Splak.net

Hey y'all! As ya know, I'm in Roatan, Honduras right now at a marine biology camp. Every year I've wanted to keep a journal of sorts, but have never gotten enough motivation to do so. This year, I think I'll keep a journal up on Splak to make it easy to keep up with what I've done and to keep y'all updated (or give you something to read when you're bored).

Day 1
Saturday, June 5
Arrived at 12:05, no food all day, I was DYING. I had a smoothie for breakfast, which isn't enough to keep me full. Lunch on the hill; typical Saturday lunch (sandwich buffet). Small group this week; only 22 (including parents). Usually we have a room with four or so people and tiny bunk beds and no airconditioning. This year, I got really lucky. I have a cabin with only one other person, and there are two full sized beds in it. HELLZ YEAH. I'm rooming with a girl named Ryan Rebecca who is twenty (Yay mature roommates, rather than junior high kids...). Like me, she is aiming to get her divemaster's cert in the two weeks she is here. We're both going to try to go on the sharkdive this week (if our parents let us), which will be awesome since I have never gotten too before, and niether has she. Computers are working better than usual, which is always a plus.

It's damn hot here. Most likely it's just because we haven't been diving yet, but none the less, it's worse than Mississippi for now. Stll gorgeous though. I've already seen an iguana-type-thing (basically and iguana with no spines O.o) and a monkey-la-la (picture evidence after my return :P). Dives start tomorrow as long as divemaster class. Oh, teh fun we shall havez.

PM: Yummy dinner. Bugs suck.

Low: I found out that my camera doesn't have enough zoom to efficiently take a picture of an agouti.
High: Internet is working well, comparatively. Should be easy enough to keep in contact.

awesome, keep these journal entries coming!

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"Who controls the present controls the past. And, who controls the past controls the future" - George Orwell

Day 2
Sunday, June 6
Hardly slept at all last night. I'm not really used to no airconditioning... so that was rough. Also, there is this beetle that has two glowing green spots on it's back. Not only was that unnerving, but it was pretty distracting as well. I ended up trying to sleep with the sheets completely tucked around me so it couldn't get in. Not exactly comfortable. Had a great breakfast of pineapples, a banana nut muffin, and hash browns. Yummm... We then had orientation at RIMS at 8. Same ole stuff. Luckily I brought my gear so I didn't have to wait with everyone else while they got theirs from Greg. We had our check out dive off of the back of the boat. Murky, as usual, since it was the channel. Saw a barracuda once I jumped in. It was about 2-3 feet long. Great start! However, I had issues with my buoyancy and tended to float and couldn't quite get down. Luckily, that fixed itself as my suit flooded.

Dive 1
Mandy's Eel Garden
The water was cold, and unusually clouded with organic particles. Lots of cnidarians, too. That wasn't good... Right when I got in I saw a moon jelly; there were also comb jellies and some colonial cnidarians (that, which I later found out, sting). Not much of an issue at first, but then I felt some stinging on my ankles. A little later, my calf stung where a nematocyst had gotten into my swimsuit. Then my hand hurt like hell. I had to grab onto it with my right hand and hold onto it for a while to try to get it to stop hurting. It didn't work to well. Later, I let go, and then felt stinging again. Looking down, I saw a jelly whose body was the size of an m&m, but the tentacles where about 2 inches long. Other than that, I also saw two turtles (one green and one hawksbill), three skates (or rays), and a lionfish (which is not a good sign for our marine reserve...).
Max Depth: 50 feet
Time: 48 minutes
Diver in: None
Diver out: H

Blackened seabass sandwich is great for lunch, especially since it had fries. YUM. After rinsing off, we went to RIMS for our first Fish ID class. Review, as usual. I tried to not fall asleep. I also failed (It's the only time of day that we are in the airconditioning, and it's dark. Basically, impossible to not nod off...). Then we headed back to the dock where I picked up my regulator (the depth gauge was broken and we tried to fix it, but couldn't) and set up.

Dive 2
White Hole
The water was much, much clearer than the first dive. We had a boat-load of comb jellies for some reason, but luckily, they don't sting (I witheld this information from the new divers for a while. Their shrieks of terror as they jumped in and looked underwater were simply too satisfying). I got my buoyancy under control this time, and was controlled enough to float very close to the coral. I saw some small crustacian the kept reaching out with it's arm to grab algae, and even some secretary blennies. I have a hypothesis on blennies: they all dart to catch their food. Secretary blennies shoot out of the christmas-tree-worm holes to grab passing algae; red-lipped blennies sit still and whip their heads to grab passing food; arrow blennies pop their curved tails to shoot forward and snatch their prey. Also, there was a 1-1.5 foot trumpet fish and a juvenile spotted drum. Unfortunantly, only RR was close enough to me to show her the drum. Also saw a juvenile foureye butterflyfish and a jewelfish (juvenile yellow-tailed damselfish).
Max Depth: 57 (oops...)
Time: 48 minutes
Diver in: D
Diver out: I

Finished logging dives, and only have three empty pages left in my dive journal. I need to buy a new one soon. White Hole was my 64th dive. Finally getting a good number of dives! Probably will be helping out with the rescue diving classes when they begin in-water training. AKA: lying on the bottom of the channel pretending to be unconcious. Yay...

