Diving at Kicker Rock
Serai
Jason and Emily Willis
Tue 17 Apr 2007 16:26
We awoke on Sunday full of excitement. We had persuaded a friend of ours on another boat to come along too. This was to be the highlight of our visit to the Galapagos. And I can report, with hand on heart, that we saw the sum total of...nothing! Not one shark of any variety, not one Eagle Ray. This was not helped by the fact that visibility was down to a few feet - they might all have been there, but there wasn't a chance in hell we would ever see them. Also, there was a big swell running; the sort that kicks up the sand and shell seabed as it ebbs and flows. It really was a bitter disappointment, I think it was the worst diving I have done in 3 years. The water was freezing too. I would not mind this if we had the excitement of seeing some cool stuff, but we didn't! The only thing we had to look forward too was the warm patches between the cold.
We went with a company called Challo Diving. They were very efficient and thorough. I was not too impressed when they let a guy have 2 beers between dives, but hey, who am I to judge. And our 'guide' lost 1 of our group on the first dive, and 2 people on our second...but hey, who am I to judge! The last couple were French and they did keep ignoring instructions, so the 'guide' did not seem to concerned at their loss.
We picked the wrong day. That's life sometimes!
The good news is that the last snorkel of the day was magical. We snorkelled around with about 4 or 5 sea-lions. They seemed to love the game and would come racing towards us, turning at the very last moment. They watch you, mesmerised, with their big black eyes and you wander who is more interested in who. It was a very memorable half an hour, and made up for our disappointments.
We are now officially off holiday and into work mode. We have been prepping the starboard hull for repainting, and then yesterday we painted the top section. There are quite a few boats zooming about the bay creating wash, so we painted the waterline part of the hull at about 2300 last night, using head-torches. I was in the front of the kayak with brush and paint. Ems was in the back, keeping the kayak in one place and stopping it from banging into the hull and getting paint all over it! It seemed to work. Its not a pretty paint job, but hopefully it will protect the hull until New Zealand! Other jobs on the list - service the engine (we put over 90 hours on it on the way over), take a look at one of our Genoa winches, fill up with fuel and water, and make our mac work with our Sat Phone (as our PC has decided to go on the blink!)
We will leave here on Saturday, bound for Isla Isabella, the biggest island in the archipelago. We will be there illegally, but hope to spend a couple of days there at least, before the next 'hop'.
Till the next time.
Lots of love
J and Ems xx