Today was the day of the diving. We met our instructor and some other people at 9:30 am in the parking lot of the Van der Valk hotel in Willemstad. There we got a small brieving. There were two choices for us to do. Go on an archeological dive in the route to the oil refinary or go diving for tarpons…
The archeological dive is right in the way of the big oil ships coming in, and there was just one expected.. we could still have gone diving there, but I and myself didn’t feel to secure about that…So thankfully it became the tarpon dive.
Suited up we met again near the wall and got the new brieving. We had to climb past the van der Valk walls, right over the slippery rocks. The tugboats don’t like this, so they may sent you back, but not if you are in the water. The trick was to go quickly, and then jump in quickly before they could sent you back.
So we went. The walkway was quite slippery. The water came crashing on the rocks, sometimes flowing completely across. Donning on the fins, we jumped into the water. And then took a 240 degrees course to the first buoy. Then another turn and there were the tarpons.
See Wikipedia for the info on tarpons.
These are big fish, all between a meter or 3 meters long. Just swimming lazily 
alongside. The place we were is supposed to be the only place you can see them on the island. And not a diving spot you can usually go to. The guide we had is the only one who supposedly has permission to dive in the Anna Baai. Well.. a great opportunity it was anyways.
The swim back to the coast was something different. Lots of current, which made it quite a hard swim. I got the hang of it at the end.. just not try to swim when the current is working against you, but swim quickly when the waves are going the right way.. that way you make progress.
The climb back on the rocks was hard, you had to wait for a wave to throw you up some. Luckily there were some big guys in our group that helped in pulling you up. Still the knee was bloody when i got up.. just a scratch.. nothing mayor.
The dive was passed.. quickly back to the appartment, some lunch and then some shopping for groceries… time flew and it was time for our second dive of the day.
We had first discussed doing a deep dive (30m).. but the rule is generally that you dive less deep the second time. The diving computers all showed that we could do the second dive a deep dive, but it still didn’t feel good. So therefore we didn’t do it, but went on a fish recognition dive… Well actually, just a good dive with loads of fishes in Vaerssen Baai.
We saw: Murenes, three squids, a barracuda, a scorpion fish, trunk fishes, angelfish, sergeant-mayor fishes, and even a sea turtle. The sea turtle was amazing, just gliding through the water. 
So very different from how they are on land. The dive was good… loads of fish, not to hard, just very relaxing.
42 minutes later, we came up again. I started out at 2750 psi and ended at about 1000psi so that means that i had a very relaxed dive. Not too much air was spent, so i could have gone on a bit longer. But.. my buddy had about 50bar (750psi) left so it was time to go. Always go together, that is one lesson i have learned and which still resounds in my ears. I can almost hear the instructor repeating it from some 2 years ago.
At night we ate together at the appartment and played a card game: Macheavelli. Great fun.
Note: all pictures of fish were taken of the internet, and are not by me.
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