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BAHAMAS - FIELD UPDATES - WEEK 2

The Week that Was…

Week 2

Monday Oct. 9th – Sunday Oct. 15th     

By Heather Graham

Only 5 days in and we’re doing our Open Water Dives at ‘Stingray Sands’, bobbing up and down practicing buoyancy at 9 meters.  It’s so clear you can practically see for miles – and what a sight to see.  Fish all around you in a rainbow of colours. Bright yellow Juvenile Bluehead Wrasse.  Green and blue Parrotfish.  Purple and yellow Damselfish - the list goes on and on.

Everyone’s getting really comfortable in the water now, and we’re all learning at about the same speed, so it’s great to get to buddy with different people and pass along each others tips for diving!  One of the great things learning to dive here is that it’s so relaxed and the Greenforce Team don’t pressure you to learn at a particular speed, so everyone in turn is relaxed in the water and we’re having so much fun it’s not any work at all!

After an exam, we’re all now Qualified Divers (Oct. 10th), so now here comes the science bit! Kate is our Scientist and gave us some talks on why we are here and about Marine Protected Areas.  In between science talks, we’re adding advanced dives down to 25 or 30 meters and using slates to write on underwater.  We’re learning more and more fish and it’s so much fun looking around at 30m and being able to name the fish that you see.

On the 12th, we dived at ‘King Kong’, a world renowned dive site where you can swim under an overhang and watch your bubbles roll up and over the lip. AWESOME, in the true sense of the word!

Just as mind-boggling was ‘Paul’s Wall’, named by our very own Greenforce Expedition Leader…Paul!  Big shoals of Horse-Eye Jacks and huge Groupers, even a Black Tip Reef Shark, and a 6000ft drop off on one side of you, rock underneath and nothing above but 30m of crystal clear water.

Sunday’s are our no dive day so Saturday night brought much hilarity… closely associated with lots of beer and fun, along with some fine IPod DJ-ing until the wee small hours.  Can’t wait to see what next week brings!