Day 3 Verde Island

​An early breakfast was the order of the day as we needed to be kitted up and onto the boats by 8am for the 45-60 minute trip to Verde island. The plan for the day was to drop the support staff off at the Dive Camp on the island to allow them to prepare the post dive snacks and refreshments but more importantly our lunch, before heading off for the first of our two dives on the pinnacle.

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So with the support staff safely delivered and with the boat in position it was a rolling negative entry and drop down onto the reef sticking close to the walls or the bottom to keep out of the current. Again the reef didn't disappoint us with its wealth of colour and diversity of life, from the smallest nudibranch to turtles, from boxfish to barracuda and a multitude of shapes and forms of corals in between. You had to keep changing your area of focus from the reef to the blue because you never know what it out there just on the edges.

Dive over and its was back to the Dive Camp for refreshments of cake, fruit, biscuits and to say hello to the local friendly Dogs and cats who would willingly relieve you of any cake or biscuit that you didn't want!
Once the surface interval was over then it was back onto the boat and the second dive on to Pinnacle. Another rolling  negative entry onto a different area of the reef this time with more of the same
corals, fans, fish and critters to seek out and photograph before returning back to the Dive Camp for a BBQ lunch and further fruit and refreshments overlooked of course by the friendly furry four legged locals.
After lunch it was load everything back onto the boats and head for the site for dive three, not the washing machine as previously mentioned as the currents were deemed to be too dangerous to dive so the alternative dive site of the coral garden would be our location instead.

So kitted up and briefed we hit the water again with another rolling negative entry and dropped down onto the coral garden, a mixture of muck diving mixed with large coral outcrops that made for some interesting diving mixing the searching through the colourful coral outcrops and then examining every little item that you come across in what look like more barren areas for the masses of macro life and other life that take refuge there.Once completed it was back onto the boat and we headed back to the resort, night dive anyone? For me lets see what tomorrow brings.

A quick side note for those keen gardeners at home, we have had what the locals call a little rain, yeah I'm not so sure about little but once it cleared the critters came out. Not so sure how you would deal with this fella on your lettuces!

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Written by Rick Smith - Dive Rutland Professional