SCUBA Cinque Terre

D and I try to travel to places we can go diving -  we basically planned our honeymoon around diving with Hammerheads.  D, Rachel, and I all dove for the first time together in the Philippines after Dave and I graduated from university.  Dave, Rachel, my family, and I all went to this gorgeous island called Boracay.  We stayed next to a SCUBA shop and we all decided that we should go diving.  They gave us a 15 minute lesson in the shallows and then took us down for our first SCUBA experience.  It was mind blowing to be transported to a world of crystal clear water and an explosion of color.  After that, Dave and I were hooked and knew we had to get certified.  Incidentally, this was also the day that Dave proposed!  We dove in the morning, hung out at the beach during the day, and then Dave took me on a sunset cruise and proposed.  Check out this sunset on the day he proposed....

Boracay sunset proposal!  

Rachel did an exploration dive with us in Hawaii last year - a dive where you don't need to be certified.  After that, she decided/we forced her to get her certification so she could come on our vacations and dive with us.  

When we decided to go to Cinque Terre, I saw that they had a marine preserve set up around the towns and knew we could dive while we were there.  It was set up in 1997 to protect the area and protect the fishing.  The diving there was perfectly acceptable, but not exceptional.  We dove off of Punta Mesco, in between Levanto and Monterosso del Mare. It was still really enjoyable and we saw some huge spotted scorpion fish.  Normally, the ones we see are quite small, but this time the largest one we saw was about 18 inches (45 cm)!  The cool part about these fish aside from their size, was we actually got to see their true color.  In general, they look like this...

Spotted Scorpion Fish...he looks disappointed.  

Sea water looks blue for the same reason refracting light makes the sky look blue, and the deeper you go the more dominant this blue color becomes.  The other colors become faded, if visible at all - particularly reds and yellows.  So we normally see Spotted Scorpion Fish looking like this.  

But this time one of the divers had a torch.  And to our surprise they actually look like this....

Spotted Scorpion fish are red! 

Spotted Scorpion fish. 

We see a lot of the these guys, but normally not this large.  A quick google search tells me that they inject their venom into targets using their dorsal spines - this venom can cause severe pain, but not death, in humans.  I guess I shall stay a bit farther away from them next time.  

From what we were told, the marine reserve has really helped the aquatic life in the few short time it has been in place.  Its always great to dive in an area where they really care about the future of the dive site.  

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!  

SCUBA diving down a sea wall

This weekend was a busy one!  We went to the Salon des Vins in Thoiry where about 50 different producers from all over France were showcasing their wines.  I think we tried 80 wines over a period of three days.  I will most likely not drink any wine for the next...three to four days.  

Fishes off Cap Ferrat

Another photo from our first dive in Nice.  I love diving off a sea wall because it feels almost like you are sky diving.  You can see the bubbles from one another diver's tank coming up.  


Note:  I have never gone sky diving, but I imagine this is what it is potentially like.  I would love to try it!

SCUBA diving off Cap Ferrat

One of the main reasons Dave and I visited Nice was to get a few last dives in before the summer was over.  Our first dive was off St. Jean on Cap Ferrat.  We dove with Poseidon Diving in Nice, and they were great.  The dive instructors were very knowledgable and the equipment was good.  

Dave's parents bought us an underwater case for our point and shoot camera and it works great.  This is a shot of an octopus one of the divemasters found near the end of our dive.  It was a little guy, and it kept inking everywhere...just like in Finding Nemo.  Its cool to see octopodes in the water, how they change the color and textures of their skin is amazing - especially since they are color blind!