Stuff Around the Place

Blanco and Pollo lazing around in their little nest on a hot August day.

Why Tuca has decided she has to go between the cushions and the towel I have over them on the cat couch I have no idea but this is her latest thing. It is comical when the lump moves and the other cats sitting on her don't get it!

Rip still doesn't understand his good fortune - every dish is his and he puts his feet in to reserve it and growls and growls at the others who thunk him on the head...the he goes owwww.

Feet in an empty dish even after licking the other side clean! He awoke from his deep sleep after neutering and is as feisty as ever.

The torch ginger bloomed for the first time.

This ginger is 14 feet high maybe? Really tall and the flower is about 3 feet off the ground - there are several bright red waxy looking flowers.

Last weekend Shacks had FLAT water and David and I had a good dive out there.

We scouted around for a new spot and headed further east in the cars to another entry point. It is a little more exposed here but if it is flat we may investigate! Conditions would have to be perfect since we can see the reef and waves would make getting back in really awful.

Stevia has got to be the weakest, pokiest to grow plant in the universe, but those little leaves are very sweet and tasty.

This vine is Malabar spinach which is a vining spinach good for temperatures between 80 and 90. Tastes a little nuttier than regular spinach but I am a nut fan so I really like it and need to try to propagate it.

The beehive ginger is blooming again and they look fake too. Interesting flowers...

Cuevas de Isabela (Shacks)

I went diving today with David up in the north at the caves (really underwater caverns). The surface had a lot of chop from the wind, but the waves were small and underneath there wasn't much movement. No surge, just a small pull to the west. We went over the top into the second hole and then followed a canyon to the outside. Visibility was very good. We could see the entire sand circle from one side to another and all the rocks going across it. We encountered a nice lobster which we left behind and at the end saw a group of 6 eagle rays! No turtles, manatees, sharks, sting rays or barracuda but the 3 giant puffers were in the usual spot and the group of eagle rays was awesome! We spent 102 minutes down with a maximum depth of 54 feet. I can't think of a better way to spend my time (unless it is underground)!

Just a Frickin l o n g Dive

After Saturday's adventure David and I headed out for another dive. This time the north was even worse, and we decided to give the Sugar Mill a try. We parked, got the gear on and walked 20 minutes to the water and it looked kind of brown near shore. Oh well, we walked all the way down so we are going!

The surface was flat, the wind was picking up a little, but it looked like nice conditions. The plan was to consider yesterday's northbound train-of-a-current and go south so we could do the rubble first and then come with the current north to do the pilings. We went down into murky water and then in the distance could see a layer of blue with murk above and below it - there was hope!

We dropped into about 40 feet of water so we could follow the slope down and not miss the rubble. Before you knew it we were at 60 feet in the rubble and then 87 looking up at the surface. No current. That's a little deep even though he is using the other regulator (not yesterday's disaster one). We came up and stayed in the 60-70 zone for quite a while and then headed to the pilings after seeing a mob of Spade Fish and loads of schools of other types. There were huge Puffers and eels and just about everything else.

We stayed around the pilings for quite a while looking for seahorses. We heard that someone has been taking them out to sell to the aquarium trade. Shame. They should take the lionfish I found (just call me the lionfish whisperer) - My 5th one. That at least is a non-native-we-should-remove-them -before they eat everything species that doesn't belong here. We spent quite a long time. We turned and the line up of squid we saw before were there again. This time they wanted to rumble and brought reinforcements. 14 in all. David had only 200 pounds of air left so we started coming in at around 20 feet. He wanted to surface (but I had air) until he saw an octopus. We went down to peek at it. It looked closer than it was. He was out of air and used my regulator again for what we thought would be a "quick peek" and a speedy rise to the surface. That was until my dive computer alarm sounded and told me that all of a sudden I needed to go a little deeper and stay there for 6 minutes! 6 minutes? What the hell for?

I have a very conservative computer that I follow because what will kill me is that I have air. I ALWAYS have air and I like to use it. My computer will tell me I owe 4 minutes of decompression time when my husband who goes deeper won't owe any time. I take my computer under advisement but usually figure it is fine to do what I want - I have enough air to do 20 minutes of decompression time!

So David and I breathed off of my tank for 6 minutes, came up, gave the customary Yoo Hoo and had our longest dive ever...2 hours and 13 minutes! If you are a diver you are thinking this is fake (nope)....they were at 30 feet the whole time (nope - 87 and 60 for a wad of it). This is unheard of! We were both on 80's, not 100s, not twin tanks, nope..just regular tanks. I found a couple perfect pair of sunglasses. We saw all kinds of cool stuff (except the lionfish that shouldn't be there). It was a really long and really pleasant dive. I can't wait until Jeff gets home so we can do it!

High Adventure under the Calm Seas or Oh #@*&*$^

Well, I didn't expect an adventure of this sort...and neither did David! Jeff is still in Arizona (but coming home soon) so David and I headed out for the regular 8:30am dive. He called from Isabela and said the cuevas (caves) were too crappy to dive inside or out. I already had passed Rincon (which I suspected would be muddy) so we agreed to dive Natural in Aguadilla. It is kind of our back up spot and very very nice with all kinds of life. We usually see lots of turtles, all kinds of fish, eagle rays, moray eels etc etc. We have even seen 2 of the evil non-native lion fish there.

It LOOKED like it would be ok and it was...except...

We started our dive as usual except I was using Jeff's 100 tank instead of my 65 or 80 (we are talking cubic feet of air here). I never need all the air I carry. I was using the big tank because I only have 3 tanks and since Jeff is gone and we are all solar power now and I had no way to fill the tanks. They are out of hydro so a dive shop won't do it. When Jeff is home he un-wires the solar and reconnects to the grid to power the compressor. This is a good solution since getting a gas motor would take up space, mean storing and using gas etc etc. It is only $6.98 a month to be able to do this. I decided to use the 100 today since Natural has a short easy walk and swim and that would leave me one 80 cubic foot tank (less air but smaller and lighter - my usual tank) for tomorrow. That wasn't the problem.

