Advanced Open Water Course (Nov. 15, 2014)

Today we didn’t meet until 10:30 am to go over our first three worksheets for the Advanced Open Water Course. We did three dives today, two in the daylight, and one night dive.

First I’ll tell you about the day dives. We went out on the same boat, and were diving to practise some buoyancy skills, similar to the ones I already told you about. These got more complicated today, as we not only had to sit like buddha and use our air to remain in the same place, we then had to stretch out like superman and do the same thing, in a lying down position. Next, we had to try to do it standing on our head, with our legs straight above us, and then take our fingers off the bottom and use our lungs to hover in that position. It was really hard and I kept toppling over, but did manage to get it for a few seconds before losing it. Our last buoyancy skill was to swim to the bottom and pick up the pencil Jenny brought, to write on the white board, while keeping our feet almost straight up above us. It was really hard as well, but I managed that one better than the headstand skill, and wrote Jenny a note on the board. It’s really cool how you can write with a pencil underwater, and it stays on the whiteboard. I never thought that would work, but it does. Oh, there was one more buoyancy skill, and that was to stand tall, with your feet on the bottom, and then use your lungs to levitate, and remain just off the bottom. That one was pretty hard too, and I kept falling face forward. 

Me and Martin after our onland navigation skills practice

After our skills, we swam through some hoops and squares that are down there to be sure we were using our lungs to clear the tops of these things, as your tank will crash on them if you’re not low enough. Then we went for a swim and saw lots of fish. The visibility was about 6-7 meters so it was a bit cloudy, but good enough to see lots of fish. There was a huge school of Rabbit Fish, and several Star Fish on the bottom that I hadn’t seen yesterday. I think we were down there for around 42 minutes at a depth of 12 meters or so. It was a really nice dive and I think I am becoming more comfortable with it, and enjoying it even more. Today, Jenny took away one of the weights from my weight belt. It was very different getting used to this, and took me quite a while to figure out my lung air to remain down, and not ascend while down there. I did adjust and it is better to go with less weights if you can, and use your lungs to go up and down. Finally, I felt good and it wasn’t so weird.

Some of the fish I saw

An interesting thing happened on our ascent to our Safety Stop. First of all, I didn’t tell you that there is only me and one of the German guys, who speaks perfect English, in the Advanced Open Water course with Jenny. So when we were ascending to our Safety Stop, Martin, the German guy, started to grab at his head. Jenny tried signalling to him ‘What is wrong?’ or was he OK? He kept signalling back that he was ok, but rubbing his temple area, well a bit higher, and looking like he had bad pain in his head. He kept on rubbing and holding his head at the hair line. I worried that he had some kind of bad head bump when we were down, or something, and I’m sure Jenny was worried about it too, because she kept a hold of him during our Safety Stop and questioning him. When we surfaced, she asked him if he was ok, and what was wrong? He said that the glue from his hair piece had come unstuck and the top flap of his hair was flying off so he had to hold it down. Well, actually, in his German accent, he said, “It’s my hhhair…….the glue hos come off…..this part of my hhhair is fake.” I was very relieved that he wasn't in pain, and then found it a bit funny. I think Jenny almost started swearing at him because she thought he was in serious pain or trouble. I felt badly for him as he was probably devastated and wouldn’t let Jenny touch his head to see if he had a bump or anything, and he was probably only in his twenties. Poor fellow to have that happen in front of two women. Anyway, Jenny handled it quite well, but I must admit, it was a pretty bizarre experience to observe. Jenny told me later that she thought something was really wrong and that he was in trouble. I didn’t blame her because that’s what I thought. I said to her that his situation was a pretty difficult one to sign about, underwater, even if he had wanted to tell her. Anyway, all was fine and Jenny quietly borrowed a diving hood from one of the other instructors for Martin to wear for our next dive. I thought she handled it really elegantly. Definitely one for the instructor diver diary. I’ll never forget it either. I felt sorry for Martin as he's a really nice guy and fun to dive with.

We got back onto the boat and went to the Junk Yard site for our next dive. We went there before, but it was much clearer this time, and easier to see things. This dive was to practise navigation skills underwater, using natural environmental cues, as well as using a wrist compass. We had to measure our distance on a 30 meter measuring tape that Jenny put down at the bottom, using kick cycles, or fin kicks, on the way out, and by counting seconds on the way back. This gives you an idea and two different kinds of measurement to figure out how far you have gone in a direction so that you have a better chance to navigate your way back. As well, we we used our compasses to swim a perfect square using 10 kick cycles of distance for each side of the square. A kick cycle is when you have kicked once with both legs. That is one kick cycle. These activities were really fun and helpful to feeling comfortable in the water if you needed to navigate and find your way underwater if you were not with a dive master or guide. Then it was time to ascend, do a Safety Stop at 5 meters, to disband nitrogen, and get on the boat. We saw a lot more fish at this site as well. We saw lots of Pufferfish, and Clownfish with a few sea cucumbers and a Big Lipped Fish. It was so pretty and lots to see. I never get tired of seeing how beautiful the fish look under the water.

