Hurrah for Speyside!
The diving was everything we'd heard it could be. Our first dive of the day was at Coral Gardens, an aptly named site. In theory, we were doing a coral health pointy, but the coral on the Atlantic side is so much healthier that it was difficult to find diseases to identify. And halfway through the dive, the current picked up and made the attempts at a pointy pointless. By the time my buddy would point at a coral, we'd be swept well past it.
The coral over here is absolutely gorgeous: plentiful, colorful and diverse. There's a giant boulder brain coral at this dive site, allegedly the largest in the world. It was pretty cool to be dwarfed by a single coral colony. We also had the pleasure of seeing banded coral shrimp, cowfish, large barracuda, a flounder and a turtle. Why have we not been diving the Atlantic more?
For lunch, we were turned loose in town to hit the local eateries. Drunk on our newfound freedom, we all went straight for the roti shop. It's a delicious burrito-like meal with either chicken or potatoes and chick peas wrapped in flat bread. Mmm. Highly recommended.
Our second dive was even better, if possible. We trekked out to the back side of Little Tobago, an island off the coast. We dropped in at Black Jack Hole. Just as I was about to descend, the boat captain started pointing over my head and making the sign for sharks. I thought he was messing with me and my ridiculously huge fear of the terrifying man-eaters. Turns out, he was trying to warn me.
A few minutes into the dive, a blacktip reef shark swam by. I started banging my knife against my tank, trying to get everyone's attention. By the time they looked away from the reef, he was gone and they thought I was crazy.
After that, I stayed closer to the rest of the group (safety in numbers and all that), and spent most of my time keeping an eye on the blue. Soon enough, another one swam by. This time I was able to get everyone turned around so they could see it. Most divers actually like seeing these fearsome creatures of the deep, so while I was backing into the reef they all swam out to get a better look. This is good for me, as it gives me a head start when they attack.
Oh, and there was some coral health pointy action going on, many of which I actually got right. As I'm getting to the end of my trip, I'm finally getting the hang of this marine stuff.
On the boat ride back to shore, we passed a smaller island with a house smack in the middle. And nothing else. Just a house on an island. What a great retreat! After asking our captain about it, I learned that it's called Goat Island, and as a huge James Bond fan I was entertained to hear that this house is where Ian Fleming wrote several of his famous spy novels.
With Cheeky out of commission (may she rest in peace), we might be coming out here more often. I know it's wrong to speak ill of the dead, but Cheeky's demise might be the best thing that's happened to us!

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