We need to be in the showroom at 8:30AM to meet our dive Tour. We set the alarm for 7:00AM and order breakfast for delivery between 7:00AM and 7:30AM. The door bell rings at 7:15AM. We eat and dress in our swim wear, gather the dive bag and head to the showroom along with the other 400 people going on one of the tours. Tickets are passed out and we wait to be called. The only problem with this setup is that they call three to four groups at a time and, of course, every one bottle-necks at the one line, one person at a time, card reader. It isn’t bad, but would be better if everyone met their tour on shore and turned their ticket into the operator there or they staggered the tour meeting times in 15 minute intervals in the showroom. I understand everyone meeting in the show room, because they are trying to fill the no show places with people on the wait list, but it does cause bottle-necks. OK, on to the tour, we have to walk for about 10 minutes to the other end of the docking area to meet the boat.
Fortunately we are using the boats gear and don’t have much to carry. There are nine divers, one dive master and a driver. It is a little bit of a ride out to the first spot,
the wreck of the Antilla, at about 60 feet. The ship sank about 70 years ago and is rusted out, so the plan is to swim around the bottom. We all get in and start down, but Carolyn’s ears won’t clear past about 30 feet. The dive master tires to help her with suggestions and finally asks if she wants to just swim above the group and complete the dive. Having had this happen in Vietnam several years ago and doing exactly that, she says OK and he takes off with the group. Visibility is very poor, Carolyn can just make out the group about 20 feet below, but the coral growth and marine life on the top of the wreck is interesting so she just follows the group’s bubbles and enjoys the scenery. She never does see Dick’s neon, lime-green skin, but assumes he knows what is going on. NOT! Fast forward 20 to 30 minutes into the dive now on the other side of the wreck heading back to the boat, the bubbles disappear under part of the structure and Carolyn realizes they have not reappeared after a few minutes. She can still see part of the wreck though the visibility is much less now and the current is stronger. The dive master told the group that if we should get lost, just to surface and the boat driver would know what to do. OK, that is the new plan, on the surface Carolyn sees the dive boat a good distance from her. At first she tries to swim to the boat, but the current is pulling her out as fast as she can swim in so she waves to the boat. The driver sees her and radios another boat closer to her to tell her to stay put...easier said than done! Finally the dive boat gets closer, as she is drifting to Cuba, and she sees Dick and another diver on board and has a moment of panic (must of sucked 500 PSI) thinking everyone is back at the boat waiting for her!
Actually Dick and another diver got down and couldn’t find anyone or even see the wreck and had surfaced and climbed back on the boat. Dick didn’t know where Carolyn was, as he thought she had surfaced too, because of her ear. In hindsight it was a bit scary, because the dive master really didn’t know for sure where 3 of his 9 divers were! That is how cloudy the water was.
Now we head back to the dive shop to pick up two more dive masters and two resort divers for the next dive on the wreck the Pedernalis in about 25 feet of water. Dick is very fed up with the whole operation and had we been able to get off we would have. Carolyn’s panic has receded by the time we get to the last dive spot and is willing to go again. Fortunately the visibility is much better and it is an interesting dive. We both have our usual problem on a shallow dive in that as the tanks empty we become corks. We finally give up swimming head down and head to the surface. Fortunately we surface just in front of the dive boat and can drift to the back to get out. It was a nice dive and there were lots of fish to see including a Stonefish (Can you find him? Look for the fin in the upper middle of the photo.)
and several Boxfish which Carolyn likes to watch.
We are glad we went down again. It turned out to be an decent dive.
It is 1:30PM when we get back to the dock and almost 2:00PM before we make it back to the ship.
Dick’s Ipod is acting up and Jack wants a pin, since we forgot to look in Curacao. We clean up and order hamburgers from room service. Dick then heads back into town.
Carolyn calls to get the drain un-plugged in the shower and the hot water adjusted to really hot since, at best, it is only a lukewarm shower even with only the hot tap turned up full blast!
Dick is back in time for Trivia with a pin for the bear, but no Ipod. Carolyn naps while Dick plays. Sail away is at 5:00PM. With drink in hand we wave good bye to Aruba. This is the fourth time we have visited the island, It has beautiful white sand beaches, turquoise water and fabulous beach resorts with lots of water toys, but really not much else. This was the third time we have done this dive and it is the last...we have never had really clear water. The other time we were here, we rented a car and drove all over...that was fun, but again not something we would really want to do again.
We head to dinner about 7:30 and agree to join a table of three. It is made up of a new entertainer that boarded today and a elderly couple from outside of New York City. The table is on the starboard side of the dinning room and is very warm. We sat on that side the second night and were too hot so we have been sitting on the other side where it is much cooler. The service was also much slower the other night and again tonight it is really slow and there seems to be no one to fill water glasses. The entertainer saves the day trying to please the older woman, but that apparently isn’t possible. Combined with the poor service, it is a less than stellar evening. Finally the older couple leave and we get a desert menu. We linger over desert, tea and coffee. For our meal we had shrimp and Caesar salad. Dick had a grilled steak and Carolyn had salmon. The white wine was from Australia and the red, a schraz from South Africa. We go back to the room and take time to fill out the comment card we received night before last before heading to bed.
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