Dan's Takes a Bullet for JT & Johnny!

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Today was the day Dan took one for the team, as he says.  He stayed with the girls while JT and I went out to scuba.
The Scuba:
The boat from Ramon's picked us up at our dock and we zipped over to the dive shop to join 4 other divers that would be on this outing.  Once equipped, we headed out to our first dive site, "Borderline".  We were there within 15 minutes.  We were just out side the reef.  The ride out was smooth and easy.  The weather was great, no much swell and just a cool breeze.  We got our dive instruction from our Dive Master, Will and geared up for the first tank dive.  We did a back roll into the water from the boats edge, a first for me, never done this type of entry before.  Once all were in we submerged to about 80' and began a slow, easy, drift dive.  The reef we were diving was pretty good and we did see quite a few denizens of the deep cruising about, although the flora and fauna paled in comparison to our snorkel trip!  Will found a lion fish, which are not native to these waters and are an invasive species.  They are open game and this one met its maker on the end of a Hawaiian sling!  Its carcass was made short work of by the reef fish!  Of the six divers, JT and I were the rookies, we are seeing our 19th dive, while the others we were with were talking over a hundred plus!
We completed this dive and went back in to the dive shop for our top time interval then head back out for our second tank dive.  This time we went to "B & D" it was about 45' for this dive.  There were only three of us this time around.  A fourth could not overcome some anxiety when he first entered the water and had to abort.  He had joined us for the second dive.  The three of us waiting on the bottom for Will to come done.  While we were hanging out there a 6' nurse shark came by and spent the next 10 or 15 minutes cruising around and under us!  Just kept telling my self, its a bottom feeder, so just stay off the bottom!  When Will came down we did another slow and easy dive.  It was very relaxing.  We finished up the dive and headed home.  The dive boat dropped us off on our dock at about 1:30pm and we were greeted by Dan and the girls.  Dan was over joyed with our return!
Dan's Day:
When JT and I left for our scuba trip, Dan, Shannon and Brenda, headed into town.  Dan was on a mission to locate some hooks and tackle for the new rod that Florenzio had dropped off.  The girls were interested in seeing some more shops and just exploring a bit.  Now our Dan has been single for a long time now and I guess having two wives for the day was almost more than he could handle!  But being the trooper he is he preserved and toughed it out!  Not to say that Shannon and Brenda are high maintenance, they are just focused and know what they are after!  The trio found a great little grocery store near the bakery and picked up some needs there.  They also visited Hardy at Fido's to say hi!
When JT and I rolled in, it was apparent that they had a pretty good day!  Brenda announced that they had invented a new drink that was very good!  Couldn't argue with the results I guess.
Brenda and Shannon whipped up a great pasta for lunch and we had a wonderful afternoon of telling our stories of the days adventures.

We headed into town for dinner and decided to try Pinocchio's.  This is the only Italian joint in San Pedro and it is not on the main drives!  We had a bit of an adventure just finding the place.  It was worth it though.  The owner has his own brick oven and does the forno style cooking.  Shannon and I had pizza and it was very good!  Dan had a shrimp pasta special that he said was very good.  Munchie and JT had the lasagna and it was also very good.

Our drive home was a hoot as always.  Every time we venture out in ol' 07 its a lark in itself!  The return trip was no exception.  I do readily admit that I did miss seeing a speed bump and hit it at full throttle!  Well poor old Dan, who was perched in his usual spot at the back of the bus, almost ended up on the pavement!  Sorry Dan, my bad!
We got home, with the usual pirates cheer as we passed the Pirates Treasure, and watched a bit of the Olympics then called it a day!
No formal plans for Sunday, so we will be playing it by ear.  We were informed though, that there was a scheduled power outage for Sunday, from 7am to 11am.  So coffee will be late!