Very interested in this thread. Please keep this up.

(I was obsessed with skates, rays, and sharks when I was a kid)

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Day 3
Monday, June 7
Got a ton of sleep last night, luckily! It wasn't terribly hot for once, and the glowing eyed demon (bug) didn't show up. There was a gecko on the rafters, and I think that kept it away. Breakfast of bacon and scrambled eggs, along with fresh squeezed orange juice, pineapples, and watermelon. Found out that our trip to Maya Key was posponed due to weather. Then headed to the dock for our dolphin husbandry session!

For the husbandry session, it was a modified version of our usualy anatomy session with the dolphins. Instead of sitting back and letting the trainers show us all of the parts of the dolphins (like its rostrum, fluke, and dorsal fin) the returning members actually got to help take measurements of the dolphin's lenght, and girth, and also got to take a petri dish sample as they coughed and helped practice the ultrasound behaviour for the dolphins. It was great! Then our dolphin, Bill, splashed us. Luckily we were in water clothes... After the husbandry session, we headed to our dive.

Dive 3
Wayne's Place
It was very windy today, so the waves were awful. They threw out a tagline for us to hold onto so we wouldn't float away and have to waste air and energy coming back. It was a bad dive for me. It was very cold, once again, and when we jumped in, we were right over the drop off. I really don't have an issue with the ocean if I don't think about it, but I am, by nature, a hydrophobe. When I jumped in and looked down, it was nothing but blue. I started getting pretty nervous. There was a ****-ton of jellies too. Not just comb-jellies, but real, long tentacled jellies. I looked like a fool going down because I would randomly jerk right or left to avoid them... I ended up getting stung on my ankle and ear (I know right? Ear? Wtf?). However, RR and I took up the rear again. I randomly turned around to check on her, and past her was a green sea turtle rising to take a breath. I got her attention and showed her, then tried to get someone's attention to show them, but no one looked (I found out later that Dan (Dan-Dan the Turtle man) had seen us turned around and followed our gaze to see it. It was his first turtle in two years!). As we went through a gully in the reef wall, it turned brown and murky because of sedimentary run off. Not pretty. Other than that, there was nothing terribly extraordinary regarding this dive.
Max Depth: 60
Time: 48 minutes
Diver in: A
Diver out: H

Had a lunch of stewed conch (a little to heavy before a dive). Got to rest for a little while before heading out to the second dive (and listened to music for a while before hand).

Dive 4
Fish Den
Best dive of the year by far. The water was cool and clear, and we jumped in right above the wall, so it was only 15 feet or so of water. Also, before the dive, I had a lot of fun messing with other divers around me. They'd thrown out a tagline, but instead of holding onto it and not getting swept backwards, the divers would let their hands slide down the rope, and we ended up in a huge ball at the end of it. Also, I went down with my snorkle instead of my regulator... Right from the start, it was a great species spotting dive. I saw the most gigantic donkey dung seacucumber ever. It was about three feet long, and the center had the girth of a soccer ball! I also saw another lionfish though. That's really bad. Later I saw a pea (OMFG PEA I FINALLY SAW ONE THIS YEAR), a mean-ass looking filefish, two goldentail morays (saw one, found one), a butter hamlet (which are very very rare and [according to our marine instructer] "aren't found in Roatan"), three indigo hamlets, a juvenile 3 spot damselfish, secretary blennies, a tigertail seacucumber (if you don't know what they look like, look it up on google. It's scary as hell when you don't know what it is), and THIRTY FRICKEN SQUID. One inked me. It was awesome. I'd never seen them before. Also, they were desplaying some sort of courtship where a male would approach a female and flare it's tentacles at her and then steer her away from the group a little. I saw about 3 pairs, and one male that was trying to get as many females as he could, also by scaring away other squid. Some were only 3-4 inches long, but others were about 8. They kept flashing their colors.
Max Depth: 50
Time: 58
Diver in: D
Diver out: I

Afterwards we had our coral lecture. Luckily no one fell asleep (though I did nod off with my eyes open somehow...) this time. The we had a while off and went to the snack shop. Because of the music being played near our cabin, I went to the other decks before dinner to hang out. At dinner, I managed to filch a Frangipani off of Kyle G. because it was happy hour. I said I'd "give him another one." Yeah, riiight. After lunch, we hung out more, then had highs and lows.
Low: I got stung by a jellyfish in my ear.
High: The second dive because I got to see a butter hamlet (to rub it in my counselor's face)

After highs and lows we played a card game (similar to slap jack, but more more complex) for about 2 hours. I won the second round, which was also the hardest and longest round. Then we stayed up until one talking about back home.

