After not being able to dive yesterday due to, well, I guess I'll say it - still being drunk/hung-over , I took the opportunity today for a final dive before the next set of classes start tommorrow. (Biostats, Epidemiology, and Ethics/Jurisprudence for 2 weeks each in addition to Behavioral Science for 6 weeks for anyone interested.) [1] Today's dive to [2] Quarter Wreck started off kind of poorly for a couple of different reasons:

1. I was helping a friend set-up his weight belt with an appropriate amount of lead when I cut my finger on that little plastic retainer that keeps the weights from sliding off the belt. Who does that? I is nice and superficial, but it still hurts!
2. We had a new boat captain (or at least someone I had never seen before) who had some trouble dropping the divers correctly in the current. He had to make two drops - I was part of the first drop, and my newly minted Open Water Dive buddy was part of the second drop.
3. It had been raining all morning and the runoff dropped visibility to 20 feet, at best.

I was fighting the current at the surface to try and catch up to the divemaster/flag, when I decided to submerge, as swimming underwater would be easier. I ended up diving solo for a few minutes as I was unsuccessfully trying to find the dive group. Eventually I had to surface to get another bearing on the dive flag. It was only ten feet away, but visability was so poor that I couldn't see the group or the wreck right next to me. After finally finding my dive buddy underwater, the rest of the dive went much more smoothly.

The wreck itself was not all that interesting, as I have dived it before, but I enjoyed the subsequent reef excursion. Among the highlights: some rare-ish [3] Flamingo Tounges (or maybe I just don't look that hard ) and at least 15 [4] Caribbean Reef Squid "dancing" in the water. This is the first time I have ever seen the squid, so that was definately cool.

Next diving is scheduled for next Sunday - either back to Car Pile/Cove (which had some nice reefs/fish life), or Isle de Rhonde. Unfortunately, I won't be able to do it for "free" anymore, as I was told to bring my credit card next time. My tab has been growing since August 2004, and it's not pretty…

After diving it was back to the same beach bar/restaurant as Friday for dinner/drinks with many of the same SGU students and the Army guys. Later a showing of Star Wars Episode III on a 39 inch television was planned, but had to be cancelled due to tragic circumstances. More in a Friends Only post.