First Dives! (Nov. 13, 2014)

On the boat gearing up to do first dive

Wow, what a great day. I did my first two dives today. It was so cool. A little nerve wracking for the first decent, but once down, it was so very cool. I didn't feel nervous or worried in the least. I really enjoy being beneath the surface.

This morning, we got to sleep in a little bit because we did our final exam last night. Sorry for the short blog Livi, but I was too tired. This one has a bit more to it, so I hope it keeps you excited. Great idea, Amanda, to look at the Youtube of Crystal Dive Resort instead. You're so smart.....lol.

We met at 10:45 this morning to practise our last on land skill, which was using a compass. It wasn't very difficult, and we needed to know this in order to do it once we were underwater. Then we had a little break, met up again, collected our gear and walked over to get onto the boat. There were a lot of other groups of divers going on the boat as well as our group. This boat handles quite a few poeple and is totally outfitted for diving. There is a whole area with holes in it that hold the tanks, right next to one anothe, the whole length of the boat, which is really long. That is the main deck, and then there is an upper deck where they take role call of everyone on the boat after each dive. It's really quite an amazing operation and very tight. I suppose it has to be in order not to lose anyone.

Jenny far left, and the rest of my classmates

Beach puppy that didn't move for our navigation skills...lol

Me and Jenny

Jenny, our instructor asked us to put our BCD's (buoyancy control device) which is like a puffy vest that has a bunch of gauges and a hose that you attach to your regulator tubes when you hook up to the air tank. The vest has a device that allows you to inflate or deflate the vest to assist you in becoming more or less buoyant while in the water. When you go down, you need to deflate or let the air out of your vest so that you can sink down into the water. When you're up on the surface of the water, you need to inflate your vest so that you can stay on top and not wok too hard, or sink while at the surface. It's really cool.

The boat as we were leaving

Upper deck on the boat

Me with the equipment behind me

So once we did that, we met up on the top deck so that Jenny, our instructor, could tell us what we would be doing to get into the ocean, and what we would do once we were in there. It was really exciting and a little scary at the same time. My favourite combination of feelings, I have to admit.....lol. So, then we were told to gear up, do our buddy check, and get ready to get into the water. You always need to dive with a buddy in case you run into trouble or run out of air. There is enough air for two people to breathe off one tank, in case you or your buddy run out of air. You practice 'sharing air' in case this happens. Your buddy checks your weight belt, buckles, air supply, hoses, pressure gauge and regulator (that's what you breathe from that goes into your mouth to give you air). Then you do the same for your buddy. My buddy for today was Will. He's from Australia and is learning to be a teacher.

Then it was time! My heart was racing a bit, but I was really excited. I stood on the edge of the boat in all my gear, fins, and put my regulator into my mouth, held onto my weight belt with one hand, and  held my mask to my face with the other, then took a giant step off the boat and down into the water. I made it and was fine at the surface. The others followed me and we all rinsed out our masks, and prepared to hold onto the guide rope and go down under the water. We inched down the rope, stopping to swallow or 'equalize' which means to clear our ears from the pressure going down. You either do this by swallowing like on an air plane, or plugging your nose and blowing gently until your ears pop. I can usually just swallow to clear my ears, so I'm lucky.

We went down about 12 meters then gathered at the bottom, and kneeled to watch Jenny, who was going to tell us what she wanted us to do. She uses a rattle under the water to get our attention because you can hear things really well, but you just don't know where the sound is coming from. It's really cool.

Jenny wanted us to practise some of the skills we had done in the swimming pool yesterday, to see if we could do them farther down, and in the ocean. We had to let water into our masks and clear the water from the mask. We also had to practise hovering in the water by breathing in to rise up, and letting air out to fall down. You have to practise this in order to stay down near the bottom when you are swimming so that you can see lots of fish. It takes a lot of practise, but is very easy once you hit the right ratio of intake and exhale. I love doing it. Then she took us on a swim around. There were a few fish to see, and some sea cucumbers, but not too much for this dive. We swam under the water for about 41 minutes and then Jenny signaled to us to surface. We did that, and had to go slowly as well because as you come up, you need to clear your ears when the pressure changes at each depth. It wasn't too hard, and we all came up without issue. We practised a few more skills at the surface then swam back to the boat and got back on. Once role call was taken again, we moved to our second dive site. We took off our gear, except our wet suits, and had some cookies and coffee that they serve on board. Oh, the dive site that we went to for the first dive was called Mango Bay. Just like your Mango, Livs.

Our second dive was about a 20 minute boat ride away, so Jenny gathered us again told us what skills we would have to do for the second dive, showed us some of the fish we might see and then told us to  suit up again because we were there. The second dive site was called the Junk Yard. There were a lot of old pieces of things that they put down there to create a dive site and attract marine life. Now there is a lot of life growing on the bars and pieces of machines, car parts etc. It's really neat that they built another site for life to grow on, and divers to be able to visit. We went down again to 12 meters, this time for 59 mins. It was way better for checking out the fish, and I saw a Puffer fish, Angel fish, Rabbit fish and some other little ones that I don't know the names of. They were really bright blue and pretty. This time we entered the water, backwards, holding onto our regulator and mask with one hand, and our weight belts, with the other. It was a very neat feeling to just fall backwards and down, into the water, off the boat.

Then, when we were swimming after Jenny signaled to us to follow her, one of the buddy team behind us went missing. Jenny told the three of us to kneel down at the bottom while she went to get the fourth person. It was pretty mirky and a bit difficult to see, so we figured that our fourth person lost sight of her partner and would be brought back by Jenny very shortly. We waitied for quite a few minutes, and Will and Alexandra both indicated that they were getting low on air. We signaled to each other that we would wait for a bit longer for Jenny, and if needed, we would all ascend to the surface together, before there were any air issues. Luckily, Jenny's rattle was heard a short time afterward, and she returned with our fourth person. The we all ascended to the surface and were fine. At the top, we practised some more skills, one of them being that Jenny took us down about 6 meters, and pretended that we were out of air, and had to ascend making a singing sound with our hand above our head to protect it, as if we could not find our buddy, and were out of air. Each person did it separately, then swam back to the boat and took off their gear. It was an incredible experience and I loved every minute of it.

All of us after our second dive on the upper deck

Once back on the boat, they took role call again, then came back to the dock. We took our stuff off the boat, washed and put away our gear, and called it a day. By then, it was about 5:30 pm. I went and had a shower after that, then came to the bar area to do my blog because the WiFi signal is a bit stronger. Jenny was on the night shift so she needed to be around the office and bar area. I sat with her and another dive master while they did their shift, and chatted with them, and had a drink. It was so pleasant. 

Then I went back to my bungalow to get some sleep because tomorrow we meet at 6:50 am to go out for our next dives. I think we have two more, tomorrow, so that will be great.

Have a great day and night everyone.