Last dives in warm water until next time.........

I woke up not feeling the best this morning but rinsed out my sinuses, popped some sudafed and headed out on the water for what I think are my last dives on Pohnpei and warm water in general until I am able to get in it again.  This was a scouting trip, right Carrie?!?!


Dive Twenty One
Site: Palikar Pass 

Dive Buddy: Jay

Other divers: n/a

Duration: 42 minutes

Max Depth: 70 feet

Visibility: 110 feet

Outside temp: 86.2 degrees F

Water temp: range from 82.4 - 86.7 degrees F

The weather was absolutely perfect.  Had a decent dive but really could tell I am under the weather as my ears were squirrelly and I was just plain beat. Perhaps it had a little do with the long boat ride to the SW side of Pohnpei only to find they had forgot my weight back at the Village.......45 minutes back if we elected to go that far.  So - I suggested going to Kolonia and have someone meet us.  

Well, they already had screwed up with me earlier this week and he called his boss who wasn't happy so we found a friend of Stamp (boat captain) who loaned us some weight so we headed back out to Palikar Pass.  Dropped down to about 70 feet and enjoyed all of the larger fish.  Pohnpei's waters are actually a bit clearer than Kosrae with much bigger fish as we encountered a school of jacks and then was able to swim right through a school of barracuda which was a neat experience, saw a napoleon wrasse, spotted eagle ray and a white tip reef shark sleeping on the bottom at about 150 feet of depth (him, not me).  We then moved along the reef to see lizard fish, puffers, small vibrant star fish, many clown fish and other small reef fish.  A very nice dive but I was gassed given my apparent sickness so we  surfaced after only 42 minutes.

We then headed further west to the point where we could see Ant Atoll to a dive site called Pehleng Pass

Dive Twenty Two
Site: Pehleng Pass 

Dive Buddy: Jay

Other divers: n/a

Duration: 56 minutes

Max Depth: 73 feet

Visibility: 100 feet

Outside temp: 82.9 degrees F

Water temp: range from 82.4 - 86.7 degrees F

This was a nice relaxing last dive of the day.  We saw a couple barracuda, clown fish, nudibranch, the largest flat worm of the trip at about 3 inches long, and two playful tuna rubbing against each other.

Here is a shot of a transport plane I shot while on the boat that comes in to Kolonia twice per week with Sokehs rock as the backdrop; to pick up fresh tuna to sell to the States......$19.99/lb+ there - $0.75/lb here.  Good stuff - I think I've had sashimi yellowfin 13 times since I've been down here - unbelievably good.

Tomorrow I'm due to head to town but apparently there are divers going to Ant Atoll so may join them depending on my ear situation...............