The briefing started just like all the dives this week, "60 minutes, max of 110 ft". Becca and I just looked at each other and smiled. Without a spoken word, I knew what she was thinking. Of course I was thinking the same thing, "max of 110, what are they going to do, kick us out on our last day?" At 113 ft I found not one, but two lionfish together. I'm going to take the blame for this, but the discovery of the lionfish changed the dive plan. It wasn't until we came up that I found out how bad Becca wanted to hit 120. In the end, our guide wasn't even around to catch the lionfish, so we missed our chance to increase our record. If I could do one thing over from this trip, we should have done this. I hate it when Responsible Mark shows up, when Cool Story Mark was a measly seven feet away.
The dive site was called the Bus Stop and I think I'll remember it for more reasons than missing my chance to hit 120 ft though. One of the women on the trip had a dream earlier in the week about one of our guides, Dottie, driving us on a bus instead of the boat and at some point either she was naked or we were all naked. Either way, it made for a funny visual and it summed up the attitude of the boat (group) for the week. We really did get paired up with a good group of people and it made the time spent on the surface enjoyable.
Apparently, stingrays like Bus Stops too because we ended up finding five of them. We spent a good chunk of time watching two playing together. I think it worked out well, once they separated, Becca and I tormented one of them with the camera and video camera while I hope the rest of our group could enjoy the other one. We also found one hiding, completely covered in sand, only eyes sticking out. Up until this point, never had I found two together, let alone one not moving.
The last dive of the vacation, I don't know if it was my imagination, but it sure felt like everybody was moving a little slower. Trying to conserve air, make the dive last a little longer and take in more. My final minutes of my underwater vacation were spent watching a hawksbill sea turtle having breakfast. He probably didn't think so, but I thought the moment was very peaceful. For once, no cameras, just enjoying the moment. Then it was time to come up. Even though this seemed like a deep moment for me and you begin to wonder if somebody else is writing this, I'll ruin it with this, at my safety stop I finished trying to buddy breath with a barracuda. Go figure the barracuda didn't want to share air, but I thought it would make for a humorous picture.
Even though I labeled this post as the Best for Last, it's really hard for me to pick what my favorite dive of the trip was. I absolutely loved diving the Tibbetts. The night dive, with the UFO squid was spectacular. The Bus Stop was also special in it's own way, so I'm calling it a universal tie.
It hardly seems fair, but our diving ended today. Sure we still have about twenty-four hours left on the island, but it went by so fast, even with the initial problems. I did get seventeen dives in (Becca got eighteen) and I did accomplish my one goal of seeing a shark, so I have to say in the end it turned out to be a great trip. When's the next one?
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