We've been staying down in West End on the hook, doing some half-day sails with cruise ship guests for a bit now, and while it's nice to get out of the marina and back onto the water, it's great to dive from the dinghy at our own pace. And as anyone who is an instructor will tell you, it's a nice change of pace to just dive for the fun of it.
Diving on our own is more challenging logistically, and probably takes about twice as long to plan, setup, and cleanup from a dive, but it's an amazing experience to dive just with Andrea, just the two of us out in the big blue. (And it's a lot cheaper). Plus, we get to choose our own dive sites -- this time we selected Great Escape, it's one we haven't done before right up near Gibson Bight, with a mooring line attached to the engine block of an old wreck in about 30 feet of water right next to the outer coral wall. Super easy to navigate!
There was a bit of current that we had to manage. But we saw lots of amazing, diverse marine life, turtles, spotted eagle rays, spotted spiny lobsters, french angelfish, etc. It was a nice break between sailing expeditions. Today and tomorrow we're back on the clock, working from our mobile floating office showing people the other side of this amazing island. If the weather cooperates, maybe we'll do another dive on Monday morning.