Dive #168 - Rich Torkington's Dive Log

Janel enjoys the feeding frenzy at Perriwinkle Reef.
Videograph by Rich Torkington in Bahamas 2003

Dive Journal: Between morning dives, we make a final selection of the slides we want to buy. I think some of these will make great 8x10 enlargements for my office. We also select Aquacat tee shirts for all, and add all of this plus a tip for the deserving crew to our credit card tab.

Our final dive is on Perriwinkle Reef. This reef is visited regularly by divers, and the fish know it. Most of our group takes a few scraps from breakfast, and even before we present them the sergeant majors and grey angelfish are swarming around us. When Linda lets the first piece go, it turns into a frenzy. We all have lots of fun with this. At one time the fish get so thick around Janel that she is shooing them away, first with her hands, and then with a big blast of air from her octopus. Janel and John then resort to tossing handfuls of sand up in the water, fooling the fish into diving for it.

The site itself is very nice, sort of two elongated spurs from the mooring site. Janel and I slowly circle both spurs, and catch site of a great free swimming goldentail moray, uncommon to see one free swimming like that. We also check out a whitespotted moray at one spot who opens his mouth real wide for us.

The macro photography is good here, and I frame up the face of a rock hind and the eye of a Nassau grouper.

We enjoy lunch while the Aquacat motors back to Nassau. Several of the divers need to head off to the airport this afternoon. We pack up our luggage and hang our wet gear on the fresco deck to dry, then hike off onto Paradise Island to explore around a bit. We end up strolling over to Atlantis, a mega resort casino, and it is certainly culture shock to be back among so many people (American tourists no less) after our week at sea.

The fish go crazy when Linda brings out the food
Videograph by Rich Torkington in Bahamas 2003

We return, and Janel and Linda board the boat while John and I hike up the bridge to check out the overlook. It’s a great spot for the view and to watch the boat traffic. After a while, we too reboard and start packing up our dive gear.

Soon enough it’s the crew’s happy hour, and Fluffy Mark is mixing up some potent rum colada concoction. It is just great to be lounging out on the deck, reminiscing about the week gone by, joking it up with our fellow divers, complimenting the captain and crew, and slurping on frozen booze.

By the way, we learn that Scott, the crew member who got bent early in the week, required several return visits to the chamber, but is recovering nicely. Positive news at least.

Martin has an idea to order out for Chinese and have it delivered to the boat, and he takes care of phoning it in. The food finally arrives, and it turns out to be a huge amount, boxes and boxes of it. Better too much than too little. It is another way we tip the crew, although at first it is hard to get them to dig in.

We sleep on the boat tonight, and do some reading and reviewing of the week’s video. In the morning we set out onto Paradise Island again. We lounge around the docks for about an hour, and eventually get bored. For some reason Janel and Linda want to go over to Atlantis again, so John and I explore around on our own. We eventually find a little store called simply News Café. We get juice and sit at a table, watching a bit of American TV (novelty!) and people watching. John swears that today is Sunday, so we look at the USA Today. Unfortunately it is dated Friday through Sunday. We then pull a local newspaper which proclaims it to be Sunday, but a closer look says October 11, 2003, a week ago.

We eventually approach the News Café counter and I ask the lady, “Pardon me. Could you tell me what day of the week it is?”

They even go for it when John starts feeding them sand
Videograph by Rich Torkington in Bahamas 2003

She looks puzzled and says, “Sir? The day of the week?”

An explanation, “My son and I have been out on a boat for a while. We’re not sure.”

The lady, “Oh yes, well, today is Saturday.” John grins, happy to have one more day to relax before starting back into schoolwork.

It’s finally time for our airport transfer and so we say goodbye to the available crew. Fluffy Mark is headed to the airport with us. As we drive along, we learn that Mark cut his teeth in the diving trade on Great Barrier Reef boats, and that he is wrapping up his current time with the Aquacat . He’s headed to Hong Kong, I think to see a girl friend there and start a new adventure.

It’s a treat to hear Mark speak in his Aussie accent. He tells us that when he arrived onboard the Aquacat, the crew asked him how he was feeling, and Mark replied, “Like a box of fluffy ducks.”