Day 4
Tuesday, June 8
Due to lack of sleep last night, the morning was pretty rough. I really don't even remember eating breakfast or anything....hmm...

Dive 5
Melissa's Reef
Worst dive yet. I forgot my rashguard so I went in with my sleeveless divesuit. It started out alright, just a little cold and all, and I even found a turtle right at the start because it can up right behind my dive buddy, RR. However, the jellyfish were the worst they had ever been this year. I had to keep my arms folded, trying to let as little skin show as possible. It didn't work. I spent the whole dive dodging the jellies rather than looking at the coral and fish. At one point, I even got caught in a swarm where the were on all sides. I got so panicked that I almost just went up. That happened a second time. I got stings all along the side of my face near my ear and down my neck. The worst was a sting that simultaniously affected my whole upper left arm. Miserable.
Max Depth: 55
Time: 48 minutes
Diver in: A
Diver out: H

For lunch, we did finally get to go to the key. We took a bus across the island, which I always love. Once we got there, we took a ferry to the key itself and went on a tour. We saw black howler monkeys, scarlet macaws, spider monkeys, capuchin monkeys, two species of toucans, an ocelot, a magay, and a jaguar. The toucans were my favorite (the male had some really funny territorial behavior). I got great pictures of the animals, and finally got to see a breadfruit (I found out about them in 4th grade and have been curious ever since). Great lunch of wahoo, rice and beans, and fried bananas. Then swam at the pool for a while before returning to the docks. While we were waiting on the boat, there were about eight nurse sharks swimming in the pens by us. Some were pretty huge. Once we got back to the resort, we got on the boat to go to a dolphin session before our dolphin dive. For the first time ever, I got to see the dolphin performed an aquired trick called "create." On the trainer's signal, the dolphin would do something completely random, and would only be rewarded if he hadn't done it before in the session. Along with some really creative vocals, our dolphin, Bill, also created some very interesting moves I'd never seen a dolphin at Anthony's Key do. One involved him doing a tail flip (fancy swim) that he had done before, but he finished by spiraling underwater. It was incredible. He also did a backwards flip/jump. I'd never seen that either.

Dive 6
Front Porch
For a dolphin dive, it sucked; no dolphins showed (they are allowed out and trained to come to us, but are still allowed some free will. They were two dominant males, Paya and Richie, and a female was on her cycle. We weren't exactly their priority). However, it still was a great dive. At 50 feet down, Front Porch is huge patches of sand, so you don't have to be as careful about hitting the bottom. I saw two lizard fish, a midnight parrotfish (YEAH! It was huge! And also uncommon), a lionfish (supposidly one of the two on that dive. Not good), a peacock flounder (that I watched my usually calm and still dive buddy chase after for a good few minutes [I laughed so hard I almost spat out my reg]), and some razorfish (which I just can't help but want to torment). Like I said; bad dolphin dive, good overall dive. Also: No jellies on that one!
Max Depth: 58
Time: 50
Diver in: C
Diver out: J (actually, according to the charts, we weren't even on the charts. We should be bent. Oops)

After, I got to shower before going to the dolphin lecture. I always love that lecture, and had no problem staying awake. Also, the airconditioner is great. Dinner was seabass and rice and a salad. Yum. Nothing else to report on for tonight.

Quick question if you have the time.
I am not a diver so I'm confused about the Diver in/Diver out tags. What does this mean? I can't find an answer on the googles.

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I'm SSI certified, I'm guess she is either PADI, or its some nomenclature for the higher level of Cert that she has than me. My best guess is Nitrogen levels, since every dive the letter gets lower, and on the 2nd dive of the day she starts at a lower letter. As you dive everything is compressed, including the air you breathe, so you get more than double doses of what is in the air, the deeper you go the faster you use up your air since it compresses, your body accumulates extra nitrogen saturation in your blood and body, as you ascend the nitrogen can oversaturate and separate into nitrogen bubbles (think putting too much sugar in coffee and it can't absorb it), giving you the "bends" where the nitrogen accumulate in your joints, blood, and tries to boil into a gas (I had one in my tooth, not fun). This is why most (no shallow) dives have a safety stop, you stop at like 15ft for a certain time, to breath out the extra nitrogen. Before your dive you plan out your bottom depth, time, safety stop, and decompression time (time before your next dive). Its an accumulation effect, so I could do a 100ft dive one day, but if I did them over and over, I would be at a large risk if I did not follow proper procedure.