We kicked out and hmm... looked pretty clear. We dropped down and immediately noticed that the current was really moving to the north. We have experienced this before and figured we would go north 20 minutes or so instead of the usual 40 to 60 and fight the current coming back at a slow pace. Of course we didn't really set this plan up before we went under, but we dive together every weekend and think alike. So sure enough , at 20 minutes he wants to head back which is fine with me.

We are heading back and really fighting when all of a sudden I hear lots of bubbles - and I know this sound. David's regulator is free flowing! This usually isn't a big deal, he took it out, smacked it, purged it, and it still kept free flowing. He stuck the backup in his mouth but the only problem is that there is not way to isolate the free flowing one so it is draining his tank. Just FYI - a hose split drains a FULL tank in about 4 minutes. So he looks at his air and starts going up.

I have to pull him back down, since we have been at 67 feet for some minutes and can't just pop up to the top! I give him my backup (since I am the queen of air - I don't use it, I have partially adapted I think) and then I notice that in the commotion his mask has filled with water so he doesn't even realize 1)we are deep 2) we are ascending too fast 3) we are drifting away. He didn't panic, but with this losing-the-air-really-fast problem after having 40 minutes underwater already and add to that being in a strong current and not being able to see is problematic.

So he now has one of my regulators and is very close. I am not a DIR (Doing It Right) philosophy person (this is a very safe diving method) - I am a DIMY (Do It My Way) person (I take what works for me to be free of gadgets and extra stuff, safe, and practical given that I don't have much real estate to hang stuff off of). So not being DIR, I don't have the really long hose. That means David is very close. I am holding onto his BC and pulling him down. The computer is beeping that we are ascending too fast. I get us down and hold onto a rock. I let him clear his mask, show him that we need 4 minutes at depth before we can travel toward shore and the surface.

Meanwhile there are a couple other divers who see us and just have no clue that there is a problem - they actually look, sort of wave and keep going!

After his mask is clear I tell him 4 minutes,(holding up fingers) we head toward shore against the strong current, he knows there is plenty of air in my jumbo tank for both of us so we surface, give the whuu hoo yell that follows any good dive (or in this case "adventure") and then just kind of hang out floating near shore for a bit before going up to the cars and out for coffee. This all happened in about 5 minutes!

So does this happen often? The only time I had a regular free-flow was when I went Ice Diving in Fish Lake in Eastern Washington. When you are diving under 3 feet of ice and the water is, well, FREEZING, you can kind of expect this. I did have a hose burst in Fiji and it drained my FULL tank in under 4 minutes. Thankfully it was at the beginning of the dive and I was able to kick off the helpful soul who wanted to save me by racing me up to the surface too fast. So lucky for us I had air, we weren't horribly deep, we aren't the panicky types, and if we did drift away I have a GPS with us so we can be located. We got this after some "mishaps" in Neah Bay Washington which is the roughest diving there is.

So this has me thinking of our biggest adventures. I may just have to dig out some photos and relive them. Hmmm. I am sure I have forgotten some but a hint of what is to come:
1) drifting more than a nautical mile after diving the Diamond Knot wreck in the Straits of Juan de Fuca 2) getting held up at gunpoint, saved by a bamboo arrow and living to tell about in in Papua New Guinea 3) drifting for a long way at Darwin's Arch in the Galapagos Islands, 4) feeding and photographing Six Gill Sharks in Puget Sound. No particular order. I'll give it some thought. But right now I am starving!

Diving Adventures Over the Last Month

No photos - but lots of adventures including today's and yesterday's..I'll start there.

YESTERDAY David and I (Jeff is in Arizona working) were going to go diving like we do every weekend (except when we are in caves). We have had some great dives lately but it looked like things were kind of changing. The Sahara Dust was knocked out of the sky and into the water and we thought visibility was dropping. Also it seems like wind and rain in the Central area were going to disturb things. I am just about to Rincon and David calls - "the north looks bad." No problem, I'll take the detour to Corseca in Rincon and check it out. Like mud. (Does it always rain in Rincon?) Where to now? We meet half way at the Aquadilla Court House Wall which can be spectacular or completely muddy. What a shock - it is crystal clear!!!! We descended at the usual place and since it was just David and I (we are the best on air - we don't breathe) we had 97 minutes underwater and saw the complete area! We went down and followed the wall to about 88 feet and went through thermoclines (layers of hot and cold water - 81 and then 82 but I swear it felt like a 3 or 4 degree difference). We kept the reef on our right and since it is kind of an oval we came up right where we descended after seeing oodles of stuff including the surface from 80 feet down!

ADVENTURE - The adventure started AFTER the dive. David has told us stories of diving the Sugar Mill. He hadn't gone there in 6 or so years and there was construction there now so he talked about getting a boat to take us there. The Sugar Mill is just South of Crash Boat. I pestered him into taking a big adventure and showing me where he USED to go down. I am always up for an adventure. There was some construction but an older guy (I love the old people here - they know everything) showed us where to get through the fence. David had us wandering on steep embankments and in thick brush looking for the old trail. We heard stories of needing 4 wheel drive pickups and then hiking boots to get down. There was no way we were doing this from shore....or could we? We saw another older guy in dress pants and I told David "I bet he knows how to get down." David asked, and the guy takes is an easy way down the bank to a beautiful little beach at the base of the pilings exactly where we want to be. This of course is after David gets into the dreaded pica pica and we both have scratches from wandering the brush without a machete! A nice swim after we found the route to the beach though made us forget all about the scratches and stings.

SUGAR MILL - David didn't even have to ask..."we are diving the Sugar Mill." Yes we are. So this morning we drove to the spot, suited up, and walked the 15 minutes past the no trespassing signs etc to get to the water. It is flat...sun is out...no waves...clear water...no people. Perfect! We swim on the surface to the end of the structure and decide to descend there, head south to around 60 feet to a debris pile and then back to the pilings. We drop down and it is a lot like Bonaire or St. Croix diving (very good). We are in caballo del mar country now - seahorses. Unfortunately we didn't see any but we saw more schools of fish than I have seen in one place. 30 or more Spade fish, large fish, small fish, all in huge schools around us. A line up of 10 squid that were in football formation. More eels than I have seen in one place - at least 6, turtles (I don't think it is really turtle time yet), nudibranches (I saw more today than I have in 100 dives here), god, what didn't we see? I used a 65 cubic foot tank and David used an 80 and we went to 78 feet and could still see the surface! We had 110 minutes underwater - wow! It was really wonderful. Lots of Tubastrea Coral that would be spectacular at night - unfortunately there is a guard in the evenings. We'll have to introduce ourselves! We then had to hike up the hill in our gear. My tank weighs 29 pounds and I carry 6 or 8 pounds of lead since I wear a 5mm suit (I know, most people are fine in a 3 mm). It didn't take much more than 20 minutes to come up but I was a little warm. We had a nice chat with the neighbors...nice people.

DESECHEO - a few weeks ago David, Raul and a friend of Raul's (forget his name) and I hired
a guy to take us in his boat to Desecheo. Jeff and I have always wanted to go there but the weather was never right...we didn't know any guys with boats...we didn't want to pay 85 bucks a person and be expected to have two back to back 30 minute dives. This was a friend of David's and for 40 bucks (then we all gave him an extra 10) he took us out and let us dive our way - which means David and I had 2 80 minute plus dives and he just tracked us with in the boat and came for us when we were ready.(Dive stores won't let you have long dives.) The trip out in the boat was great - maybe 40 minutes or so. It is about 14 miles off the Rincon coast and we left from Aguadilla near the Ice Rink. There was current, but the water was really really clear and there were really neat caverns lots of corals and fish and stuff (not like today's dive though - which was really packed with fish). We had long, wonderful dives and unfortunately for Jeff he was visiting his family in Wisconsin. The trip back in the boat was similar to any good Neah Bay trip - very very rough with lots of bottom slamming, being airborne and pounding. Coming back took over 1 1/2 hours. I am glad I took Bonine - I am shocked I didn't get seasick. Maybe the sun and being warm is just plain easier on the body? I got back to the truck and loaded up just about as Jeff's plane was landing in Mayaguez. He didn't have to wait long at all so it was pretty much perfect except that he didn't get to do the dives with us! Ah, another time..another adventure.

Diving While Jeff was Working Hard on Solar

While Jeff was working hard on solar stuff I went out diving. There wasn't anything I could do to help him (I PAINTED all the stuff during the week - still haven't finished the rejas) so I went with friend David for some very nice dives over the last two weekends. This is the trail to Natural.


When you follow it down you get to the beach and it doesn't give any indication of how nice things are underwater. We dove on a Saturday and Sunday since it was great visibility and calm conditions. On Saturday it was turtle heaven when we saw 20 turtles or so (Jeff was with us on this one I think). The next day we saw a school of Sabados (tarpon) (we usually see these on the drop off at Corseca), Mero, blah blah it was just a schooling fish day!Fabulous!

Here are the cinder blocks Israel sits on when he "watches" the cars (for $3). His family is great, it is nice to be able to give someone the keys, and he gave me a Ceiba tree seedling that will grow up to be like this one I hope.

Last weekend Jeff was very hard at work and I went to Shacks with Raul (left) and David (right). Conditions were stupendous! We had a wonderful 96 minute dive with over an hour of that on the outside of the reef. No current, good visibility, sunshine.

It was soooooo good we came back on Sunday and conditions were pretty similar but a little more windy. We decided to try uncharted territory and headed to the east as far up the beach as we could walk. We went out and slipped into the "holes" and then found ways out to the outside reef. We headed straight out (north) for quite a while and since there was current went with it to the west when we came in.

Flat flat flat. The surface conditions were wonderful. We saw a huge eagle ray and a really big nurse shark - biggest shark I have seen here in our 1 1/2 years. We came out one of the normal holes after 96 minutes.

On the way home I saw a horse in a pickup. I just love how low the truck is to the ground and the horse just looking ahead at the highway in front of him!

Today's Dive and Other "Fond" Memories!

Well. Jeff, David and I headed toward las cuevas for our usual dive. It has been a few weeks for Jeff and two weeks since David and I had a record setting 11 minute dive in what I call diarrhea water very similar to what I left behind in Washington's Puget Sound. We looked at the water and there were some waves, but not anything different than we'd done before. Some other divers said there was some surge and they stayed inside the first hole. We headed out the first hole and then out the second into the open! You go through tunnels under the reefs to do this. There was some fun current pulling back and forth, but not anything unmanageable. We saw a couple nice eagle rays and opted to come in with plenty of air because of the surge (thankfully) and not knowing how the tunnels would be getting back. Also David's hose unscrewed and he sunk like a rock until we screwed it back together and he could inflate. So we came back in after 50 minutes or so. David is the first to try to go from hole 2 to 1 in one of the tunnels that is an arm span wide. He can't go against the current and is sucked out and looses a glove in the process. The other holes are 1) wider nothing to hold on to to try to get out and 2) a very narrow one you squeeze through that would be really bad and not work. The only other option is up. We went up into breaking waves probably 5 feet with no space between sets. We take a long time and David and Jeff and I are all together for a bit trying to cross. The problem was that you could pull yourself forward but then you'd be sucked about 4 times that distance out and there wasn't a break between! The guys make it but I am having real trouble. I was right behind until I grabbed the wrong rock! I could see fins, I could feel safety and then I was totally screwed - the rock broke off and I was sucked way out to sea! I dropped and tried to gain some ground and then tried the "grab a rock and hold on, pull to the next and hold" etc etc only to be sucked and sucked and sucked out. Then Jeff comes to the rescue (he figures we'll both just drift out to calmer water and get rescued when David calls a boat). He blocks from behind so I don't get sucked out so far and we both manage to get across reef 1. Now we are in calmer water, but not calm enough. We drop to the bottom where it is usually calmer. Then we get through the crack in the reef to safety and live to dive another dive - but NOT TOMORROW. We are all resting and reflecting on a dive gone wrong!

