Up early (again this could be habit forming), rented a motorcycle (a little 250) and headed back to the jetty. I couldn't help but think about how they drive in India and the fact that I hadn't even been on a motorcycle in nearly ten years. Luckily I only saw one car and one scooter on the ride. At the dive center I was told that the dive was being postponed from 8:30 to 10:30. So I spent two and a half hours at a little restaurant. Then back to the dive center only to wait another hour. The boat ride out to the site was smooth but once we got there the current was s strong it took us half an hour to get the anchor to hold.
Underwater the current didn't slack off and the visibility was disappointing at 30 to 40 feet. The highlight of the dive was a couple large schools of barracuda and a few sting rays. I also saw a napoleon fish but it was barely visible and was unsociable. The second dive was off of No. 7 beach (where I was originally planning on staying). The beach looked spectacular and so did the water. The visibility was much better (65+ feet) and there was very little current. We saw a big crocodile fish and the two largest octopus I've ever seen! There were three of us diving together and we started at about fifty feet, but moved up to 15-20 pretty quickly. Our air consumption at such a shallow depth was so little that even though the water was 85+°F it was us getting cold that made us end the dive after an hour.
It had gotten quite windy, so it was a rough ride back. Between all the delays, the boat rides, the trouble with the anchor, the surface interval, and the dives it was dusk by the time we got back to the jetty. After cleaning and storing the gear it was dark and I was not excited about the ride back to camp. The light on my bike is barely functional and there are a lot of people and animals walking on the roads so it was a stressful twenty minutes back to camp - I just kept it nice and slow and tried to stick with a motorcycle that passed me. Back at the camp I ordered dinner then hung out until it was ready.
