Guam Day 84 - Diving Finger Reef + Barracuda Rock

5/7/2022 - Today was just a gorgeous day to be out on the boat and do some diving. So much to talk about here. We had a battery issue with the go pro, sadly no underwater photos, so we are making it up with lots of photos topside. 

Picture one is our dive gear setup on the boat, I have learned so much about the gear from internet reading the last few weeks. Little gear geek out, the engineer in me really comes out here. Skip this if you are more interested about the dive than the gear. The tanks are 80 cubic feet in volume, aluminum in make up, and are pressured up-to 3500 psi, very high pressures to enable more time under the water. To enable ambient breathing at all depths, this pressure is regulated down twice, once to 120 psi, then to ambient air. This is why the mouthpiece you breathe through is called a regulator. Each kit comes with a primary and backup regulator, just in case something stops working under the water or your buddy needs additional supplied air. The levels of redundancy is one of the key areas where diving has gotten much safer in recent decades. Next, the BCD, or buoyancy control device, is what you see as the vest, a vital part of the scuba gear as you can blow up the vest to allow you to float at the surface. The vest also has redundancy as you can physically blow air into it if your tank is out. Last is the orange diver buoy that is inflated underwater for signaling the boat of where you are at, it folds tightly into this round diameter shape like a sleeping bag. 

Ok, onto the dive. Winifred joined Joan and I for this dive session, we are practicing as in just one week the gang is heading to a small island nation called Palau. We can't wait, and quickly this blog will be come day 1 from Palau. Much more to share in future posts. This set of dives was perfect above water conditions, sunny, calm waters, and visibility that goes forever so you can see that lush green foliage of Guam a little ways away. Picture 2 is of Joan staying hydrated with a sweet iced tea, MDA, our dive agency, does a great job of taking care of us even as we are out in the ocean miles from the dock. The next 3 photos are of our journey as we head out to Barracuda Rock, image 6. And, Image 7 is what the other side of Barracuda rock looks like, wide open ocean, the horizon line is something. 

We arrived at Barracuda rock, a lone rock sticking up out of the ocean. Lots of seagulls were flying on and off the rock as this must be a great place to either look at the humans, or watch for fish at the surface. I still think they wanted the human food. Once the boat stops, each dive team works to put on their gear, the BCD vest + tank, the googles, and the flippers. We get a briefing about the dive site, in this case there was a channel in the ocean about 130ft down where some of the more advanced divers could go, and a nice wall drop at 60 ft to look down and over the channel. The guides are also really good at giving us guidance on what we could see here, yes Barracuda was one of the fish we got to see, only one though. Once the dive site overview is done we hobble, yes in those flippers its a hobble, over to the back of the boat where we are guided to hold our mask and regulator in while literally taking one large stride off the end of the boat. Into that wild blue sea. The three of us then dove down to that rock wall where we got to swim over the top of this deep channel, the visibility was easily over a 100 ft. The water was warm, all while very calm with not a ton of fish to see. We spent the 35 mins or so exploring the rocks and focusing on slowing our breathing as to maximize our bottom time. The time goes so fast, and for how much prep you do to get this point where you are 60ft down, the time is precious under water. We surfaced and climbed back in the boat, we just keep getting better at this. 

Lunch consisted of a PB+ J sandwich and setting up on the top level of the boat looking out into the ocean. Most of the other divers were able to spend a bit more time under the water, so we waited around for them to surface. This is pretty common for us at this point, the air usage is higher for us newbies. Once everyone was onboard the boat took off back toward the harbor, and this nice dive site called finger reef. 

The last two images are what the location of finger reef, the conditions here are even calmer as you are protected by the surrounding land. We were greeted by a couple sea turtles even before getting our stuff back on for dive two. These turtles ares very cool, close to 3 feet in diameter, and they are cool as a cucumber, unafraid of boats or humans. Once our hour of surface time was completed it was time to go under and check out the habitat of these gorgeous creatures. Under the waves finger reef is just as it sounds, a long, very green reef that stands up in the harbor with either side going down to about 60ft. Perfect for our open water certification in depth. We followed this reef out as far as we could before hitting our turnaround air point. About 1/2 a mile out were more turtles in their natural habitat, looking for food just above the reef. Joan noted later that these turtle are just like the one from finding Nemo, totally laid back. 

I have to say it again, diving has been an incredible experience on Guam. Its taught me so much, the reminder to never stop learning, to keep trying even when something is hard, and probable most importantly relax and enjoy the journey. We will keep working on those underwater photos from Palau.