This isn't my first "mishap." Another top 3 memorable dives was diving the Diamond Knott wreck in 47 degree water in the Straits of Juan de Fuca in Washington. This is a deep wreck where you can go to 140 or so on the bottom, but the top is too deep to do a safety stop on (85 feet or so). What you do it hold onto the boats anchor line and work your way up. I forget whether we tried to hold onto the anchor line and were doing the "flag in the wind" "hold on for dear life" bit that didn't work in the current or whether the current broke the line and set the boat adrift but either way I know we stayed deep too long and needed a long safety stop that took us 3 nautical miles out to sea. In fog and huge swells we were very lucky to have been found at all - holding my dive buddie's lemon fins (mine were black - I like it stealth) as high above our heads as possible. Another memorable dive was with Jeff and Bob at Sunrise Beach in Washington. They were doing their dive and I was solo since I was photographing. I hear a boat above. No biggy. But it keeps getting closer and passes overhead, then comes back closer, passes over head making finer and finer passes. I watch what the fish are doing and they are pulling in tight against the rock. I do what they do putting the camera down for the only time ever in 14 years of diving. I had a lot of air so I just hid while I was being hunted! Jeff meanwhile surfaces away from the boat, yells some things and the boat takes off. I was on the fish finder I believe and watching the giant lead down rigger balls and steel cable whizzing by my head was absolutely NO FUN. And then there was the time I was actually brought up by a fisherman. Hooked on the top of my mask to I couldn't see it, when you swipe with your knife your head goes back and you can't cut it. Holding onto pilings doesn't help with fishing line and an excited fisherman. I was probably the largest thing he ever caught. So today we reflect on stupid things we've done and try to stay out of trouble.

Stuff We See Diving

We had a nice dive on Saturday, but conditions were such that we had a rough current and rough surface waves. We opted to skip Sunday and this week looks like it will be very very bad - too much rain and wind. So here are a few images of things we see when we do go diving. Sometimes we see hundreds of these blue tangs schooling. We've seen them going in a huge ribbon in and out of the reef holes out at Jobos (the caves). We see them on the outside and they always look like they are urgently on their way somewhere. I photographed this one in Bonaire.

Almost every dive site here has hard coral and you can always find little gobies and blennies scooting around on the coral highways between individual polyps. This was photographed in St. Croix.

A real treat here is the gigantic sponges that seem to be everywhere. They are not beautiful colors, but are a permanent part of the reef "cityscape." Some of these sponges are larger than washing machines and have brittle stars embedded in their tissues or crabs stuck on the inside. Fish are usually resting at their bases or giving chase around them. This one was in St. Croix.

Here is a tiny Blenny the size of your pinkie fingernail peeking out of a hole in hard coral. I always look for the small things, the strange little movements that don't seem right, the little heads that pop in and out of openings. (St. Croix)

This is one of my favorite images of the lowly worm. There are many different types of worms here and this one is really common. I am mesmerized by the swaying and feathery movements of these creatures and they are one of my favorite subjects! I haven't taken the camera out here yet - not sure what I want to photograph yet. I am enjoying not carrying anything, since in Washington the water was 48 degrees and I had lights, and dry gloves, hood, dry suit etc etc. Here it is 4 pounds and nothing! Little snorkle fins, no hood, just a 3/4 wet suit, surfer shirt under it and that is all. Our last dive was in water 86 - 84 degrees. Very very nice!

Our last dive was in current, so I would stop at anemones like this one for a manicure. The cleaner shrimp will come out from between the tentacles of the anemone and use their little purple pinchers to clean your fingers! It feels really weird and is fascinating. They have little "drive throughs" for fish to pull up to for cleaning. They scoot in and out of fish gills. I guess my fingers are close enough!

Favorite Fourth and Favorite Expressions

This is the best fourth of July ever! No frightened animals, no M80s, no fireworks, nothing. It is a pleasant surprise in the land of surprises where every holiday is celebrated and celebrated and celebrated. So what do Puerto Ricans do on the fourth? Go to "la playa" (the beach) of course. Jeff and I went diving at the "almond wall" in Corseca, Rincon last night. We were there at around 5 pm and it had been raining. When we went to park there were a gillion cars driving stuff in and out. People were claiming their spots on the night of the 3rd so they could enjoy family and swimming and sunshine on the fourth! There were tents, BBQs, bags of food, kayaks, umbrellas, ice chests etc. and loads of people out swimming. The coveted spots are under the few trees or close to the entrance for easy loading purposes. We did our dive and it was pretty murky. After 75 minutes we came in and in 6 feet of water thought we heard a jet ski over us. We hugged the bottom and surfaced along shore amidst legs and arms of nighttime swimmers! The sun set and we headed home while everyone else headed to the tents. Expressions: I've never been one to really appreciate "expressions" much. The only expression that made me smile was from a good friend in Washington, Ron Hammond. When something was REALLY intriguing or had a useful feature he would say it was "the bees knees." I don't know what that means, but I still see his eyes twinkle and the light bulb in his head blinking when I hear it!

