Stacy, Phillip (the island caretaker) and I had pancakes for breakfast gain. Afterwards we packed, then sat in the hammocks waiting for the dive boat to show (life was very difficult on Ant). The dive boat arrived a couple hours later than expected, and Nicole (also working at PATS) was on board, as well as another random guy. Stacy had requested a dive on the outside of the atoll so our first dive was on the west side. It was pretty interesting to watch them maneuver over the shallow reef to get there - I have no idea how they managed as there were coral heads everywhere. When we started to suit up it turned out there was a miscommunication and the random guy has no equipment, the hotel was supposed to have provided it, but no one had told the dive shop. There was some drama, but at that point there was really nothing anyone could do about it so the guy ended up snorkeling.
The dive was excellent - it was along a great wall with tons of hard and soft corals, and clams. It must have started a few feet below the surface and ran vertically to nearly 200 feet. With the great visibility (easily a hundred plus feet) you could see the entire wall from top to bottom! There were also a lot of interesting small narrow canyons that broke it up a bit. There were a lot of sharks - black and white tips - including a couple that were very curious. All in all there was a lot to see and some great scenery and we ended up staying down nearly seventy minutes.
Since other guy can't dive and Nicole is just snorkeling Stacy and I requested to do the second dive in a channel back in the Pohnpei lagoon that we had heard recommended. The ride back to Pohnpei was rough - torrential rain and bumpy seas (at least until we got back into the lagoon). The rain rain was coming down so hard that it stung - our driver actually had to put on a mask just so he could see! At the dive site I got all geared up and jumped in the water. Almost immediately there was a very loud noise and air started to flow out of my first stage (what's attached to the tank - air shouldn't ever come out there). I hoped that it was an O-ring, but it was my new regulator - it had blown up (actually, I think it was a burst disk - but it was still out of commission). I tried to think that it was lucky that it had happened at the surface, but I still wasn't happy about it. I climbed back in to the boat and tried to figure out a way to swap in the spare reg we had brought, but there were no tools at all on the boat (!) and I completely failed. I finally gave up and Stacy and the guide went (I insisted) and I jumped in and snorkeled with the others. The coral looked really nice, but the visibility wasn't that great and I didn't see a lot of fish. The ride back to shore was pretty short and once there we unloaded the gear and hiked up to the village to pay and change clothes (luckily some of my stuff made it back without getting too soaked, and Nicole had brought Stacy her missing bag). I was feeling really frustrated with the afternoon and decided I needed a couple beers while I was waiting for the girls. By the time we were ready to go we'd already missed diner so we decided on a restaurant. We were concerned since the kayak was in the back of the truck and things have a tendency to walk away here, but at the restaurant we were able to pull down next to the dining area where we could see the car from the table. After diner came the drive back - it was almost surreal in that it seemed to keep going - probably because it wasn't very comfortable with three of us jammed in the cab, the heavy rain, and the very rough road.