So I could be way off, its been 10yrs since all my scuba gear was lost when a hurricane ripped off our dock box at our boat in Destin, everyone had a different method, I used charts in my dive log book, my dad used a special old (from like the 60s) decompression gauge left over from his deep water days (was literally a dial with a needle, with it saying "good, ok, bad" and the amount of time to decompress, as you sat on the surface it would slowly drop, under water it would go up), all the higher end computer/gauges keep track of it now too, but I could be way off, its just a guess.

Edit:
This looks almost identical to what I remember doing (like I said 10yrs), but I clearly see the letters on here, I must of forgotten.

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-- .:Splak|StackableNut --

Thank you Cole,

Looking at this, I'm certain that this is what she meant. How fascinating. I'm now certain that I want to become scuba certified.

Fucking awesome!

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no ac welcome to my life

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Rule's of Wyatt
you talk shit to me ill talk shit back
you fuck with my shit im gonna fuck with you back
you lock my shit before i feel i made my point ill just make another post
you lie to me you act like your hot shit and if you think your better than me
ill fuck with your shit

you try and fuck with me your get fucked back

Update: We had the fiesta last night, so I was not able to get on and post, nor log dives. Crunched for time at the moment, but will post later today. And yes, those are our letters from the dive tables (we really weren't as bad as they say because, even though we'd go to 60, we wouldn't bottom out there. They are just very ridged).

**Updated**
Day 5
Wednesday, June 9
Had a great night sleep last night. I got to go to bed around ten, which is really, really good. We had our usual early breakfast, then had an earlier morning dive.

Dive 7
Barry's Reef
Can't recall a lot about this dive, except that it was a little chilly, but really clear, and there weren't many jellies. Within the first few minutes, I spotted a goldentail moray and showed my buddy, RR. About two minutes later, she waved me over and showed me one also. Then, we ended up seeing the tiniest pea I've ever seen underwater. It was so tiny that it only had about 4 or 5 dots on it. However, we did end up seeing the species we had wanted to not see: lionfish. Not one. Not three. Six lionfish. It was a chilling sight. There was a small one among the group which means not only are they surviving, but they are thriving.
Max Depth: 50
Time: 48 minutes
Diver in: A
Diver out: G

Backreef Snorkel
Every week, we go outside of the marine reserve to catch and bring in different creatures and learn about them. I managed to snag a female sailfin blennie while she was in a bleached coral head. I heard that when she was placed in our collection bucket, she swam out and flashed her fin a couple times. I also collected a queen conch. Other specimens we got were milk conch, bluehead wrasse, seabiscuits, upside-down jelly, juvenile lionfish, anemone, and a hermit crab. It's always really neat getting to learn about new things you hadn't seen before, and I love being able to answer the other campers' questions now about the things we find.

Lunch of shrimp kabobs and corn salad. Yum. Then we had the second part to our dolphin lecture. Once again, it's terribly hard to stay awake in the AC. It's even worse right after you eat... I nodded off with my eyes open again. Not to badly at least. Some others fell asleep though. It's really a shame, because the information about the dolphins is very interesting.

Dive 8
Green Outhouse
Once again: a very clear, cool dive. There is a younger girl named Megan who insisted on showing me a graysby, our creature feature for the dive, being cleaned by gobies. It was adorable. Also, I saw ANOTHER butter hamlet! Even though they supposidly are very rare. Awesome. I held my hand out for a goby to clean, and it headed to it, then passed right over and started to clean my gauges instead. Damn those gobies.
Max Depth: 50
Time: 43
Diver in: C
Diver out: I

Tonight was the fiesta. We had delicous island food. Also, one of our counselors gave us glowsticks when it got dark. We had a lot of fun with that (I made a belt and earrings). We tried to look for hermit crabs but couldn't find any, so we skipped rocks instead. There was the usual limbo (which Joey won again for the 8th year in a row), dance off, hermit crab race, and firedancers. The dancers were great this year because he brought his little daughter who was about four, and she did a "routine" with a regular hula hoop.

I don't get it. Why are lionfish bad? They look badass and are venomous. They're like the samurai of the sea.

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I googled it yesterday.

http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/lionfish.html

And now you know

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I for one, welcome our new Lionfish overlords.

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