We hope to use this site to share diving and travel
information, photos and videos. I would like to encourage
anyone with an interest in diving to share your comments
thoughts or photos with everyone else. Our latest trip
was a live aboard on the Galapagos Aggessor II out of
San Crystobal Ecuador. Five days on board with a great
crew and group of divers out of Central Virginia Dive Center
In Chester Va. The trip was in October and included land
tours on four of the islands with a visit to the Darwin
research center.The weather was very pleasant and seas were
relatively calm. The trips to the actual dive sites were made in
inflatable Zodiacs with usually seven divers to a boat. Entry
made by a syncronized backward roll with all divers going at
once. All the dives were basically drift dives with varying
depths of 60 to 110 feet. Marine life was incredible and yes
complete with whale sharks and hammerheads, at Darwin
Island.
Exit was made from the dive mostly in buddy pairs but
sometimes singly due to the drift and boat operations. The
inflatable operator follows the bubbles and tries to stay close
to the group and spot divers as they surface. Divers are
equipped with dive flags on bungyed 6 foot poles to attract
the attention of the boat. Because of the currents it was
not unusual for divers to surface several yards apart
all along the drift path. With seas sometimes as high
as three to four feet the flags were very handy. The
operators also equipped one of each buddy pair with a
sigh pressure hailing device. After everyone is retrieved
the inflatable returns to the mother ship and preparations
are made for the next dive.
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