The Captain’s Choice SCUBA was a real highlight although sometimes the adventure is in the journey and this proved true today. Our Mexican piloto was a newbie and didn’t quite have the hang of the docking approach procedure. It was painful to watch as he would maneuver parallel to the pier but then was unable to raft up close. He would sea saw forward and reverse trying to close the gap but his technique wasn’t working. For one thing, the single screw craft (due to the direction of shaft rotation) would not back-to-right. If he’d only swing his vessel around he’d look like a pro. Heck, with the prevailing wind he could relax on the controls and drift down on it. Finally, after many tries his deck crew get a line ashore and I’m having my doubts, knowing that we will have to go through this same chinese fire drill to get back!

The reef that we dove was very fine. I saw some large snapper a few barracuda, an eel, and an extremely large lobster along with the usual grand colorations and schools of angel fish. Our dive master was careful to make sure that we respected this protected area. My old school understanding was that this meant that you couldn’t take items or game, but these days it also means ‘don’t touch/disturbe anything’. Those who so much as kicked up sand on the bottom were chastised. That’s okay but whereas you’d grab hold of a rock piece or corral head to steady yourself (to better view the reef in close up perspective) we could only drift with the current and float on by. 40 minutes later, when our air supply was exhausted, we’d surface and set a red diver balloon. Luckily our Mexican skipper would come find us.