Some of the other creatures I saw

Other fish I saw

When we came to shore, we had a short break of about an hour, then we were meeting to go out for our third dive, which was a Night Dive. I was really excited to go for a dive in the dark, and went for a bite to eat beforehand so I wouldn’t be hungry during our dive. I went to the nearby restaurant and had a fantastic Red Thai Curry with vegetables and chicken. It was a perfect balance of coconut flavour, spice, but not too spicy, and vegetables, including beans, carrots, water chestnuts, onions, baby corn, and some type of cabbage or something similar. Then there were little chunks of chicken. It was the most perfectly balanced group of flavours I think I have had. I ate the whole plate and was so pleasantly satisfied with the tastes.

Red Thai Curry with vegetable and chicken

We met for our Night Dive, put on all our gear here, then went out to a little long boat. It was just me, Martin and Jenny going out, so we got a long boat to drop us, then we swam back after our dive, and walked up onto the shore in our gear, right at the Dive Resort. It was the most fantastic dive I have done so far. 

The boat that took us out for our night dive

First we had to walk out a bit and climb into this long wooden boat, with our tanks and all our gear on. That in itself was quite challenging, but we all did it. Once in, the guy took us out to the buoy marker and then we entered the water. Now, because we were in a boat without a ladder or empty space to walk off of, we had to sit on the edge of the boat, shimmy our bottoms to hang over the edge, then just fall backwards into the water. It was really quite easy, but I hadn’t done an entry this way before so it was something new. Once in, we descended to about 11 meters with our flashlights on, and started to look around. The site looked SO different at night, even though I had just seen it the day before, in the sunlight. We saw so many cool things including some sleeping fish, near the bottom, just chilling in the sand next to some vegetation, catching some sleep. There was a little Parrot Fish sleeping vertically inside a sea anemone, and another fish sleeping under a rock, on his side. This one was really big and very bright blue. He kept moving to avoid the flashlight brightness, as it was disturbing his rest. There were these huge slug like creatures that I have forgotten the name of, that are like a huge black glob on the bottom, with two antennae that kind of levitate and move just above the sand at the bottom. They are massive with with ripply stripes on their bodies. I never noticed them during the day and didn’t see antennae on any of these big blobs during our day dives. Maybe they are nocturnal and just move at night. The sea cucumbers that during the day look like long sausages on the bottom, stand up at night and seem to be peering at you while standing tall on their hind sections. They have little eyes that I never saw before too. There are eyes peering at you from everywhere, as there are lots of crabs, and other little creatures that look at you with their big eyes. We saw a baby Puffer Fish, a little Stingray, a huge blue fish and many other little creatures. The sea anemones have bright blue spots in the middle of their black spines, that look like eyes. They are actually their bums staring up at you in bright blue. 

My absolute favourite though, was when we turned off our flashlights. There are millions of fluorescent plankton in the water that when it is dark and you move your hands around, they light up like little sparks or fireworks. We all waved our hands and arms for about 5 minutes and lit up the area around us with these fluorescent plankton. It was really like a show of sparks or fireworks spraying around us. So incredibly magical that I didn’t want to turn our flashlights back on. It was truly a highlight of the Night Dive. 

On our way back in, we swam and the water got shallower and shallower, but there was still so much to see. Fish and plants and other creatures that hide inside the coral and rocks. You really have to go close to the bottom and shine your light into the tiny spaces to see these things, but it is incredible and so interesting. We were down for 71 minutes on this dive and it seemed like moments. Time passes so quickly underwater, and it is never boring. There is always something to see and investigate. Jenny saw a squid, but by the time she signalled to us to look at it, the squid was gone. We walked out of the water, right at Crystal Dive Resort, and back to the equipment shed to take off our stuff. What a fantastic experience! We gathered for a while afterward to talk about it, have a drink and chill out a bit. We were all so pumped, that no one could have gone to bed yet anyway. Will from the Open Water Course, came to visit and have a beer with us, which was nice. He leaves tomorrow and I think he wishes he would have taken the Advanced Course too.

Us at the bar after our Night Dive

My night ended with a FaceTime from Jon, Amanda, Liviah and Zakki, getting ready to take pics with Santa at the mall. Liviah, your dress is so beautiful and you make it even more pretty because you are so beautiful. Zakki, your hair is the best, and I think that will be your trade mark. You’ll have to wear it wild all the time. You can pull it off! Jon and Amanda, thank you so much for that FT. It was so special to see and talk to you guys tonight. Well, this morning for you, but you know what I mean. I miss you all and love you so dearly. 

Night Livs. Goodnight everybody. Sleep well and know I am thinking of you.