Here in Puerto Rico we have picked up a few interesting expressions that make us smile or think in some way. Part of the interest is the question of whether this is really an expression or just a mis-communication. What ever it is we enjoy them. Whenever I talk to anyone about gardening they grab a piece of something and say, "cut it, stick it in." (which works by the way) When talking about plans for the yard: "you can't eat flowers." People here are practical. When we dive at the cuevas (caves) there are times when it is scary or difficult to get back through the reef because the tunnels have "rip-your-mask-off current" in them. Sometimes the thought of entering the little hole just creeps people out and they go up. Well a friend told us of someone who did just that - came up and tried to cross the top of the reef in bad conditions instead of going through the tunnels. When they rounded up with their friend they found that he had "left his eggs on the beach." At another dive site one of the owners of the property comes out and for $3 will watch your car (a useful thing at night in the middle of nowhere). One time our friend David came for a dive and this guy was having delusions or something and roped David and his friend into hauling large rocks around and putting them in a special place. This guy was "not quite right in his ceiling." (a useful expression and one of my favorites - that and the turtle reference). So that's it for the fourth. 11 pm and still quiet except for the orchestra of a billion bugs harmonizing!

Tonight's Dive at the Caves Despite *$@#! Traffic!

After enduring 2+ hours of traffic to go 40 miles we arrived at the dive site in Isabella. Katrina was convinced mid week diving in the afternoon was not for her. She would rather sit in the yard and watch the chickens then sit in traffic. There were about 4 major intersections that had flashing yellow (our direction anyways) lights. In Puerto Rico that means don't stop (either direction) unless your going to hit something. In the states if you came to a intersection where the lights were not working you would treat it as a four way stop. Not here, you go through and don't stop! If you stop then the cars trying to cross the intersection would go and then you wont be able to cross until someone in the other direction isn't paying attention and they leave a gap. That's your cue to go and then your direction of traffic starts going again... Water conditions were very good. A little wind but only small waves on the reef. We swam out to the swim through in the outer reef and began our dive. Vis was over 50'. We saw all kinds of fish and coral. It was great. We spent over an hour in the outer reef. We saw a huge school of purple or blue tangs mating. Pairs of fish would make a mad dash 10' up in the water then release a cloud of eggs and sperm and swim back down to the main group of fish. This was happening over and over. We also were visited by a nurse shark, turtle, huge grouper, barracuda, spotted eagle ray, and I caught two tasty lobster. After 92 minutes under water we swam in. The dive was so good that Katrina is ready to brave the traffic to do it again. Monday nights dive was awesome as well. We dove El Natural and started the dive at 8:30pm. Night dives are so much better than day dives.

Over 3 Hours Underwater Yesterday and 85 Minutes Today

Wow, conditions have been nice for diving the last couple of weeks. Last weekend we tried to go from the Rincon wall South to the North wall. We didn't make it even after 81 minutes of swimming over a kilometer under water. Then on Tuesday and Wednesday we dove the caves and caught some tasty lobster. The water has been flat and the vis has been over 70 feet. Yesterday we did it, diving from the Rincon wall South to North in one dive. 100 minutes under water swimming over a mile. We even needed to do a little deco on the swim in. It was a great dive. If all that swimming wasn't enough we drove over to the caves and dove there for another 80 minutes. We thought yesterday was flat. Today was even nicer. It was so nice we didn't have to swim through the caves to get to the outer reef. We just swam over the top of the reef then began our dive. Saving some 10 minutes of swimming under water just to get to the nice part of the reef. Its really tempting to go to the caves tomorrow because the water is supposed to be the same as today but then the waves get bigger for the rest of the week. I think we are sufficiently waterlogged at this point though.

Manatee, Underwater Treasures and 2 New Walls!

Yesterday we decided to dive the Aguadilla Court House Wall since we hadn't been there in awhile. We have been working hard in the yard for 6 dive- free days since there was some rain earlier in the week and we expected the water to be murky. So we take a look at the surface and it is calm calm calm and appears clear. We head out for the 20 minute swim and Jeff spots "something big" on the surface. We all quickly put masks on and discover a manatee!!!! My first ever! This is a big, weird looking animal. The blob kind of swam a little and then settled on the bottom for a short while and we ewed and awed until it left. We continued on in good visibility until the end when it got murky. The water temperature has gone up to 81! It was 82 in spots. So what about the treasure? Here is the first treasure - (not the shoe) a really cool and very large fish scale. The shiny aluminum foil look is what caught my eye. At first I thought it was an operculum (anatomy that closes a snail into its shell) and then figured out (because of the slime) that it was one monster-big fish scale. I would have loved to have seen the giant barracuda or whatever it was.
 A closer view.

The second treasure was on today's dive. Lobster for dinner - yum. We headed out to Shacks since conditions looked good. It was absolutely gorgeous! We pulled out the reel to get an idea what the visibility was and at 85 feet we just stopped - visibility was around 100. Unheard of for us Washington divers. We could see forever. The previous day at the court house wall we even saw our own shadows underwater! We had 78 minutes or so of absolute beauty, turtles, big fish, little stuff and clear water. Even coming back through the reef in the tunnels wasn't as difficult as usual. And we got something yummy for dinner.

The first new wall was south of the Rincon Wall - we will cleverly call it Rincon Wall 2. We did a nice long exploratory dive here last week. My new favorite spot. Big drop off, gullys, reef and loads of big big fish. The second wall is a mini wall we built to take care of a messy driveway. Here's a shot of the mess. I don't even know how messy it gets in the wet season but wanted to fix it before then! We are limited as to what we can do since it is rocky, a house sits up top and you can see the water lines. Water lines for a couple houses go up our driveway for a hundred feet before veering left to cross a road and go to other houses. We can't move them, can't really hide them totally in case they need to be fixed so we are doing what we can. We will build a wall that will function to keep dirt back. It will make a little mini planter where I will plant some stuff to kind of hide the pipes, soften the wall and make a nice entrance to the house.


Jeff did the digging while the ground was soft so it took a couple hours. We layed it out to figure out where to set rebar before making the base (which took an afternoon).

