We had been told by friends that the diving in Barbados was both
stunning and also easy, so we booked two days diving with a local
guide from Barbados Blue dive centre. I asked John to write this blog
as he has the photos from his underwater camera on his computer but
his idea was as follows:
"went diving and saw these fish" ,
so I thought I had better take matters in hand myself!
The first day we had ripping currents on the dive site, there are
usually about 5-6 days per year in Barbados when the currents are
strong, and this was certainly one of them! When we jumped into the
water we had to hang on to the drift line attached to the boat
otherwise we would have ended up half way to Grenada! Once below the
water things calmed down, and we had a great drift dive, with minimal
finning required due to the currents washing us along the reefs.
The reef was full of life, and we spotted two or three free swimming
turtles. Barbados is a big area for nesting turtles and they use the
beaches to nest and lay eggs, so seeing them here is quite common.
There were also eels, and many types of reef and coral fish.
The photos we took were the first we have tried so the colour is not
quite as hoped, but with a bit more practice, they will get better!
In the afternoon we did the wreck dive in the bay, close to where were
anchored. These are a mixture of both genuine wrecks and boats
scuttled and sunk there for divers and snorkelers. Again the current
was ripping through the 5 wrecks, and far from helping us as it did in
the morning, we were struggling to make any headway against it going
between some of the wrecks - exhausting!
The second day, we did another reef in the morning, but the visibility
was not so good. In the afternoon we did the wrecks again and what a
difference! There was little if any current this time and we could
easily swim in and out of the wrecks and generally have a real good
look round.
One of the free-swimming turtles.
A cheeky little eel peeks out for a photo opportunity
An airlock in a wreck - really weird
