Bocas del Toro – Day 4: Wrecks, Reefs, and Lionfish
BOCAS DEL TORO
Day 4: Wrecks, Reefs, and Lionfish
February 09, 2023
Back on Carenero Island, I had a couple more dives lined up with Cach. Our first stop was The Lunchbox, home to a trimaran called Mystic Wind.
Being a fellow divemaster, Cach had me lead the way with my buddy just behind me as we swam beneath the wreck, with a couple of metres of headspace under the main hull making it a straightforward and relaxed swim-through. With the right side crawling with lionfish, it was an easy decision to stick to the left, admiring those evil beauties from a safe distance and, once again, wishing we’d brought the Hawaiian slings along. After passing beneath the entire structure, we circled the wreck and, once up on the deck, I signalled to Cach to ask if I could enter the ship.
The moment he gave me the okay, I darted into the first room, a giant grouper cruising in right beside me. A doorway leading to a second compartment was completely packed with lionfish, effectively blocking any further penetration, so I turned back and spent a bit more time exploring the main space before giving the other divers a chance to head inside. Gotta say, after my previous wreck train-wreck at the Halliburton, this was a far more enjoyable dive.
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The second dive took us back to Pandora, at the insistence of a diver who’d heard great things about the site. Given how much I’d enjoyed it the day before, I didn’t exactly object. It was mostly a rehash of the previous dive, but with a school of Atlantic spadefish making a special appearance, along with the octopus we’d failed to track down the day before finally deciding to show its face.