Undersea creatures

On our second dive we dove off the bay of Villefranche-sur-Mer* across from Cap Ferrat.  This dive was our first 'autonomous' dive - where we wouldn't have a divemaster leading us for the last part of our dive.  Our divemaster, Richard, was awesome.  He first took us down to a sea cave.  We dove over it and saw air bubbles escaping from the ground.  It took me a bit to realize that the bubbles were from divers who had been in the cave 10 minutes before us.  

I am absolutely terrified of diving and then swimming into something:  wrecks, caves, etc.  I always think they are going to collapse on me.  Luckily, this cave was small, but gorgeous.  The top was covered in beautiful cool water coral.

The spiral is where the organism seen in the top left and bottom right attaches their eggs.  I don't remember what they are called...something like spirale and dalmations...but understanding under sea life in French is a tad difficult.  

After he took us to the cave, our divemaster left and we were free to roam about underwater with another diver.  I let the other diver and Dave take the lead, and followed them around like an underwater puppy for about an hour...our longest dive ever!  One of the first things we saw was a HUGE Grouper fish - maybe 3 feet long!  They used to be a rare sight due to overfishing but government regs were put in place and now they can live to be 20 years old.  

Not a Grouper, but a Katfish...haha.

Swimming through schools of fish

Gorgeous red star fish. 

Moray eel - Dave was near it with the camera and he made chomping motions.   I thought I heard a nom nom but I could be wrong.  

 This is a baby Moray eel that we saw.  We found two of them and when we went to take a closer look the huge one sucked back into his home.  Maybe the little one is braver?


This dive was very cool, as we got to explore by ourselves.  One of the cool things was seeing water crash against the rocks from underwater.  We weren't diving very deep so our air lasted forever.  As I was following Dave and the other diver around I wasn't really paying attention to our surroundings.  When it was time to swim back to the boat we had to go quite far as I didn't realize we had wandered so far from our entry point.  I started to panic a bit as we reached a field of sea grass that I didn't recognize and thoughts of popping to the surface and looking around to realize we had drifted out to sea started to cross my mind.   I'm not sure why I started to freak as I had 70 bar of air left (about 30 mins at that depth).  Being able to communicate underwater makes one feel a bit isolated, I guess.  Luckily Dave spotted bubbles coming up from the ground and realized we were over the sea cave, we got our bearings and got to our boat.  

After our dive, I decided to swim while they were breaking down the equipment.  It was quite pleasant and cool.  I thought "I wonder if there are any sharks in the Med, I haven't seen any yet..." and then at that unfortunate moment got stung by a jellyfish.  It was more shocking than painful and I yelled and flailed to get away from it.  Dave thought something was wrong so he dove in after me but I was already halfway up the ladder by the time he saw me.  It swelled up, and since it was Sunday, and this is France we had to find the one pharmacy open in Nice.**  This happened about a week and a half ago.  It was fine for awhile but just a few days ago it started to flare again.  Apparently this is normal, but it kinda sucks.  Maybe this is an adverse reaction from all the wine I drank last weekend...


*Villefranche-sur-Mer is a 'free port' - Charles II, Duke of Anjou wanted to protect his kingdom from pirates, so he established this town and stated that residents, who were willing to leave their farming life inland to move to the coast would not have to pay taxes.  This established a line of defense, and better tans for the people who moved there.  


** Differences between the US and Switzerfrancerland:  Pharmacies are not open during Sundays, and many are not open during lunch.  Most close at 5 or 6.  Cold meds are only given when a doctor gives you a perscription.  To see a doctor one must make an appointment (I made a dermatologist appointment last week...the next opening is November) or go to walk in hours (which is much like going to the DMV).  Thus, we stock up on cold meds whilst in the US, the cashiers think we are crazy, and when Dave's sister Rachel Morse (original) is coming the day after tomorrow (yay!) she's bringing us various fun pharmacy goods!