We didn't really know what to expect for diving on Zanzibar, but based on the nice clear water and wide variety of fish life we saw just snorkelling yesterday, we hoped it would be good. A cart full of scuba tanks being pulled by an ox arrived in front of the dive shop at 7:30am, and soon we were wading out from the beach in waist-deep water to pass our gear up onto the boat. These were the most unconventional dive boats we had ever seen - 30 foot wooden fishing boats that have had the traditional dhow sail removed and a canopy added. Our first dive was out to a remote site called Levan Bank, an hour's sail out north of Nungwi, to a pinnacle that rises from the sea floor in the channel between Zanzibar and Pemba islands. Half way out, I realized that the captain had no way of knowing where he is going - no GPS, no depth sounder, not even a compass. There is no mooring buoy on top of the pinnacle for visual reference or to moor to, as it would be ripped off by fishing nets. So when I asked how he knows when we're over the pinnacle, he turned around and pointed at the island behind us. "Just line up those two towers," he said, referring to two radio towers that stick up on the horizon. When they're lined up and he figures we've been sailing for the right amount of time, he tells us to gear up and jump in. I was skeptical, as hitting the several hundred foot wide pinnacle using this method was next to impossible! But they've done itmany times before, so we geared up and sank into the blue water. Sure enough, there was a bottom about 50 feet below us. We descended, but upon reaching the bottom, the guide motioned to us to go back up. What the hell? Maybe we lost someone already. Back on the surface, he tells us that this is the wrong spot, as we wanted to drop onto the deep side and work our way up to 50 feet. So we all took off our gear, passed it up, climbed back in the boat, motored over to the "right" spot, geared back up, and descended again. By now, the 10ft swells and commotion on the boat had some of us feeling pretty queasy... but that subsided once we got underwater. Down, down, down... 100ft and still no bottom below us. Just when I was thinking that they missed again, a reef came into view far below us. It seemed like a long swim in unnecessarily deep water to reach the pinnacle, and by then I had so little dive time left that I had to start ascending. The bottom slowly came up below us, but since I was always having to ascend, the bottom was always at least 20 feet below me! I could make out tons of fish though - grouper, moorish idols, parrot fish, wrasses, clownfish... too bad I was too far away to really see them. Before we knew it, we were up at 40ft and the dive was over. On the plus side, it was sure nice to swim in such beautiful warm, clear water!
We agreed to dive a shallow reef for the second dive, which made for a much more interesting dive. The sunshine was nice and bright at 40ft as we drifted along in the swift current with our eyes peeled for critters. Some of the interesting creatures we saw were blue spotted stingrays, Mauritius Scorpionfish (camoflauged to look like a pile of kelp!), a seahorse, lionfish, several big stonefish, giant clams, mantis shrimp, potato grouper, and even a crocodilefish. That more than made up for the frustrating first dive, and now we can add Zanzibar to our list of dive spots!
The rest of the lazy day was spent reading, bodysurfing, napping, and snorkeling with lionfish. We managed to meet up with Steve, who left the group in Livingstone because of a bad back, for dinner on the beach. We ate fresh seafood on the sand and chatted for hours until the thought of the big comfy beds waiting for us was too hard to resist....
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment