Bring on the straight jacket, I am officially certifiable!

I am officially NAUI certified to go chase fish around! For the most part the trip was fantastic and as soon as I get back from the Fourth of July Vegas trip, I will put my hat in the ring for the SingleCruise’s after Thanksgiving cruise and look for reputable dive operators in Cozumel, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and the Keys. Wahoo and yay me!

The first dive was actually just a snorkel near the hotel. I have never worn a wet suit before and so the dive skills were interesting at first. I am a lot more buoyant with a wetsuit so well… let’s just say… Hi! Glad to meet ya! I’m Bob! Still with that finally taken into account it was fun to start with a bit of skin diving.

The second and third dives were out on the boat that afternoon. We went to a cove dubbed the ‘Aquarium’ to start. We were about 30 feet or so and went through the various mask clear and regulator recovery skills. It is a bit difficult to do these skills when you are underweight but all in all it went smoothly there until we just swam around and I began to rise a bit. I spent much of that dive fighting to keep down and even had people rising when they tried to help pull me down. Back on the surface, four more pounds were added and no problemo, dude! Visibility was stated at 30 feet but I and others really guessed it to be less than 20 feet so seeing a large amount of purty things just did not happen on this or the third dive.

A third dive started with a few navigation skills and then just a bit of swimming around chasing rays, angel fish, parrot fish and harassing a few seargent majors. I never did have respect for military authority I guess. J Given that there was more diving the next day there was not even a glass of wine in my hand that evening. I felt naked! :)

The fourth and fifth dives were out on the boat the next morning and we took an hour jaunt out to the dive sight on San Pedro Island. On the way over there were several dolphins playing race the boat and acting as our “guides”. Seals awaited us on these dives with the first one being our deep dive skill set.

Into the water and down the anchor line to 60 feet we went. It really did not feel exceptionally deep and this was when I was really very much at peace with the whole thing. Octopus, puffer fish, and seal fish were added to the chase list this time around, but as with the first two actual scuba dives, the multitude of rock fish were carefully avoided.

The last dive started with a simulation of a rescue of an unconscious diver from the bottom. My dive buddy was a reasonably big guy so getting him up from the bottom was a bit of a struggle. I did not seem to have to worry about ascending too fast anyhow. After that fun, we swam around and found a few more little creatures and had seals dart around us like F-16s. The emergency swimming ascent was somewhat anti-climatic because after that… Viola! Dives and classes were done!

And now I am back at work, today. Gee, yippee!