And the verdict on South Bank is...

Rare blue coral at South Bank

I'm sitting on a small, orange jet boat while writing this. Gentle rolling swells are rocking us as we drift without power. There is no reason to turn the engine on. We are 40 some odd miles from the nearest point of land, the seas are calm and there is nothing remotely close for us to hit. We are waiting out our 3 hour surface interval until we can dive again. We normally don't have to worry about how long we have been on the surface, but our last dive was much deeper than normal and your body takes on extra nitrogen with depth. The excess nitrogen has to have time to leave your body before you begin another dive.

Our first dive was exciting for the novelty of location, but unremarkable for what was there. We dropped into a flat area covered mostly with rubble, a few larger rocks and several species of well-scoured algae. I'm not sure what has drawn fishermen to this area as the largest fish I saw was less than 6". There was moderate surge - surprising for a 90' dive - and thankfully no current.

Looking like a Teletubby at South Bank
(And the diver in the background without the wetsuit
doesn't have to worry about rolling into coral while working,
thus no wetsuit :)  

Now we are passing our time with snacks, lunch, naps, swim time, more naps and trying to teach Erin to dive off the side of the small boat. I am hoping for a little more intriguing bottom on this next dive.

- - After our second dive, we returned to the ship with no real remarkable stories about South Bank. The adventure of the day was seeing a place that no one else has, even if there wasn't much to see! Check out the official blog for another South Bank post that I wrote.

Take care and I'm looking forward to talking with you in 3 weeks!

Cristi