Turtles, pilot whales and dolphins

  Utila, Honduras
Tuesday, May 29, 2007

After a (forced) day off after my snorkel test I was back in the water and had some good dives.  We found a large turtle asleep in a small hollow.  Whilst we were watching it a smaller turtle swam underneath me, attacked the larger turtle and drove it away.  Not something you see everyday.

We also spotted what we thought were dolphins during our surface interval.  It turned out that they were pilot whales.  These only turn up twice a year so you have to be pretty lucky to see them.  Rob has been here three years and this is the first time heīs seen them.  We jumped in but I ended up swimming the wrong way and missed them.  The second time I ended up swimming six feet above a mother and calf.  On the third one I got lucky again and ended up ten feet about a pod of five whales.  Then whilst swimming back to the boat another pod of six passed right underneath me.  Not a bad day.

We did find out later that pilot whales were not a cross between dolphins and ordinary whales but dolphins and killer whales.  And they can be dangerous.  But I think if weīd known that at the time then we would have still jumped in anyway.

The next day we were heading out to a dive on the north side when we came across some dolphins.  These guys swam with us at the front of the boat for over five minutes.

I also got to work as a DM.  I took took two guys on a deep dive around the Hallibourton Wreck.  This is a hundred foot wreak lying in a hundred feet of water.  I even managed to find a leopard flatworm on the wreck which didnīt seem to impress my divers much but when I called a couple of instructors over they went nuts.  When you start diving you get excited by the big things but as you do more dives itīs the smaller things that you start to get excited about.  Although my description of it as a black and white spotted thing didnīt impress (theyīre really purple and yellow but colour gets absorbed at depth).

On the second dive I took four people around Light Bite.  I managed to find some giant hermit crabs, a barracuda, some peacock flounders, a couple of sea cucumbers and best of all, a red sea horse!  Thatīs only the second sea horse Iīve ever seen.  I could get used top this DM lark.  And after five hours work I managed to make a whopping $15!  Thatīs almost as much as I made working in a fish and chip shop when I was sixteen.  Thatīs the problem with diving.  The pay sucks.  But I can at least get to do it for free now.