Jillapalooza

IM IN UR OCEAN. EATIN UR CARDZ.

Whale’s Head, Dive 92

Dive: 92
Cabo Dive: 3
Date: 11/30/19
Site:Whale’s Head
Avg/Max Depth: 32/44
Temp: 77
TBT/CBT: 0:47/76:16
Weight: 18 lbs
Buddies: Curtis, Kristen
Addt’l Info: 3 mil shorty

Our second day of diving was scheduled to be in the corridor, so we went back to Whale’s Head. We passed by another dive site in the corridor first, but Sanne said she could tell the water was too murky.

This time we were joined by Andrea and John, a couple from Texas. Unfortunately Kristen’s sickness from the night before came back in full force on the boat. She was tossing cookies while we were preparing for the dive, and made a valient attempt at getting in the water in hopes that it was motion sickness from being on the boat. But alas, 30 seconds on the surface had her swimming back to the boat.

We continued with the dive, and it was much the same as the day before.

Whale’s Head, Dive 91

Dive: 91
Cabo Dive: 2
Date: 11/29/19
Site: Whale’s Head
Avg/Max Depth: 39/52
Temp: 77
TBT/CBT: 0:44/75:29
Weight: 18 lbs
Buddies: Curtis, Kristen
Addt’l Info: 3 mil shorty

Because the visibility on the first dive was so poor, we went out to what is called the corridor for our second dive. It was about a 20 minute ride, but first we did some sight seeing in the local marine park. We saw The Arch and plenty of sea lions sunbathing on a giant rock.

The visibility on the dive was better, but still not great. At least it was relatively easy to keep an eye on everyone in the group. I kept looking into the abyss in hopes of seeing manta rays, but it was too murkey to see anything, and I kept imagining sea monsters appearing through the fog and swallowing me whole.

There were some fish, a couple of eels, and starfish. I don’t believe I’d ever seen a starfish in the wild. If I did it apparently wasn’t very memorable. The current was a bit strong at the end, but overall the dive was successful, if not a little bit disappointing.

On the trip back to the marina we saw a sea lion hop on the back of a fishing boat in search of a handout; that was pretty cool. There was also one swimming in the marina wondering why no one was sharing their haul.

Pelican Rock, Dive 90

Dive: 90
Cabo Dive: 1
Date: 11/29/19
Site: Pelican Rock
Avg/Max Depth: 24/36
Temp: 77
TBT/CBT: 0:17/74:45
Weight: 18 lbs
Buddies: Curtis, Kristen
Addt’l Info: 3 mil shorty

We arrived at the the Manta dive shop in the morning, and I was surprised at the amount of divers filling out forms and being fitted for gear. I’m used to there not being very many people when we go places this time of year. The check in process went smoothly. Because the water temps are in the upper 70s this time of year, I decided to rent a wetsuit. I hate hate hate wearing wetsuits. They’re a pain to get on, a pain to get off, they feel gross… but because the water temps were a few degrees lower than what I’m used to, I decided to do the responsible thing and wear a suit, at least on the first day.

Our Divemaster, Sanne, recommended I go with a full length suit, but I was leaning toward a shorty. Sanna said to me, “Look around; everyone is wearing long.” To which I replied, “But everyone always wears long, and I always wear nothing, because I’m not…” This is where I trailed off, and she chimed in, “You’re not a pussy.”

This is when I knew I was with my people.

I decided to go ahead with the shorty, and Sanne grabbed a long suit as a backup.

There were at least 15 divers on the boat, in 4 different groups. It took a while to get everything and everyone loaded. We were diving in the local marine park, so the boat ride was only a few minutes, which seemed to be a wash for the added time of getting that many people ready. There were two additional people diving with us, David and Noelle.

The first dive of the trip always has me a bit nervous. Typically it has been a year or longer since I’ve dove and this trip was no exception. Once I’m making bubbles beneath the surface, the anxiety goes away and my body relaxes.

But not this time.

No, not this time.

The storm that rolled through a few days prior created a visibility of, oh, about 0.0 feet. Okay maybe that’s an exaggeration, but not by much. I’d say about a 2 foot visibility. I tried to stay by Kristen’s side, but I was getting so close to see her that I found myself on top of her a few times. On occasion Sanne would flash her flashlight at us so I’d know the general direction to go. I tried to keep the diver in front of me within view, but that basically meant I could see his/her bright yellow fins if they were close enough to kick of my mask. If I turned to look around me to find people, when I’d turn back Kristen had vanished.

We surfaced at one point. Kristen was ready to throw in the towel and swim back to the boat. I kind of wanted to abort, but I also didn’t want to give up, because I (falsely, spoiler alert) believed that if we kept going, we would reach a spot where the visibility improved. Sanne talked her into staying and we descended again.

It was more of the same nonsense. At one point Kristen held out her hand, and I took it with no hesitation. Now I could look around and try to keep track of anyone in the group and at least know she was still beside me. You know what I didn’t see beside me? The rock wall that I bounced off of a few times.

It’s funny because I wasn’t scared or worried about anything bad happening. We were right by the shoreline. There were boats and kayakers everywhere. We were in 20 feet of water. It’s not like we were out in the abyss down 100 feet and couldn’t see anything.

The two things that bothered me were the feeling of disorientation without being able to see anything, and the fact that communication underwater is difficult. It’s easy to say I’m okay, or something’s wrong, or I need to abort the dive. But what I really wanted to communicate was more along the lines of: I think I’m okay, but I’m kind of starting to flip out, and I don’t mind if we keep going but I’m not sure how much longer I can be down here if it’s like this, and will it clear up anytime soon? Because if not I kind of don’t want to do this.

We ended up surfacing and heading back to the boat. Two of the groups had already called it quits and were waiting, so at least we were all on the same page.At the time of writing this, I don’t have my dive computer information. It felt like we were down there forever. I would have guessed 20 minutes. Curtis said his dive logged in at 6 minutes, so there’s that.

Cabo San Lucas—Friday 11/29

After the diving commenced on Friday afternoon, we ventured into town for lunch. I guess technically we’re in town, but we seem to be a few blocks away from any sort of food places.

After picking up Kristen’s credit card from the night before (too drunk to remember to take it after paying apparently), we found a place that looked good.

I planned on ordering the chicken quesadillas, but out of fear of getting burned out on Mexican food so early into the trip, I went with the special instead. Well, I was going to go with the red snapper special, but the waiter really talked up the bacon-wrapped tuna special and said I can “get red snapper anywhere” so I trusted him despite my apprehension toward seared fish. He was right. It took me a few bites to get past the rawness of it, but with the bacon and the dipping sauce it came with, it was very delicious.

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Cabo San Lucas—Thursday 11/28 (Thanksgiving)

It’s been quite a while since going on a dive adventure, but here I am. I was on the fence about posting about this trip at all. I don’t blog too often these days, and certain life changes not only have me down, but give this trip a particular emotional struggle of its own.

A strong desire to leave the country this holiday season led me, Kristen, and Curtis to Cabo San Lucas, a town in Los Cobos, located on the southern tip of Baja California Sur, Mexico. It’s my first time both in this area of Mexico and diving in the Pacific. Both of these are firsts to be thankful for, which is appropriate as we flew out on Thanksgiving day.

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