August 10, 2016
Great diving, but not hooked…
We’re still anchored around the Egersund Norway area, tucked up in a beautiful fjord, avoiding brutal sea conditions out at sea. We started the day with a scuba dive, very close to where we are anchored.
We headed for a big rock that we found on yesterday’s dive. It was sitting at 14 meters and covered with dead man’s fingers and anemones. We then continued the dive, following steep rocks along the shoreline. Shortly thereafter Juan Cuetos spotted a very photogenic male lumpsucker. Not an unusual find, but always a pleasure to see.
As we were getting ready for our second dive after lunch, we were suddenly disrupted by the main engine, bow and stern thrusters revving very high. With increasing winds in our safe haven, the anchor had started to drag. Some tense maneuvering on the bridge got us away from the collision course with Eiger Island. Several sighs of relief later, we dropped the anchor in a better spot and we felt comfortable to continue the pre-dive preps.
On the second dive we once again found an angler fish. What the angler lacks in beauty it more than makes up for in coolness. From the huge mouth with always visible teeth, to the almost jet-like propulsion ports behind the pectoral fins, to a set of fins on the belly that enables the angler to almost walk on the bottom. Indeed, a very cool fish.
After dinner it was time to secure the boat for the 120 miles to Denmark. Though the conditions at sea, by tomorrow should have improved a lot, we may still be in for quite
a ride. The weather is forecast to deteriorate again by Friday…so tomorrow is our best chance to make the passage to Denmark and say good bye to Norway. Norway was as wonderful as it was rough. Unfortunately we were very limited in how much work we could do due to the weather, but the diving we did was very exciting – amazing experiences photos and videos!