It has been a while since any activity outside of work was organised, so when Ben (one of the instructors) arranged to hire one of the dive boats for a Sunday (our day off), we jumped at the chance. There were 14 of us, some instructors, some friends, the plan was for a couple of dives and a BBQ on the beach – the cost $50 each for boat and food – a bargin.
We set off from Beaches at about 8:30 and headed the 2 hour journey to West Caicos. The first dive was ‘Spanish Anchor’, so named because of the ancient anchor embedded in a coral swim through. We had a relaxing hour dive, down at 60 metres looking up at the wall and down into the blue, set us up for the day. There were no sharks, but it was nice to relax and dive with no one to worry about but yourself. Jo chose not to , opting to free dived instead. It was a bit bizarre being at 18 metres and finding Jo swimming next to me, with snorkel, fins and mask instead of scuba gear ! Back on the boat we headed for ‘Boat Cove’, where we dropped anchor and swam to shore, jumping from the rocks into the clear blue waters.
We then headed to North West Point, on route we had a small pod of dolphins, so a few of us jumped into the blue, the boat went past us, to and fro, allowing us to snorkel and watch the dolphins swimming past us at the bow of the boat. This was one of the highlights of the day, not just the dolphins, but being in the blue and looking down into nothingness. We reached North West Point and next dived ‘Hole in the wall’. This is named as at 18m there is a large hole which you can dive down and through, exiting the wall at about 30 metres.
After the dives, we took the boat close to the beach, ferried the BBQ’s, food, drinks etc onto the beach and relaxed, sunbathed and ate. The heat finally drove us into the sea, where we threw a football around and generally played silly buggers. At 6pm we headed back home, we had planned a night dive but the weather had picked up, preventing us from doing it, so instead we watched the sunset, before finally arriving back at the jetty at about 7pm.
We got a lift home with Steve and Nik, the 4 of us chilling on our balcony, drinking red wine and eating cheese and biscuits.
All in all a great day.
