This morning we left from the dive center around 9. A short bus took me, Toto, and Eve to the beach, then it was a 5 minute boat ride out to the dive site. The site itself was marked with a permanent buoy. It was set up right alongside a reef, so that one could go down to the sandy bottom and then swim alongside the reef itself.
The gear was all brought to the boat and set up for us, all we had to do was put it on and go. The entry method into the water was as follows: Sit on the edge of the boat with your gear on and breathing from the regulator. Straighten your legs, hold on to your mask and regulator, and let yourself fall backwards into the water. A weird sensation, but I managed to do it right and not hurt myself.
Once in the water, we descended slowly down along the rope holding the buoy. This was very good, because it made it easy to control the depth I was at. Had a fair bit of trouble equalizing – going down even half a meter would make my ears hurt. But finally did make it down to the bottom. Then we just swam around, with Toto (the instructor) holding on to me and guiding me along. Eve was off a bit keeping an eye on things, he is learning to become an instructor himself.
Saw a bunch of cool things on this first dive. An eel, some very poisonous spiky looking fish (lionfish?), a whole school of something whose name I don't remember, and a bunch of other stuff. No camera on this trip, but I plan to rent one tomorrow. The thing that struck me is that you can go right up close to the fish. Not to touch, but definitely within reach. They stay right where they are, and even on the second dive where still all in the same places. There was one (a blenny?) which would swim backwards into a pipe which was attached on the bottom for people to hold on to and watch the fish. Toto chased it out, and it just waited a few seconds and then went back in. Swam up to its hole, looked in, then turned and backed down into it so just the head was sticking out. Also saw a cow fish – ugly thing, and a good size (maybe 12 inches). Most square-looking fish I've ever seen. After half an hour we slowly made our way back up the rope, took of the gear in the water and handed it to the guy on the boat, and then went in the boat ourselves.
After the first dive I was quite cold, even though the water temperature was 27 (yes, twenty-seven) degrees. Ate a banana I brought and some smarties they had on the boat, and put on my hoodie (yes, in 30 degree temperatures) to try and get warm. A half hour surface interval and we went to do the second dive.
First thing we did on the second dive is go down and then do an emergency swimming ascent exercise. So just swim straight up, making bubbles all the way so your lungs don't blow up. If you are 10 meters down (we were about 8), and take a full breath from the tank, you have air in your tank at a pressure of 2 atmospheres – twice as much pressure as on the surface, so twice as much air. If you don't breath out on the way up, this air will want to expand to twice the volume at the surface, and will rupture your lungs or enter into the tissue. Probably the most dangerous thing that can happen to you, and much more likely than decompression sickness. Number one rule: Always keep breathing; this can only happen if you hold your breath.
After the emergency swimming ascent, back down we went (right away). Equalizing was a lot easier on the second dive. Then did a mask clearing exercise: you put water in your mask and then get rid of it by looking up and blowing out through your nose. Also drop your regulator, then find it and put it back in your mouth (in the meantime remembering to blow bubbles, always breathing). After that it was swim around some more, again looking at cool stuff on the reef. Couldn't tell you in detail what we saw, but it was pretty awesome. I love how a whole school of fish just sat there, all facing the same direction and not moving from their place at all. This particular group was there on both dives, in exactly the same place the whole time. The density of animal life seems higher than on the surface. I'm sure it's not – on the ground you have many bugs and smaller things running around, but in the water you can see much more of what is actually there. And of course the reefs provide protection from currents and predators, so much more lives there than in open ocean. And then you see signs of stuff, like holes in the sand (apparently shrimp live in these, or eels).
At the end of the dive we did an "out of air" exercise. So I had to pretend that I was out of air, signal to my buddy, get his alternate air supply and start breathing from that. Then all 3 of us linked and went up together. A bit fast for my liking - this time my ears hurt after coming up (called a reverse block, too much pressure in the ear), and one of the didn't stop hurting for a couple of hours. I will have to do some research to see what I can do to make this easier. If you can't equalize you can't dive.
Once we got back to the dive center after the second dive, I was completely worn out. Spent most of the afternoon sleeping...
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