip has gotten off to an interesting start! Here I am, in the Great Exumas, Bahamas, and as far as diving goes, it has been a true fiasco.
I bought new gear for this trip, a new dive computer and transmitter, new regulator and an alternate breather so I don’t have to wear an Octopus (an extra mouthpiece for breathing). My alternate air source has a breathing piece attached to my inflater hose, doing away with the bothersome Octopus. So…it came time to dive yesterday, and of course, none of it worked except my regulator. The computer would not pair, the transmitter would not even turn on! The alternate breathing/inflater hose leaked from the get go. The boat we were on basically doesn’t carry much in the way of extra gear, so guess who didn’t get to dive? Yep. Me! THAT is a first. I did try, and while trying to get my inflater hose to work, my brand new snorkel came off my mask so it is probably in the Turks and Caicos by now (it was rough out there). My cousin did dive, and the visibility was lousy so she lost the dive master and had to come up. It was rough enough out there that we were both a bit seasick, too!
Today, I tried it again, with a rental BCD, rental gauge, a new snorkel, and of course, the transmitter would still not turn on. At least I was able to dive. One certainly cannot judge a place on two dives, but the dives were pretty marginal. Of course, I am spoiled by diving Cozumel so very often…it is crystal clear with LOTS of marine creatures (not the case here, so far). Cozumel often has 100+ feet of visibility. I would say it was about 50 today, not bad at all. Yesterday my cousin said it was around 30 or less. I anticipated two nice dives…and then…my camera housing malfunctioned. The buttons were sticking, the camera had to be turned off in order to stop it taking photos, or it would get stuck in the wrong mode. Really, what can you do but laugh? Talk about Murphy’s Law! Best to get any issues with equipment out of the way before diving Thailand and Myanmar in March, though!
Exuma is a lovely island though…beautiful water color! And, on the bright side, I drove on the left side of the road without killing us. I also have a golf cart I can zoom around in, which is fun, especially since the views from the golf course are terrific. We are staying in a villa, gorgeous place, but the problem? They are running out of food at the restaurant! Really?You have no fish to eat, here in the Bahamas? Pretty amazing. Oh, and no pizza, and no buns. The pickings get slimmer every day. Time to go in search of other dining experiences! I may have to ask friends to send food, ha ha.
Tomorrow I plan to tour the grounds again in the morning (an excuse to tool around in the golf cart, on the left side of the paths) and take some photos, perhaps snorkel a bit, and tomorrow afternoon we are diving my first blue hole! So, I’m going to see if I can fix my camera housing, and then to bed. Ciao! And keep warm!
Please Share or Like this post if you enjoyed it!
Hello there. Wow! That is just one thing after another! But you seem to be taking it in stride. It was minus 40 degrees where I am today so I am truly envying your problems. Funny that a restaurant runs out of food is it not….we never expect that. Hope you get some good diving in while you are there.
As you say, I’m here, gear issues notwithstanding! And most people are freezing their tushies off! Stay warm!