Santorini Day 3

Santorini Day 3

Holy geeze weeze! We just got back to the hotel from a tremendous day of diving. This morning we met the dive bus at 10 am and headed to the Caldera Beach. Our gear was already set up for us and had our names on it. We were in a group of 6 divers and 6 snorkelers. Then, we boarded the boat and headed out maybe 5 minutes to a wall area with a return that brought us to a sandy bottom. The guides were a little interesting. One was Greek and looked like he had spent a bit of time in the sun in his day and was still kicking it hard. The other guy was from Sweeden and was a bit of a hard ass. I wanted to be sure of the dive oriole and questioned the depth, and he let me have it. Typical, but he was not Greek, therefore I was not expecting it. We dove with no computers, which was weird, and just went off a tested safe profile. Start deep, and return at a shallower depth and chill around 5 meters for a safety stop. All good. We saw lots of rocks, and that's about it. No, really. We were exploring the central area of the caldera that was all molten at one time and some say covered the ancient city of Atlantis. Maybe? We did see some fish, one bigger than a foot and a half. No worries, the smaller fish were very colorful and quite interesting. The many rocks had a bit of tube sponges, spiral tube worms, sea urchin, and a few starfish. The water was 72 degrees F which is cold for fulll blown coral. Some say that there is nothing to see here, but where will you dive in a volcanic caldera? The views around the dive site were spectacular and the company was interesting from Australia, Sweeden, England, and Austria.

After the hour surface interval back on land, I got a new mask that sealed better and we headed out to the shore reef. This reef was pretty cool with a shore entry through grass and traversed a rock wall for a long distance. We returned a little shallower and came across a giant jug, little sunken boat, and fed fish with a load of bread. Normally, I am not into feeding the wildlife, but this was pretty cool. You just hold out a chunk of break underwater and let the fish have a party. After is feeding frenzy, we headed back to shore and finished our diving for the day. Totally fun.

We met 2 Austrians that came in on a cruise ship and decided to spend their one day on the island underwater enjoying the caldera. They are on a 7 day trip from Athens to Rome, island hopping. Their huge boat only has 350 people on it and everything is included. They were pretty stoked. This couple had just been to Malaysia diving and was planning a trip to come to the local shantytown of Las Vegas. I recommended diving at Catalina Island while traveling through the West Coast. Kelp is something to see if you have never seen it before. We'll see if they make it.

This trip has gone a little too smoothly thus far we think. Tomorrow, we leave to go to the party island of Mykonos only to get Samos, which gives us access to Turkey. There will be a few late night ferries and questionable sleeping circumstances. We just have to go with the flow.

Sorry about the lack of proofreading. I just want to jot stuff down and let it roll. I'll get back soon.