I’m noticing a trend at nights. Any where from 8-9:30ish, while I’m working on a few write ups, photos, etc I’m already half asleep trying to get things done. It might just be better to do them in the morning, as I get up when the sun goes up, which is a few hours before anything happens for the day….
Today starts a little earlier in the day, as we spend our lunch on the south side of the island at the AKR’s other location, Maya Key.
Where we would normally splash in around 8:40, we did a dive at 8:10, to give us time to grab a few extra tanks and do a dive to and from Maya Key, while getting enough time for lunch and a tour of their museum/animal rescue.
I can’t really remember our first dive at Gibson Bight, but the second dive was supposed to be at the infamous Mary’s Place. Due to some unfortunate circumstances, we didn’t make it to Mary’s, but instead dropped in at Pablo’s Place and drifted along for a nice brisk 45minute dive in current.
There was lots to see drifting along, including a squadron of squid, a nurse shark, some large groupers, hog fish and many others. All dozen or so of us surfaced at the same time, and the boat had a bit of a workout to pick us all up drifting in the current.
Maya Key was very nice, after a lunch, there was a guided tour around the island. Some highlights were the Parrots of the island, as well as their collection of Jaguars, monkeys, crocodiles and even a mountain lion. All were rescued from previous owners or zoos that couldn’t take care of them properly.
After the 3 boat dives, back on the Key, I decided to head over a few buildings to the shore diving shack and check it out. A small group were just heading out for a dive as soon as I got there, and 2 other ladies were planning on coming back a little later to do a night dive. I asked and they agreed for me to tag along on their dive.
Armed with my camera rig, and theirs, we headed out through the shallows looking for the line laid through the reef to get us into deeper water. We found it and decided to head west as the sun was setting. We all had cameras and worked our way slowly through the reefs cracks, taking photos of Porcupine Puffers, Lobsters, Crabs, Coral and whatever we found interesting. Unfortunately my ‘fresh’ camera battery wasn’t so fresh and my camera was done half way through the dive.
We started heading east around that point and spent over an hour underwater looking at sleeping Parrot fish. Coming back up, we found the blue glowstick outside of the shack, lined up the doors and swam above the reef into the shallows. It turned out we headed into the shallow part of the reef and worked our way pretty close back into shore. Oh well.
A quiet late dinner, and back to the room to go through the days images and grab some more sleep.
AKR Roatan, Gibson Bight
Date: April 28, 2014
Bottom Time: 44 miniutes
Max Depth: 27m
Water Temp: 28.3C
Running Time: 55:21
AKR Roatan, Pablo’s Place
Date: April 28, 2014
Bottom Time: 45 minutes
Max Depth: 26m
Water Temp: 28.9C
Running Time: 53:06
AKR Roatan, Herbie’s Fantasy
Date: April 28, 2014
Bottom Time: 65 minutes
Max Depth: 19m
Water Temp: 28.9C
Running Time: 54:11
AKR Roatan, House Reef
Date: April 28, 2014
Bottom Time: 68 minutes
Max Depth: 9m
Water Temp: 28.3C
Running Time: 55:19