First Day Diving!!!!!

I had worry dreams all night long about my alarm not going off in time!  To make matters worse the aircon was so cold I had to find my hoodie and put on sweat pants to keep myself from freezing.  Finally I couldn’t wait for my alarm to go off so I grabbed my computer and started blogging, after a decent amount of time passed and got ready.

The fruit I had put in the fridge froze almost completely and couldn’t eat my breakfast until it de-thawed.  It was super easy getting ready in the morning; everything was organized the night before so all I had to do was get dressed.  I headed outside into the heat and waited.  The bus was exactly on time at 7:45 but there were a few people at the hostel across from me who had partied a little too hard last night and slept in.  When everyone was finally loaded into the car we took off to the dive shop to check in and fill things out, forms stating that if a shark eats us we can’t blame the company… jokes. 

We finally arrived at the docks and I couldn’t wait to get onto the boat!  I was expecting to be on the boat we would be sleeping on but instead everyone was loaded onto a dive boat with 40 other people.

It took about 40 min to get out to the dive site but it was all worth it.  The dive instructors kept everything as organized as they could but with so many people some things had to get lost, dive suits and fins in particular.  At the first dive site called Normas or “troppos” I needed a bit of some help to get back into the water and dive again after a few years. 

The guide was amazing!  When I pointed out the different sea cucumbers she picked one up and let me hold it!  One of the guys I was diving with, Tom, had his GoPro and took a quick photo of me, I will hopefully get it eventually.  There was this huge sea anemone with three clown fish it that I got to get really close to and almost touch the fish, felt like one of them could have been nemo and marlin.  We cruised around a little bit, exploring before heading back to the boat and getting ready for lunch.  I was so freaking hungry I couldn’t wait to eat!  You’d be surprised how much energy diving actually requires and how exhausted you feel after diving.

You won’t believe this but when I was in the Caribbean almost two years ago I met a girl named Kathleen who just so happens to be on this very boat as a volunteer.  I recognized her right away but it took her a while to recognize me, I’ve changed a little bit since then.

Lunch was an assortment of salads, cut meat, fruit and buns.  I loaded my plate with a decent portion; you must share with the rest of the boat and can go back for seconds when they make the call.  I most defiantly went back for seconds.  After troppos we dropped supplies off at the massive boat we would be staying on for the next two nights.  Off to the next dive site called Sandros, this was the first dive I did with a partner or three.  We jumped into the water and descended, I felt fairly confident about this dive and the navigation around the reef but unfortunately I wasn’t the one navigating.  We swam around in a circle and we were suppose to surface at the boat.  I was worried during the dive that the guy telling us where to go didn’t actually know where to go, which pissed me off cause I kept saying we should turn around.  Finally he came to his senses and we surfaced, the boat was a good 15-minute swim away and I was not happy.  Luckily the boat I am staying on, Ocean Quest, saw us and signaled to the other boat to come pick us up.  We got a tow back for half of the distance and then the motor died and we had to swim the rest and the boat got a tow back instead of us.

We all had a good laugh when we got back to the boat and I went for a quick swim to relax.  Very soon we were roped together with Ocean Quest and boarding onto our new home.  It felt just like I was back in the Caribbean at Action Quest, a home away from home, the relaxation I felt being on the boat was amazing.  I’ve decided I might live on a dive boat for the rest of my life.

I was greeted by very friendly staff and blueberry cake in the dining room.  A quick briefing was done and then I got to go to my room!  Now I didn’t take any pictures of the room but I shared it with another girl and it was very spacious.  I got about 15 minutes to do whatever and then I had to go to a dive briefing.  I am only an open water diver, which means I can only dive to 18 meters but I was told I could get my advanced while I’m on the boat… I most defiantly said yes!  I am taking the course with two other people, Zac from Brisbane and Kasime from Sweden.  Our instructor is Luke and he is the funniest person ever!

Our first dive to become certified was all about being able to use your breath to control your positioning in water.  It wasn’t too difficult but some people had trouble when we had to swim through a hoop upside down, vertically, twirl and other things… I didn’t have trouble because I am a natural born mermaid.  When we finished the lesson we got to do some swimming around and we saw a sleeping white tipped reef shark!  It was small and looked very peaceful.

On the surface we got our gear off and waited for dinner, which smelled amazing!  I sat with my new buddies who happen to be all guys.  There is Tom, Kasime, Zac, Kris and anyone that feels like sitting with us, we are all very friendly.  For dinner I had a stuffed red pepper and it tasted so incredibly good!  It was nice to not be the one cooking for a change.

After dinner we got ready for our night dive, I knew it was going to be fun because night dives are always amazing!  Right when I jumped into the water there was a ton of splashing feet away from us… people were feeding the fish and there were lots of sharks about.  I put my face in the water and there were about four reef sharks furiously swimming around.  I descended into the depths with a flashlight and couldn’t wait to see what the dark had to show.

The first thing we noticed were these massive silver fish.  If you out your light on a smaller fish, these fish would chase it and eat it, we played God that night; I let everything live.  We did more certification activities and then we got to explore!  We saw a sleeping turtle in the rocks, pretty sure was a green turtle but I didn’t get too close so I couldn’t be sure.  I wanted to go over and touch him so badly!  All in all the night dive was amazing and it was a great way to end my first day on the ocean.

I had a lovely shower and then headed to the top deck to join everyone at the bar.  Everyone was already drinking so I got myself a beer and joined the conversation.  I was so tired that I couldn’t stay awake longer than 10 and had to call it a night after that. 

My room was freezing but nothing a bunch of blankets couldn’t fix!