On Monday it was Theiss' turn to have a full day off and Malene went in the pool together with Will to conduct a DSD-course. Afterwards the three of them went to the Yellow Mountain together with the DSD's dad, Alice, Casandra, Eric and Pete for some good diving. They dove the Crocodile Rock, which was a great experience for Malene, for whom it was the first time there. After the dives they had a RDP-session (basically how to plan dives within no decompression limits) and practiced knots needed to do the following Search and Recovery scenario.
The next day was a sunny and a hot day, but then again, we don't have many bad days here! We went on the boat to Yellow Mountain with Cassandra, Trigger, Alice and David. Alice and Dave were in for a couple of fun dives; the rest of us had an exciting objective: To map Alien Rock.
Eric was on boat cover and he got Alice and David in the water without any problems. Pete then gave us a basic introduction to underwater mapping techniques. The procedure is to assign one diver to taking spot depths, another to do compass bearings, and have the last two to count kick cycles (distance). That went really well and we went in on another dive along the exact same route to swap roles and to double check the results from the first dive. As we went along we drew a simplified map which had to include recognizable features. These were our starting point, which is a small "valley", where the anchor is situated, and going out from there you have sand on your right hand and rocky features on your left. After a couple of minutes you'll eventually hit Alien Rock which is a massive boulder rising up in front of you. It's a spectacular view and on this day we had about 25 m of visibility, which we didn't mind at all. Diving along the northern edge of the rock, you'll then do a right hand turn approx. 90 degrees. At this point you're basically faced with a kind of naturally formed gateway and the sight is simply breathtaking (which then again might not be the most fitting expression for a scuba experience): Alien Rock seems to almost grow into another massive rock, though the most of the overhang that once combined the to features now lie on the sea floor and has transformed into the home and habitat of many different fish species (like damsels, wrasses and trumpet fishes), morays, beautiful anemones, small reef lobsters and octopi.
On Wednesday the 4 of us went to Yellow Mountain again, this time to do the Search and Recovery scenario. Our main objective was to find a hidden object using a certain search pattern, and then lifting it to the boat using a liftbag, which was a challenging and fun experience! In the afternoon we went in the pool to polish our Scuba Review Skills.
On Thursday we all had to go though a medical, which is required to act as a PADI Divemaster. We "slept in" because we weren't due to meet before 9 o'clock. And we think that was welcomed by all of us. Afterwards we hit the pool to practice and asses our 400 meter swim. The rest of the day we chillaxed in the shop with some small tasks and did the daily jobs.
On Friday we had a day off. We basically stayed in and tried to sort out some Divemaster stuff etc.
The following day, Malene went to Abades for the first time with Hannah, Cassandra, Will, Melissa and James (a DSD). They had some wonderful dives, and a little competition was established between the girls: Who could spot the most species during the two dives. Abades is abundant with both small and bigger aquatic life forms, so it was a perfect site to do this and good practice as well to recognize the most common species.
Theiss went with the other guys (Trigger, Pete (boat), Eric, Alice and Davied) to El Delfin. We don't go there very often because in order to dive the site safely, the conditions has to be near perfect. And they were on this day. It's a massive rock sitting very lonesome in the deep blue, but at the same it's pulsating with life. We went down to approx. 20 m, and then swam towards the rock. When we hit the site, we saw a small eagle ray seaching for food in the sea grass. It didn't take notice of us at all, so we just watched it for a little moment while he was doing his ray-things, you know whatever a ray gotta do. Buoyed emotionally we went a long and probed the many cracks and holes. Doing this we saw a couple of very shy red reef lobsters and a Glasseye infected by large Isopods. Curious Trigger fishes were following us and one of them even tried to manhandle Alice's torch. Bad Trigger fish!
After an awesome dive at El Delfin, we went to Star Fish Bay, a small boat ride away. That was simply a depressing sight. The long spined black sea urchins have more or less conquered all the cracks and potential hiding places on this site leaving it a very desolate place. Eric and Theiss got a little bit carried away stabbing and killing as many individuals of this invasive species as possible, so Alice had to rattle fiercely to get us to follow the group. But Star Fish Bay is definitely a good candidate for a future Project AWARE dive.
Back at the shop we had a session of sale techniques with Pete, and that definitely created some hilarious situations.
On Sunday the whole team went for three jolly boat dives, which we all enjoyed. First site was El Delfin, following more or less the same route as the other day. We saw morays and a decent sized round stingray chillaxing on the sea bed. Next stop was the Pipeline. It's only the bases from the pipeline that are left, but it's lot of fun to probe the small spaces beneath them. We saw some pretty big roughtailed stingrays hiding in the sand underneath some of these bases. Moreover we saw a baby black moray, flat crabs and big schools of breams. We had two excellent dives here before returning home. Hannah and Eric are now officially Divemasters, so congrats to them!
In the afternoon (guess what?) the four of us (Trigger, Cassandra and us), the aspiring and hopeful Divemaster interns, went to the pool to do the demonstration skills.
It's been a good week with a great atmosphere around the place. Meanwhile, we are starting to get the hang of the different routines of the place, so hopefully in a week or so we can act as decent mentors to the new interns arriving.
Chat next Time
Theiss & Malene
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