96 Hour Liberty Trip - Dolphin Excursions Liveaboard pt. 3

Day 2 – 3/27/12

Sleep was apparently not important after the first day since I slept for about 4 hours. After the Deli started up, I got out of bed to a quite boat. The weather was nice, though it wouldn’t last. I had some great Ethiopian coffee and a crumbly snack cake. We were underway heading through the pass into Lake Ghoubet on our way to ‘The Crack’.

Once we arrived near our destination, we noticed a group of around a 100 people walking the shoreline. Apparently, they were migrating to somewhere. We briefed the dive and were cautioned that we may not find our underwater destination. Everyone suited up, headed into the skiffs and we took a pounding from the waves. The wind had kicked up quite a bit and made it difficult to hit our spot. Everyone hit the water and descended. The scene reminded me of the numerous dives spent at Lake Travis. Unfortunately, this would not be the day we found ‘The Crack’ and after a few minutes around 100 feet, we returned defeated and received another beating while loading up in the skiffs and transferring to the Deli.

The Deli took off towards more protected waters and breakfast was served. I’ve been stuck in Djibouti for a while and it was by far the best breakfast I’ve had. Breakfast the next few days would be a nice change of pace from the camp Galley. We found our new location near ‘The Red Virgin’ where we would spend the rest of the day. Our first dive at Red Virgin would start around 90 feet traversing the coral wall. The dive was great, as was the lunch that followed.

 

Time between dives here was filled with fishing for myself and a few others while most napped. We had a little luck and caught a couple small snappers and a small grouper. For our afternoon dive, we started on Red Virgin near our previous exit point and continued south. I was glad this was the reef we would dive repeatedly and could have spent several days here.

The night dive would be an area near Red Virgin, but farther north. Again, all kinds of critters were wondering on the reef, but there were not any Octopi to be seen. After the dive some fished while others hung out. As the crowd dwindled, one of the fishers managed to catch a cuttlefish with the help of the captain and a bucket. The captain insisted on keeping it and fresh, delicious calamari was served. The rest of the night I slept topside.