The next day we set about making the actual wall which we thought would be 2 blocks high. We ended up going three since it would function better and give me space for soil to plant (it is rock).

It was a very long and tiring day of getting the blocks up. Jeff brought sand and gravel and cement down in the truck (which he had to load) and he did the mixing (in the wheel barrow) while I did the cementing. I had to gather rocks from all over to fill the cinder block holes. Jeff had to cut more rebar when we decided to go up a block. Lots of wrist work, but it looks great and looks like it will function well (we will see when it rains). We still need to wing it to the left on a diagonal (more digging and block cutting). I am waiting until next week (hey, that's tomorrow already) to put the finishing coat on and then we'll do the final part on the upper wall before getting paint and REALLY finishing it! Working with cement is really fun...you get results fast and can actually build things. We plan on making cement benches for various spots in the yard and maybe some planters? Endless possibilities. Jeff even cut some steps into the orange hillside and poured cement to make cat play areas - (not really) I mean steps to make weed whacking easier. Cement is fun and easy and so far works!

Mas Lluvia and SCUBA Diving

It's been raining in the afternoon a lot every day. The rivers are brown, brown, brown. When looking out at the ocean you can see where the river water empties into the ocean. There is a sharp line of nice clean blue water and dirty brown river water. This can effect our diving. Visibility can go from 100' to almost nothing in a single dive. I wouldn't have thought it could change that quickly but during today's dive the vis went from 60' to 10'. Today we dove El Natural again. We saw the brown line as we were driving to the dive site but it was off shore of where we were diving. We thought we lucked out and the brown water wasn't going to effect us. We started the dive (our 22nd in PR) and we had great vis. We saw all kinds of fish and a few turtles. We turned the dive around at the 45 minute mark. We had great vis for another 20 minutes. Then everything turned dark. We tried to go a little deeper to find clear water but that didn't work. We headed back in to shore and ended the dive after a total of 80 minutes. We looked back out at the water and could clearly see that the brown water has moved over our dive site. A big bummer for the other divers that were just going in. We dove a new (new to us) dive site on Wednesday. It's just south of the Rincon wall that we also dove last Sunday. Katrina and David like this site a lot. I also liked it but I like the Rincon wall more. The two sites are so close together we plan on going in at the Rincon wall and just swimming south and hopefully get out of the water at the new site. Should be fun. Before that we dove the Rincon Wall with 75 feet of visibility and had a 100 feet of vis at Natural. We like the wall because there is big depth and neat geology and lots of bushy stuff. Natural is pretty reliable offering the best assortment of fish and the caverny undercuts that turtles and cool fish hang out in.

THE Bruise, a New Kind of Thorn, Cement and Diving...

As expected I got a nice bruise from the great coconut drop. It was nastier in person but hey, you can see the outline of the nut which is kind of weird! The keys are there so the camera would actually show the bruise.

So I am in the yard doing more moving around of plants, in this case moving little bananas from the parent stalk to places we need greenery in the yard when...I feel a thorn (no big surprise there) jabbing inside my pant leg. Everything here is a sprint...it grows fast, flowers, throws out seeds and starts again and everything has jabby or sticky or poky parts. So I feel around for the thorn and find it. To my surprise however it had little red eyes and little legs!

Here are a bunch of the "living thorns" on the little banana starts. They are, well, about thorn size and are a poky as a thorn too! Isn't nature wonderful?

A couple weeks before Jeff left for vacation we went to the Ferreteria in Sabana Grande and bought some cinder blocks, rocks, sand and cement. They delivered everything for free the next day and we were excited to start some little cement projects since we have never done any cement work. One of the projects was to build a little wall one block high to clean up the area under the upper avocado tree. This area was very overgrown with achiote saplings and little trees and cool plants all kind of mixed together along with logs from cut down invaders and a crumbling rock wall of sorts. This is what you see when you get to the top of the driveway, and I wanted to clean it up. I also didn't like that the soil kind of flows down when it rains. Water also collected near the cement shed to the left.

Jeff laid out the wall and we filled the block holes with rocks and then cement and I graded the problem shed area (the best I could anyway) and ta da it looks cleaner already! Jeff went on his trip and while he was gone I finished the wall so it is now ready for paint (but we don't know the house color - we want to match the lime green). The next thing is for me to dig out and divide all the diffenbachia, anthuriums etc and move them to new places. I've already moved some around and I'm not sure how things will end up. Eventually we'd like the area under the tree free of bananas, but it is hard to off something that is providing shade and almost food so for now they stay. Kind of looks bare now, but when I get my plan together it will be wonderful.

So the first cement project was a success and great fun. Next we will be building a little bigger and higher wall down the driveway outside the gate. Right now the directions to our house are to to spot the recliner and garbage cans. We are about to remedy that by making a nice little wall that will hold back dirt that I can plant cool plants in. We are going to cement these cool plaster jumbo toads I got at kmart on top of the gate posts. We have a real toad that looks similar in the yard. The toads are kind of cool looking. So hopefully people can spot the toads and know it is our gate. That project has to wait until we restring barbed wire on the upper yard though. When Jeff got back he weedwacked and a little herd of horses ran up to the fence line drawn in by the smell and the "greener on the other side" thing. It is all "bosque" behind us and the ranchers let loose their horses. The barbed wire I'm afraid won't keep them out, and I have planted Ylang ylang, plumeria, canisteel, moralon, pomegranite and flambouyants I started from seed (orange, blue and yellow). If they get in they will eat it all. So with all these projects we decided to dive today. Yesterday we tried to go but a "frente frio" (cold front - not very cold though) made for swell and waves...perfect to go body surfing in. After looking at diving conditions David decided it would be crappy so we stayed and played on the beach instead. A surfer (Alfred) saw us with the boogie board and dorky air mattress and offered up his small surf board. I could row on my stomach and once got onto my knees but forget standing up! Very tippy! I definitely need lessons/pointers but appreciated the chance to use it and get rough and tumbled in the sand. That thing can swing back and knock you out! Today we DID dive at Shacks. As usual it was currenty in the caves and fine outside. We saw an eagle ray and turtle. Vis was 40 something (not as good as usual) and water was 79 on the outside and 81 on the inside. Very nice. On the way in as we entered the caverns to cross to the inside the pressure difference popped my contact out of my eye where it then stuck to my nose. Ear trouble always on that part of the dive - lots of pressure changes, water sucking you one way or another, part of the excitement. So tomorrow will be a yard day ...most likely the fence project.

