Galapagos - August 2005
Days 5 & 6
With no club trips last month, I've been asked to write more from my
Galapagos diary...After the buzz of our encounter with the orcas, and a
comparatively uneventful night dive at Roca Reconda, the Tri-maran set sail
for Wolf Island overnight. What a trip! My bed slid back and forth across the
room and our air conditioning unit broke down, soaking all my clothes and
the carpet. So it was an early rise was welcomed, a hearty breakfast eaten and
respite taken with our first dive at Wolf Island where we swam down a
bouldery reef to wait for sharks and hopefully a whale shark. We had to be
very careful with fin and knee placement while resting as green and yellow
and brown moray eels were poking out of every nook and cranny
imaginable...some rather large. A number of both hammerheads and
Galapagos sharks appeared and we were also graced by small manta rays,
turtles, pipefish, boxfish, pufferfish, and numerous reef fish amongst the very
hard mushroom like corals and bluish sea urchins. A lot of current on this
dive and we were swept a long way on the safety stop only to surface
amongst hundreds of dolphins. The 2nd & 3rd dives of the day were on the
other side of the island in quieter water with approx 24 metres visibility. The
2nd dive we stayed close to another reef and were rewarded with more
hammerheads and 2 huge Galapagos sharks as well as lots of schooling bass
and very big Trumpetfish. 3rd dive we swam out to the deep blue and into
HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS of schooling hammerheads. In approx 20
metres of water we were totally surrounded by hammerheads on all sides,
above and below, an awesome feeling. 16 divers in the water and often I
could only see one, the sharks were so close you could touch them, and some
of them were rather large...an amazing experience. We swam away from the
sharks back to the reef to finds schools of triggerfish, porgy and of course
morays galore. Sunbathing on the deck prior to another evening meal and
then a relaxing night at the bar and playing cards followed. At 3.00am the
boat left for Darwin Island, another rough trip arriving at 6.00am and we
were in the water by 6.30....3 dives in basically the same site alternating from
the reef to the deep blue each dive and it was full of different species.
Entering the water beside the famous Darwin Arch swimming down another
reef we were met by hundreds of Hammerhead sharks...Ho Hum Yawn ☺ ☺,
Galapagos sharks and Silky sharks, morays, spotted eagle rays, trumpet fish,
turtles, Alcamo jack, yellowtail amberjack, garden eels, puffer, porcupine and
boxfish, many parrotfish spp, hogfish, cornet fish, rainbow runners,
barracudas, wrasse spp, turtles and big schools of anthias and perch, with
hundreds of dolphins hunting and bursting through a school of countless
albacore as we ascended for the safety stop on the first dive. This was an
excellent days diving and an eye opener for everyone with the abundance of
fish life, and we were here for another 2 days......
John