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Part 3: Don't follow the bald guy Before I go on, I should explain that although Jase was cultivating dreadlocks and Paul's floppy fringe would be the envy of most boy bands, some of us were a little lacking in scalp coverings. Marc and Richard went as far as shaving their heads and I will admit (in private) to being somewhat follically challenged. The profusion of shiny scalps lead to several instances of confusion, deception or utter incompetence. During an afternoon dive at Richelieu Rock, we had a difference of opinion about where to meet and who was actually part of our dive trip. Richard (bald guy) and I (bald guy in denial) jumped in and swam to the mooring, where we were supposed to meet up with Paul, Ann, Trevor and Marc (another bald guy). We spent ten minutes hanging on to the mooring line, waving like flags in the current and watching a large school of barracuda. Iain, Simon, Willem and Ida arrived and started their dives, but where were the others? Eventually we gave up and went round the pinnacle without them. When we returned, the dive deck was in disarray. The missing foursome had followed a bald diver who looked just like Richard. Everything was going well until he swam to the back of another dive boat... and got out. While our buddies pondered the strangeness of this behaviour, the current swept them off towards the sunset. Charlie cursed, the dinghy set off after them and the recriminations began. Of course Charlie laid into us, pointing out that 'buddy team' does not normally mean 'two divers in the same sea at roughly the same time'. The most entertaining (and scary) part was that Richard thought Paul, his buddy, was still diving... until Paul came out of the shower dressed for the evening. We could never tell whether Charlie really thought our diving was pitiful or was just toying with us. On one dive at the Surin Islands, Charlie explained that there were three pinnacles and we could dive all three if we were good divers. He then told us we would only be diving on the first of the pinnacles. At another site he said, "You can dive here by ze boat where it is deep and ze diving is good, yes. Or, I can take you by ze dinghy to ze mooring, but you will be unhappy." We were all preparing to dive from the boat when Charlie informed us he would be taking us all to the mooring. Still, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. Wherever we went, the diving was great. |
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