Some Diving Pictures During My Trip Back to Washington ST

Here I am before getting in the 45 degree water.

Here I am after getting out of the 45 degree water!


The dive was great however. We just about scootered around the Diamond Knot. Current was slight and vis was about 25'. Lots of life on the ship. The ship is falling apart so it is confusing down there. For a minute I didn't think we were going to find the anchor line and we were going to have to send up a bag and drift in the current during our deco. Fortunately we found it and were able to hold on like a flag in the wind for that last 20'. Drifting wouldn't have been a problem but it would have been a hassle for the boat to untie and pick us up. Here we are getting ready for a wild ride in Agate Pass. See Laura's video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XmIADbfRas

Another Divine Dive en la Noche...

David couldn't make it but Raul, Javier, Jeff and I and a technical diving guy we dove with for the first time all rounded up at El Natural at 6:30 for an evening dive. I'm showing Javier's hand signal right now for (bullshit)...we talked for awhile and entered the water around 7:15 maybe. We park at Israel's house and pay him 3 bucks to "watch the cars" but he and his family (very nice people) do far more than that...they keep a clear path to the beach, a cleared place to park, and they physically sit there and watch the cars so you can leave stuff in the back or whatever worry free. On one night dive they even came to the beach with a light when our group overshot the beach entrance! Nice people. And now....da da da...about the dive-that-David-shouldn't- have -missed... The sunset was spectacular first off, and then the dive started like most of them with a swim out to the reef, a descent into very clear turquoise water and the greeting by puffers and trunck fish etc with everyone getting ready for bed or feeding. Basket stars were unfurling, tangs were changing color and settling onto the bottom and eels were slithering out of cracks and crevices on the prowl. So what did we see? What DIDN'T we see would be a better question. We saw the usual players - Tang, both kinds of puffers (really adorable when the puffiness goes down after they have been puffed up), parrot fish making their bubbles, so many different kinds of fish I can't describe them. We had fun looking into the flats and into crevices and basically just looking a long ways in all directions! First up were a couple squid that were courting - they were changing colors and lining up...one huge one and another smaller one. Then we saw a really neat slipper lobster and some big crab in nice large barrel sponges. Puffers, cow fish, huge file fish, soap fish...we turned up into the shallows after 50 minutes or so. The reef bottoms out at around 70 feet, then we hear there are sand flats and another reef that starts at 95 and ends at 150 starts up. We stay on the first one so we get our 80 something minute dive in! After turning into the shallows we see a frantic light shake and we zoom over and find not one, but 3 turtles (two different kinds) in the undercut area. We watch for a long time and another one shows up. Now we have had almost an hour and think that is the highlight when "shake shake shake" with the lights and there is a good size nurse shark that cruises to another undercut. In a caverny area nearby is another smaller one. Just before the sharks we see our first "pulpo" or octopus...not huge like the Giant Pacific Octopus but still smart and interesting. And before that we saw another big turtle with barnacles on its back. We must be at the end now. Another 15 minutes or so go by and another light shake...this time it is a really big southern stingray that cruises my way. As I am examining it and thinking of lifting it up to see the mouth I see the very long, barbed and piercing tail and decide to move aside. In Washington death-by-six gill shark would have been alright, but hey...I just got here and am loving it! I was born to be here! After watching the sting ray for a while I looked in a few more crevices and saw a little turtle (butt and back fins sticking out), my bottom time was 85 minutes and although I wasn't cold I figured it was best to end the dive after the stingray (better dreams that way)! So with 1000 pounds left and images of cool big things in my small mind I left the water thinking wow - too bad we have to come up... and also thinking wow....I get to do this again in a day or so! So what's next? Jobos (Shacks/caverns) at 9am on Sunday. Who knows what we will see!

Shacks Caverns

Yesterday afternoon I was in Aguadilla for a job interview with Honeywell. Since I was going to be in Aguadilla for the interview I thought I might as well going diving. I hung out watching some surfers surf some big waves IMO (8 feet high) just a few miles from where we would be diving. Since the surf was up a bit David and I decided to stay on the inside of the reef and just explore the many caves and caverns. Vis was good on the inside and got worse as we got closer to the outer reef. It was a good dive and we had 80 minutes bottom time and the sun was going down just as we came out. Tonight were going to El Natural again. It should be a wonderful night dive.

Aguadilla Court House Dive Yesterday

We had nice conditions yesterday, 80' vis in shallow and 50' vis on the wall. Of special note was a very large barracuda with big teeth. It followed us around for 10 minutes and came real close. We also saw a large green moray eel, a small octopus, and lots and lots of small colorful fish. Our bottom time was again 85 minutes and the water was 77 degrees. We were a bit cold at the end. It was a nice dive.

Diving...Another Surprise in the Land of the Surprising!

When we picked Puerto Rico as our relocation destination it wasn't because of the diving. It was because it is a large island with a great lifestyle, lovely people, and a variety of sportsy things to do and it is more affordable than most other places that have great weather! We picked the west part of the island because it is close to conveniences (potential work, Home Depot, Sears) and close to kayaking and beaches and is still really rural. We had heard that THE diving was the La Paguera Wall which is a $70 boat trip for 2 short dives. We don't do "short" well (normal people dive for 30 minutes) and I hate boats.Well of course we have once again been surprised in a good way! We have been diving a couple times a week from shore and have had delightful dives!

