Day 81, Last Hookah in Providencia.
06 June 2012 | Providencia, Columbia
Mark
Tuesday, June 5. I went in to meet with Mr. Bush at 10:00 thinking I would get our zarpe then, but I was wrong. I merely gave him our passports, confirmed the info I had given him about our destination, and was told to return at 5:00 to pick everything up. Oh well, not a big deal. Shortly after I got back to the boat, Lorenzo called to ask if we wanted to try hookahing by the red nun. It was still blowing ~15 kts, but I remembered that last time we sailed out of Providencia, the wind had died right at that buoy. We almost had to start the engines again but eventually the wind filled back in as we drifted forward. Maybe the wind wouldn't be too bad to hookah. Let's try it. So we loaded up the hookah and went out to red #4. we followed the reef back a ways (down wind) and anchored so that we would be swimming against the wind first always a good idea. Lorenzo & Joyce were using tanks so had no issue with wind. There was no current. The hookah pulled OK, it was like fighting a 1-2 kts current and tugged at times, but if I went slow, it was no big problem. The reef was great. Much less algae and very interesting formations. Lots of fish of all sizes too. We were 2/3s of the way to the buoy when Lorenzo suddenly headed back. I asked Joyce what the problem was and she said he thought his air was bad so he was going back to the boat and would just snorkel there. We should keep going. So we did. It was a really cool dive. When we got to the buoy we turned and followed the other side of a broad ridge back. There was a large eagle ray that swam along the flats just beyond the reef edge. We found several spots with lobster under ledges. Deb found several very nice looking (but dead) conch shells that she decided to keep and bring home. We had been swimming quite a while when Joyce surfaced, looked around, and indicated we should head off across the ridge towards the boats. We did, but she kept surfacing and looking and then suddenly took off a a rapid pace towards the boats. She had run out of air. Since she never carries a snorkel, she had to keep surfacing and gulping air. Lorenzo was snorkeling towards us and helped her back, no problem. Deb & I continued more leisurely but went directly towards the boats. It had been a LONG dive. Deb was exhausted. I think the problem was that Lorenzo was the one who knew this area. When he dropped out, we assumed that Joyce knew it as well (they had snorkeled it before) and so just let her lead. She had no idea how far she was from the boats when her air got low and so we ended up with a longer dive than planned. Oh well, it was our last one here and it certainly was one of the better ones even if a bit too long. We went back in to town at 5:00, got our papers and passport from Mr. Bush, bought grapefruits and a pineapple and then went to Bamboo to have a beer and say good by to Orville and Real. She was not there. She had been called for an interview about teaching something to farmers for the government. We said our good-byes to Orville and to Lorenzo & Joyce who also came in. We will see them soon in Bocas unless they catch up with us at Albuquerque. Tomorrow we are off at first light.