Hammer Time!

First dives this morning! As the first dives are mostly about getting familiar with the gear and demonstrating safety skills, I don’t have many photos. I choose not to take my camera when I’m first in a new environment so my focus is entirely on making sure I’m a comfortable, safe and courteous diver. 

We had a lot of gear that was new to us this time around - 7mm wetsuits (quite thick and a tango for two to get on and off at times), thick hoods, booties with rubber soles and heels, dive gloves, a GPS, and a safety whistle that attached to the BCD hose.

Not to mention the usual fins, mask, regulator, tanks, weight belts, etc. Essential gear only, as you can see. 

Our first dive was incredible! I am sort of disappointed I don’t have photos to show, but it was also very challenging. We hit crazy currents that required crawling along using your hands and rocks. When we did our 3 minute safety stop, I swear we were going about 10 kph at least. Zoom! I could have stopped if I tried!

But back to why it was incredible - we saw TWO HAMMERHEADS!!! They came quite close and did multiple passes. They weren’t afraid of us at all! 

We saw at THREE WHITE TIP REEF SHARKS! They were also not wary of us in the least. Usually they are quite skittish, but here it seems humans aren’t so scary. Same goes for the whole garden of Galapagos garden eels. Unlike the other garden eels I’ve encountered, these ones didn’t immediately retreat into their sandy holes. 

On every rocky outcrop, there were at least two Mulliner Doris nudibranchs hanging out. I had to be very careful with hand placement when struggling to stay still in the current for fear of harming them. A tiny tiger snake eel wound its way around the crags below a bump head parrotfish. 

Just before ascending, we saw a HUGE SPOTTED EAGLE RAY! It was so ethereal and graceful, flapping its wings and gliding effortlessly through the current that threw me around like the inside of a laundry machine. 

Because the first dive was hard, I left my camera behind the second dive as well. We also had more difficult emergency skills to perform. Again, somewhat regret it. But safety first. 

We saw a Galapagos reef shark! And a large turtle and a large tuna and a large, bright yellow Guineafowl puffer fish.

If you looked very careful, there was a medium sized rock that had intimidating teeth… which was of course a stonefish. Another reason to be very mindful of where you put your fingers…

I found a unique and super cool nudibranch called Roboastra. This is a wonderful photo taken by a boat mate, Stephi, that she graciously shared with me because or was so excited to have found it and so sad not to have a photo to remember it. 

Back on the boat for lunch and off to Seymour island for an eco tour this afternoon!