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EDEN ROCK DIVING 2023
Today we are diving at Eden Rock!
We arrived at the dive center at 1pm and the guy I spoke to about diving was there and he was going to be the one to take us out. I was glad because I really liked him. We signed our forms and I showed him Sakari's dive book filled with all of our previous dives and the dive we just took the other day.
He put all of our equipment together for us and I psyched myself up for the dive, hoping that I wouldn't have any bloopers this time around...because you just never know with me...and this would be the first time we would dive and NOT doing any class OR the skills prior to the dive. This was going to be as if we were actually divers...only with a guide. Get in water and GOOOOOOO.
He gave us a key to the lockers and we shoved our belongings in it. We were armed with a crap ton of photography junk to take along with us so that I would be able to do this review and show all you fine people what you are missing out on if you have never went diving and then it was time for ME to put my equipment on. Yes, you heard that right. The other day diving gave me new hope. Hope I had never had before about trying to walk and dive with my equipment on.
I told our instructor about my leg and showed him my battle scars and elephant foot. I told him I had not been able to carry a tank on my back since 2019 BUT I had managed to come out of the water, on a ladder, the other day by myself and was quite proud of it. This time around I wanted to try to do it all. I wanted to go down the ladder and get in the water. He told me this was ok and that there are 2 ladders to enter the water. One was straight up and down and the other had a bit of a gradual decline and we would go down that one. If for any reason I felt like I couldn't do it, he would take my equipment down for me. I WAS DOING THIS!!!
Sakari went in first to give me courage and show me how easy it was going to be.
Then it was my turn. I slowly approached, reversed and started to climb down. The hubby looked on like it was an accident waiting to happen and held his breath all while saying "You ok? You got this baby! You can do it". To took each step one by one and eventually I MADE IT! I was so proud of myself that I almost forgot to get a picture of the hubby coming down.
Everything was good and we gave the thumbs up and I could tell the hubby was proud of me by the expression on his face behind the mask. I gave him a thumbs up and I didn't even think about my beginning dive anxiety that I sometimes get.
This would be our dive map of where we were heading:
And out by that boat and beyond is where we will be.
Then off we went to explore. Now the instructor did tell us that visibility wasn't the greatest and he had taken divers out all morning and it was gradually getting better so we really didn't know what to expect.
We came to one of those neat little valleys and went down. It's such a different experience when you are down there going through them than at the water surface looking down. They feel so much bigger down on the ocean floor and it's such a cool experience actually looking at everything along the wall and under the rock.
As we went along, the coral was abundant and fish everywhere. It was so pretty and so much to see. So get ready for picture overload.
Sakari was busy doing her macro photography and getting up close with everything.
Then we spotted a beautiful anemone that was white with a purple tip.
The hubby was equipped with the GoPro and I decided to just let him do all the filming instead of switching. I did have to redirect him a few times to get up close to the wall because I always find him out in the open or above the coral. The closer you are to the coral and fish, the better the quality of the picture instead of just getting a distorted blue picture.
We came to an area where some really HUGE Tarpon was hanging out. They just stayed in one place, not moving, watching us. Sakari didn't even notice them at first because she was on the ocean floor getting close ups of everything. Then she turned around and looked up and was shocked.
Going along the huge walls was so incredibly beautiful. There was so much coral and sponges growing under it and it was so brightly colored. It's so hard to capture the beauty of it sometimes and of course the deeper you go the more distorted the colors get. The instructor was right, the water clarity wasn't the best at times and you could see stuff floating in the water, but I'm still happy with most of the pictures and the way they turned out.
I found a spot on the ocean floor with 2 large Damsels and the sand was PURPLE! It was weird. I'm not sure what it was.
All the dips and valleys made me just want to swim through them.
We found anemone's with blue tips and purple tips. They were so pretty.
I spotted a spiral anemone and Sakari must have spotted it too because she got a picture as well. Of course hers is always going to be a close up and look a lot better. There were more than one down there too.
Sakari would also find more purple tip anemones. They were so pretty and I don't think we have seen so many of these all on one dive.
Harlequin Bass
Tobaccofish Bass
At one point I looked over at the instructor and he was just there with his arms crossed and legs crossed watching us and not moving. So, I had to mock him and do the same. lol
I was taking a picture of this rather large sponge hanging down from under the rock and managed to see a really large Parrot fish swimming by.
Well this is neat! I didn't see this but Sakari did. It looks HUGE! It looks like it was a very large sea biscuit at one point. Would you look at the size of this thing??
Look at the "fuzziness" of this coral. It was so cool.
A beautiful Rock Beauty Angelfish
Yellowhead Wrasse
Our instructor motioned us over and we found our only Lionfish of this trip.
We came across an area that was somewhat a swim through but no top. The rocks along the sides were beautiful and I noticed a very large sponge hanging off a rock. The hubby got a neat video as he went by it with a close up. It was really pretty. Pictures really don't show how large things are under water.
After we went past this area, we came out on top of a reef that was absolutely gorgeous and LOADED with fish. It was so beautiful. The hubby caught a picture on the GoPro of Sakari taking her close up pictures and there was a Honeycomb Cowfish going by her that she didn't even notice it.