Splak.net

Day 20
Thursday, June 22
We had our turtle talk in the morning. It's just not the same as when Dan Dan the Turtle Man does it, but it wasn't bad, at least. The first thing we did was go to the backreef where we had our snorkel collection (it's off of the marine reserve). Instead of doing the snorkel, though, my partner and I struggled through two more divemaster skills.

The first one is called skin ditch and recovery. What we had to do was start out with mask, fins, snorkel, and wetsuit. We had to swim down about 6 feet and take off our mask and fins and snorkel and pile them up on the bottom and put a weight on them to hold them down. We then would come up and rest for a while, then have to dive back down. When we got down, we'd have to put on the fins and mask and snorkel, then clear the mask, and then clear the snorkel, all without breaking the surface and all with one breath. It took me about five tries. After my fourth, I almost gave up. I could easily get down and put my stuff down, but when I'd try to clear my snorkel, I simply wouldn't have enough air to force all of the water out, and would end up inhaling some. The fourth time I hated myself for, because I had gotten it, but there was only a little water left. I'd inhaled it, but when I did, it scared me and made me spit my snorkel out, even though I could have kept it in. I was so upset by that point. The next time, though, I was able to make it up with it all mostly cleared. My snorkel still had a little water in it, but I forced myself to keep it in my mouth and keep breathing until it was cleared.

The second skill we did was called a scuba ditch and recovery. Basically, a bailout, except instead of jumping in with your gear, you simply have to swim down to it. I swam down to the bottom and emptied my BC, then started to take my gear off. It really wasn't difficult at all. I also figured out a shortcut: You're supposed to purge your regulator to get the excess air out of it before you surface. Instead, I just turned my air of and breathed in twice to suck the extra air out. It worked well. Once I caught my breath, all I had to do was swim down and crank my air and make sure my regulator was purged. When we did this for bailout, our lungs had to be empty. This was much easier. I then just took my time getting my gear back on.

Lunch was on the key. It's always the best and worst of the week. It's absolutely delicious, but the condition your stomach is in for a whole day after makes it tough to say whether or not it IS worth it...

Dive 93
Pillar Coral
This was our Robin Hood dive. We looked for jewelfish (baby yellowtailed damselfish), arrow crabs, arrow blennies, and sea plumes (because of the feather in his hat). It was an alright dive, but then my partner started having a really bad headache (she wasn't my buddy, so there was a lot of this that I didn't catch). She felt better though, so kept diving. Halfway through, though, she reached out to grab Greg, the camp's director, and he went up to the surface. Not only that, but he also had to pull her to the boat. She was having a crippling migrane (we didn't know until we got back to the boat). It was an ok dive otherwise. We saw a pea (YAY), and I even was able to see a rainbow parrotfish. I'd never seen one, and it was HUGE.
Max Depth: 40 feet
Time: 50 minutes
Diver in: A
Diver out: G

Dive 94
Pillar Coral
Night dive. I lead it. SCARIEST DAMN THING I'VE EVER DONE. Jeebus. I've never given myself a heart attack that many times in a row. I can't handle that sort of pressure :< First, when we had to get out of the shallows, I couldn't tell if I was about to go into a deeper area, or straight to a drop off...that was nervewracking, and also happened several more times. There was a hole right in the water where I jumped in, and out of curiosity I shined my light down in it. Turns out it was about 30 feet deep and the current went INTO it. I almost pissed myself. Also, I had to keep my knife in hand so I could tap my tank (and feel a little more secure), but I had my light in my right hand... so I was very clumsy with it. I also got scared later when I shined my light on the buoy, but thought it was some huge-ass fish. The worst though, was when I looked up and saw a flashlight. It was waving around like crazy. It took me at least 2 panicking minutes to be sure that it was the beacon for the boat rather than a diver freaking out. I also almost got hit by the boat because the current was so strong and the water was so shallow. And, once we got the kids out, my light died. The other two people in our group were still somewhere out there, but wouldn't turn their damn lights on so I had no way to know where they were or to signal them to come to the boat. It was crazy. Plus side: we saw lobsters and a sleeping turtle. Wheeeeee (sarcasm).