Dive one did not go well to say the least, the visibility was just awful. You could barely see five meters in front of you if that, very unusual as just about all my dives out here have had wonderful visibility. Apparently there was a turtle on this dive, but as I didn’t see the turtle, it doesn’t count. Dive two, Melissa had figured out that the left had side of the dive site had much better visibility so we headed back in. Not long after, we found a turtle, a very curious turtle. Obviously very use to being fed by divers, it would come right up to your body and touch you a lot of the time, it was just incredible.
Matt one of the customers on this dive had been talking about something called ‘sexy shrimp’ commonly found near sea anemone. I was quite sceptical about such things but sure enough Matt found them. After the turtle realised we were going to carry on the dive we made our way to the bright luminescent blue anemone, and the shrimp were near it. Apparently though Melissa decided it was a good idea to point at the shrimp by putting your hand in the anemone, something she found out hurts, a lot. However, I still couldn’t see them so Matt decided the best course of action is to obviously just shove your whole hand into the anemone to point them out.
My next diving day was heading to a dive site named Pequeno Valle, Pete lead the dive and there was so much to see, large shoals of fish just about everywhere. With so much to see at these dive sites I was excited to get back in for dive two, so once I had changed my tank I was ready to get back in. However, my ever reliable kit decided differently as it so often does whilst I've been out here. Apparently it wasn't going to play ball and the LPI actually burst mid way through the hose. A special thank you to the Dive Centre in the UK who serviced my regs!
So that being that I got to sit on the boat staring at the shoreline as per usual.
So next day I stupidly accepted the responsibility of leading a dive. We headed over to Abades to do two shore dives. Only one customer with us today, Matt. He’s very easy going, luckily for me! So once kitted up I slurred and stuttered through my messy dive brief, something I definitely need to practise. We then headed to the water and swam out, once we descended I swam at the front and in the wrong direction.
Once Melissa had pointed me in the right direction the dive was much better; we saw two fangtooth morays and lots of impressive bream, damsels and parrot fish. We circled round and came back over the reef we had been going around. Now this is where it got complicated, I knew where I needed to be but I didn't know how to get there, the reef walls made it very difficult to get there, so I went right.
Of course, everyone else went left, which was the correct direction, so I quickly turned around.
Melissa did the next dive and obviously it was much better and didn't feel quite so sporadic. Another colourful dive, which ended on a high for most of the dive group, as Matt uncovered what I thought was a orange coloured plant or soft coral, what I was later informed of was that it was a frog fish, something that is very rare to see around here. To finish the day I was told my computer was kaput, I like to take pride in having such reliable and interesting equipment.
The next part of my PADI Divemaster internship involved mapping a dive site. However, as I'm often told both Olive and myself are special, and thus it was no surprise when it didn't exactly go to plan. I still managed to get some bearings and most of the direction changes and distances. Unluckily for both of us our maps didn’t show us ending up back at the boat and thus we need to do the dive again to figure out what we did wrong.
Saturday was a trip to one of my two favourite dive sites out here, the Poco Naufragio. There were two customers for this, Matt and Ryan. Literally where we descended there was a ray, so it made for interesting times.
It is just incredible seeing a ray so close, literally being able to reach out and touch it. This dive had just about everything you could ever want from a dive, after seeing the ray we moved on, after finding some sexy shrimp and seeing Matt’s impressive new signal for it, then to find morays, but not just one or two, there was three! Two black morays in pretty much the same space and a fangtooth right about them. This has to be one of my best dives since I've been here; it is up there with my turtles.
Sunday the last day of the week, and we headed for a shore dive at a new site for me, Las eras. With big plans for the first dive we were trying to head for an underwater nativity scene, but it became quickly apparent that we weren't going to get there as we had to swim against very strong currents. We did get to see a ray, a moray and an octopus, so it wasn't a bad dive.
The next dive of the day was heading to a pipeline, the current just as strong heading out in this direction meant it was an effort and often it felt like you’re finning but getting absolutely no where. Once there we were able to pull ourselves along via the handles on the pipe, and got to see some fairly impressive cleaner shrimp, morays and crabs.
So to summarise my week, the diving has been great, but my ever-wonderful equipment has been a pain as always. A big plus for this week was the successful completion of my Divemaster exam's, being the gullible idiot I am, when Pete told me I’d failed and was the first of forty people to do so my heart sank and expected a lecture on me being a failure.
Apparently these wind-ups are well known for anyone who passes first time!
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