Memorial Day Overnight Dive Trip and Beach Camping

It is finally approaching the time when I will be able to remove the temporary label from the blog and I will finally return home to my family. But, before that happens, I must spread the word of my last adventure in Djibouti.

For my last adventure, I went on an overnight dive trip. After weeks of flopping back and forth over what I would do for our great two-day weekend,  an opening for the dive trip came about and I jumped in.

We left Camp Lemonnier Sunday morning and headed down to the fishing pier. There, we loaded up on the Farragallah and set sail for our first dive site. It took a couple hours to reach Shark Island which got its name from the shape of the pile of rocks that make up the island, not from any sharks swimming around the island. It’s located on the windy side of Ras Eiros and is a nice reef surrounding a tiny pile of rocks. This trip we mostly dove from the mothership rather than skiffs. At the far end of the reef there was an enormous school of tightly packed Ehrenberg’s Snapper. The dive ended and we headed towards Lake Ghoubet.

At Lake Ghoubet, we anchored at our dive destination and camp site. We made a sunset dive and a night dive with sleeping turtles before finishing up the evening with drinks, food and sleeping on the beach. I think I can speak for everyone when I saw that we were sleeping on cots rather than fighting for sandy beds with the crabs. I was also pleasantly surprised the temperature was bearable and by early morning the wind shifted and had an occasional chill to the air.

 

A small group of us headed towards The Crack to set the buoy and check the conditions. Along the way, we saw a pod of dolphin playing on the glassy water. With the lack of wind, I could tell that this tour of The Crack would be much better than the last trip. We dived down and found our buoy tie off point. After a quick swim through The Crack, we surfaced to find the Farragallah waiting for us. We briefed, suited back up and made another dive tour. We found a giant Eagle Ray and a Manta Ray waiting for us. The dive was great and I followed it with a quick trip to search for a lost weight belt and a knife while getting the buoy. No luck with the search and we headed to one of the best dives in Ghoubet.

 Our final dive would be at Red Virgin. This one is full of life and lasts forever. Finally, it was time to return to the surface and have a late lunch. The remainder of the day would be spent sailing back to port. It was a much better trip into the wind than it had been the day before baking in an oven driving with the wind.

It was a great trip and I could not have asked for a better way to spend Memorial Day. Or…at least spend Memorial Day over 8,000 miles from home…in Djibouti.

Here are a few photos from the Farragallah. The wind block you see at the front of the ship is the galley (cut down 55 gallon drum full of charcoal).

 

96 Hour Liberty Trip - Dolphin Excursions Liveaboard pt.1

After waiting to find out how to set up a liveaboard adventure for my 96-hour liberty, MWR managed to save the day and offered a tour with Dolphin Excursions. I was happy to not have to plan anything and I eagerly waited for sign-ups to open.  Finally, I made the reservations just a few weeks before taking off. It was well timed, but not perfect. After the tour, I will still have slightly over two months left and having about one month would be better. So here is how the adventure goes. 

Day 1 – 3/26/12

We started off boarding the M/Y Deli, an 85 foot wooden schooner with sails removed and a compressor set up on the deck. Not the best setup for diving, but when coupled with a pair of dinghies, it sets it up for a great mother ship liveaboard. The group anxiously awaited casting off and setting sail (or setting diesel power), and checked to ensure all equipment was on hand. Quarters were assigned, the broken toilet was ‘fixed’, and we set sail. For the next three and a half days it I would share the Deli with the crew of 5, Dapper Dan (Dolphin Excursion’s instructor), and 10 others mostly from CLUville. 

Our first dive would be at Ras Eiro, between French Beach and Arta Beach. After anchoring the Deli, we boarded the skiffs and headed to the dive site. We descended to about 50 feet and cruised through the reef. I had feared that visibility would be terrible based on my trip to French Beach the day before, but it turned out to be much better than expected.

Most members of the group were adjusted to routine diving having been on many day trips while in Djibouti and others were still getting comfortable underwater. After 45 minutes, my buddy was low on air. Back to the skiffs we went.

We returned to the Deli and enjoyed a nice lunch. This would be the routine for the next few days…Dive, eat, dive, eat, dive….and throw in some sleep wherever you see fit.

I’ll talk more about the dives and post more photos over the next week (or possibly next few weeks).