It really helps that we have met David. Not only is he a superb diver, but he has skilled friends as well that he has introduced us to. He knows the sites and knows excellent divers that also know different sites and has excellent air consumption (I am no longer the airmaster - he and Raul are).

Now to the dives. The best of the best is Jobos or "Shacks." These underwater caverns are really cool! There is no way we can go there yet on our own - it is a network of caverns with some dead ends. You have to know the two that go through to the outside reef so you can dive the reef and then return finding the caverns that go back through. We can't judge the conditions on our own since the caverns get water forced into them and it can suck you in and out or simply trap you in there if conditions are wrong. You can't always get back to shore if you go up top either. We have gone during the day which was awesome with light coming through the holes and turtles and giant eagle rays cruising the reef. But it was definitely the most wonderful at night. Unfortunately conditions didn't let us stay on the outside for very long - lots of surge and waves above (it is on the Atlantic side). What we did see was magical though - sleeping beauties (fish of every color) dozing on the bottom, and I mean really just sleeping on their sides on the coral! Seattle didn't have fish the way PR has fish! Blue, green, pink, red, yellow, white, purple, lavender, name a color and there are multiple fish in multiple shades of it. At night they just lay down. My favorite thing though is the turtles! You dive around and see turtle "butts" sticking out of the reef - their heads and front flippers are wedged in the reef. We have seen at least two different kinds of turtles. We also have seen a Eagle Rays in groups of 2 or 3 and solo. Going back into the caverns was a bit tricky and some of the holes we entered were small - you could not wear doubles and get into them. With the whooshing of the surge it was matter of timing to see a hole, go in and scramble so you didn't get sucked out or wedged in the entrance. This dive was the first time in all my diving I think where I really did not know where I was at all and was totally reliant on David and Raul. They absolutely know what they are doing which is why we went and now we know for sure they know what they are doing. We spent 84 minutes going through the network of caverns (which at night seemed like caves) - up and down and squeezing through little holes seeing tubastrea coral and other stuff. It was kind of like being an ant in an ant farm only we were underwater!

We had a wonderful dive at The Natural during the day with visibility around 70 feet, water around 80 and Eagle Rays and puffers, and trunk fish and just all kinds of stuff (plus sunshine beaming down and illuminating things). Then we did this spot with David at night and WOW - We were picking up huge puffers, cowfish, filefish. We saw a nurse shark about 5 or more feet long and only one pectoral fin...I was able to stroke its back before if took off. Again, sleeping fish etc. and excellent visibility.

Today we went to the Rincon Wall - a 20 minutes swim and then a drop onto a reef at around 40 that goes down deeper than you can go. The fish were calling and I went to 110 with Jeff and Raul going for a dip to 130. Even then, our dive was still 71 minutes with most of the sensible time spent around 50 in the sunshine. Raul saw an Eagle Ray and we saw many many fish. This spot though is very bushy with soft corals and fans and sea whips and stuff on the steep drop off. We saw a large lobster but didn't get it. There was a dive boat out there (didn't see any divers) and we were quite happy to be getting the same dive for the price of a small swim! This dive is like the Paguera wall. We had a lot of fun (great dive buddies as divers and personalities).

So what is diving in Puerto Rico like? It is not Fiji. If you have vacation money to burn get on a live aboard in the South Pacific. For day to day diving where you live? It is easy (I wear snorkle fins, 4 pounds, a 4/3 wetsuit (no hood, gloves and I don't bother with a light in the day)...it is comparatively warm (80)...not much current (except the caverns)...full of colorful fish that are out where you can see them...totally delightful with great visibility and warm air when you get in and out! It is so fricking enjoyable I go to go and haven't even wanted to bring the camera. I am enjoying diving for the diving. There is a nice variety of spots to go. Most are 45min-1 hour from our house and we picnic and float around on the beach afterwards and just enjoy life. At the Natural we went to sit on the beach afterwards and ended up having a nice lunch brought to us by other beach goers we didn't know. A nice pork chop, good bread and some soda topped off what was already a great day. Puerto Rico is agreeing with us! Even with the language thing (I need to speak better Spanish) we still can have fun, get our ideas across and make friends!

Shacks/Caverns/Finally My First Lobster and it's Big!

Last week and Last night we dove Shacks. The site may also be known by other names like the cavern or caves.Wow! What great dives! You start by swimming out not nearly as far as we have been. Then you descend before you get past the breaking waves. The waves break on the reef and you can't swim over or walk over the outer reef so you have to swim under it! There are a bunch of passages or caves that run under the reef. They may run 50 to 150 feet long. It requires going up and down and up and down, from 5 feet to 30 feet deep some times. It can bother the ears. If the waves are big enough they run over the reef and it creates a current that pushes you through the passages and out to sea! Getting back to shore can be tricky some times. Even last night the waves weren't too big and in some of the passages (we explored many of them) the water was hard to swim against. It requires grabbing the rocks and pulling yourself along. Outside the reefs edge is where all the life is. We saw lots of eagle rays, turtles, lobster, etc. On last nights' dive I caught my first lobster! No one told me they scream and vibrate when you hold them! It felt like I was being shocked! It didn't help that the lobster was huge. I had a hard time fighting it and getting it in the bag. They don't call them spiny lobsters for nothing. I have lots of cuts in my thumb and I was wearing gloves.

The carapace measured 5 3/4 inches! Our dive was 85 minutes long and David, Raul, and Katrina still had 1000#'s left in their tanks. I didn't have nearly as much.

The business end of a lobster. I have seen pictures of someone who had their finger pinched off when the lobster bit him. Science fiction can't come close to mother nature.

Take 466 at KM 117.1 on HW2. Follow it until it becomes 4466. Then make a right turn. I think the Google image is correct.