Freediving under rain in Garajau - finally the Mero

Today i went to garajau already late in the afternoon. The sun was covered by gray clouds, but i was decided to freedive, since the ocean was calm.

As i was preparing for my freediving session, some thin light rain came along, so i decided to left my stuff undercover and enter through the "calhau"*.

I entered the water and relaxed for a while moving slowly foward to the yellow buoy.

Then i swam a bit of croll and found out at the end that i was surrounded by charuteiros (Seriola lalandi). So my first freedive was with them, underwater arround these thirty fellows.

As i got to surface i realise the current today was stronger than usually to the east and i was nearly 20m left behind the yellow buoy. So i prepare myself for a second dive to approach to the buoy underwater. In the company of my friends i dove to 14m and felt the current pushing me east, but i kept going south west and for my surprise a ray just crossed in front of me at 10m distance, i didn't follow her, cause i wanted to go ahead. Unexpectedly, as i was starting to ascend, i saw a Mero (Epinephelus marginatus) at the bottom at my left side. I was feeling well, so i decided to go down again and followed him for some moments, but as soon as i got to close he simply put the turbo on and bye bye Mero... yet it was awesome 8) with charuteiros, ray and Mero in one single dive.

At the surface i was already in line with the yellow buoy, but still 20m left, so i croll towards there and rest for some 5 to 6 minutes. Looking down, it was completely bluedark with the iron chain, which holds the buoy, disappearing in the depths. It started to rain again, it was already 6 o´clock and there wasn't no one in the beach. But i wasn't feeling alone...

I prepared myself for a long deep dive, already expecting a drift to the east side of the beach caused by the current. I hoped to see the Mero one more time, but i didn't found him, in what i called my first underwater flying experience in Garajau Natural Reserve: i dive in diagonal to the nearly bottom rocks at 17m and just let myself go with the current passing through some rocks and fishes.

I was done for this day.

* calhau - small round stones in a beach