Agios Georgios West Wall

After the first diving day on Alonissos we took a day off to let my sinuses clear. Wow the difference it made. These dives felt much more fun and free.

Thanks again to the wonderful folks at Triton Dive Center for making this day possible.

Leaving Alonissos we boated over to a nearby island. Pulling into the little bay we saw rocky landscape features extending underwater. The dry greek climate still allowed for trees and shrubbery. With the sun shining it was stunning view. I would enjoy hiking around.

After anchoring it was time to get ready. Entering the water was very easy with such a large boat. Plenty of space for divers to get ready, make there way to the rear deck, and long stride in. Compared to packing 20 people onto a zodiac boat and making rear entries, it was a dream.

Makes me think. What fun a live live-aboard diving vacation might be? That is, if I don’t get sea sick.

Once in the water we did the normal drill of getting the group together and descending as a team. Took extra care to equalize my ears. Nice and slow. Down ~12m we headed out of the bay along the wall.

Björn joined us again along with two more divers. One of which is a current crew member on the the Seashepherd vessel Emanuel Bronner. More about Seashepherd in my blog post.

One of the most compelling aspects of scuba is meeting new people and performing a dive together. Choreographed we all excuse our training. It makes a sort of instant friendly relationship. We all relay on each other at depth.

Masha and I always form a buddy teamed, performing our pre dive gear checks together, staying close underwater, and looking out for each other. Mostly though she never needs anything. More often it’s others we have a chance to help. Tapping someone to let them know there fin is coming off for example.

On this dive one of divers did not have a computer. He would occasionally check Masha’s to see how deep we are and no deco time. While this might seem sketchy I think in this case it was fine. He was not making consecutive diving days, was careful to stay level or above the group, and we only spent ~7min below 20m. Still glad Masha and I dive with our own computers.

Coming out of the bay at depth there was not much current. Once we ascended a bit and turned back the flow picked up. It was time to implement what the dive master had taught us on the boat. Syncing our breaths with our kicks we make long hard strides against the flow. It worked well and soon we were safely back in the clam warm bay.

With plenty of air left once back in the bay we got a chance to practice deploying our dSMB. With Masha holding my side to assist with buoyancy I unraveled it, made sure it was clear of my body and hoses, then leaned to the side and exhaled into it. First a small breath letting it unfold fully then a larger one. Shooting up to the surface it went.

Half way through this process Masha started floating to the surface. When it launched I nearly dropped the spool and some how it went sideways talking a lot of line with it. In the end it worked but I could tell we need more practice.

Another great dive in Greece. Thanks for reading and look forward to one more dive log from this vacation.