Under the sea!

We are in an inflatable boat in the rain, and we are soaking wet. The seas are running to 3 metres and we lose sight of the only land for 500 miles as the wind blows whitecaps off the waves. I tell myself that I am not crazy, but after 20 minutes of this I don't believe me. We hit the water and are under the massive waves instantaneously.

Welcome to Cocos Island diving.

As we descend through the gloom we see lots of little fish swimming in the ripping current, which lets up a bit when we reach the bottom at 30 metres. A quick fin over the nearest ridge and there it is, the reason for all that surface insanity. Hammerhead sharks, stacked, packed and racked 10 to 15 deep swimming by almost within touching distance. There are countless sharks, and just when you think their numbers have no end they are gone, off into the blue. The majestic giants return in numbers 10 minutes later, this time covering the sun. All around there are curious one metre Almaco jacks (trevally), cruising yellowfin tuna and octopus in the rocks.

This is just a sample of our week in Cocos Island, Costa Rica. The diving was challenging and rewarding in equal measure. We have met and dived with legendary people, including a famous underwater photographer and someone we suspect may have featured on a cover somewhere. The photos won't do it justice, in large part due to the relatively poor visibility experienced at Cocos following the large earthquake off the coast a couple of weeks ago. In any case it will be a while before we get them sorted for posting. But the memories of the diving are crystal clear and don't need any Photoshopping.

And the sinuses? They worked just fine for the most part. A few dives where it took some time to equalise the pressure but in the end A-OK.

So Cor and I are now in the Arenal area of Costa Rica, drinking $4 cocktails in the shadow of an active volcano after a hard day of zip lines and hot springs, looking forward to a day of sloths and lava tomorrow.

Palya!

On the road.... again!

A quickie to say we are off on the road again.  The last week has been a frenzy of packing and form-filling for the next 3 months, and now we are about to set off for Costa Rica and what will hopefully be an awesome 10 days of world-class diving. 

Despite all the prep and packing we still managed to get another day out on the boat squeezed in last week, and we were rewarded with breaching humpback whales, bottlenose dolphins playing around the boat, a mackerel (that I landed) and a tuna (that I lost).  North Queensland is a really special place in the winter.

We will put photos up here when we can, until then there are a few new ones in the Ingham folder to the right.

Palya!

A Lucinda life less ordinary

It has been a while since the last blog post, and for that I make no apologies.  Our two months here in Ingham has flown by, and it is now only a week before we jet off to Costa Rica, the USA and Micronesia for 3 months.

We have been surprisingly busy here in my home town, entertaining guests from out of town, going to birthday parties, getting our boat licences, sorting out our transition back to Australian life (driver's licences, Medicare cards, bank accounts, getting our house shipped over, that sort of thing), running on the beach, and of course, going fishing.

There have been quite a few fish caught, no real monsters, but it has been a cooler than normal winter, and we have had some busy days on the water nonetheless (by cooler than normal I mean we have occasionally had cause to wear jeans at night).  Cor has christened her fishing rod and is turning into a bit of a fishing demon.  It has been a real treat to be here, and it is now with some regret that our time at the beach house comes to an end.  If only it could go on for longer, but the next stage is coming and it promises to be exciting.

Thanks to everyone for the messages of support and good will over the last couple months.  It is great to know so many people care and get the whole carpe diem thing.

To give everyone an update I have had some further news on my sinus issue.  It would appear that while exacerbated by my broken nose, the sinusitis was also partially caused by what appears to an abnormal bone growth in my left cheek which has nearly closed my left cheek sinus.  The doc can't say for sure that this is what it is until he biopsies it, but as that test also needs a period of non-diving recovery this is going to have to wait until we get back from our next leg of travel.  He will drain the sinuses at the same time so for now we have our fingers crossed that we will get to Cocos Island in a couple of weeks and all will be OK.  The doc has said I am OK to dive but who knows what will happen when I get to 10 metres?

So that is where we are for now, stay tuned to see where we will be in a couple weeks!