Dinghy Excursion to Cave and Wreck Dives
Having had a spell of afternoon showers and clouds, we arose Saturday to a
sunny morning, tobgo dive on some caves and a wreck we had heard of.
We got the GPS coordinates from INFINY and programmed them into our hand-held
GPS, and grabbed our snorkel gear, water, and camera, and dinghied northwest
from our anchorage. In about 20 minutes we anchored and snorkeled off in
search of the caves. The coordinates were spot-on, so soon we were winding
our way over the 3-5 ft wide openings watching various fish poking out of
their hiding places, and passing schools of fish in the spaces where the
canyons opened up to the seafloor below. It was all very
mysterious-looking as I dove a little, but without any other good
snorkelers, I did not enter deeper into the caves.
After a bit of that, we swam back to the dinghy, up-anchored, and gingerly
wove through the coral and surf, half-rowing, half motoring, to the outside
of the reefs, in search of a wrecked boat, which we found. No sooner
had I donned my snorkeling gear and gone over the side to see the wreck,
than I decided, jumping back in the dinghy, that it was too rough to be snorkeling.
The waves were strong and set to toss over our dinghy, our little anchor was dragging,
so the mission was aborted, and we carefully moved ourselves into the safer waters of the
inner reef, and on home to RHAPSODY.
All in all it was not a terrifically memorable snorkeling experience.
But, it was fun to take the dinghy the couple of miles to the caves
and outside of the reef!
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