Lionfish dissection -Trip Day 14

I woke up at 6.30 after sleeping for 10.5 hours! Cornflakes today with a lecture on threats to a coral reef and then 9 am was our Open Water Diver Theory test. You needed 38 out of 50 to pass and I got 46 so I definitely passed! I went and bought some gift items then headed to the beach for the rest of the morning.

Lunch was hot dogs and egg and potato salads. I started to pack a few items which I knew I didn't need any longer on this trip and then made my way back to the dive centre for the last dive to complete the practical side of the divers course. We had to take our mask off fully an put it back on again, lower and only float up and down by natural breathing and then use a compass to navigate our way through the ocean. Once that was done, we did a bit of a fun dive since we had plenty of air left in our tanks and saw a turtle and a lionfish. Then at our 5 metre stop we all held hands and did the Mexican wave to celebrate finishing the course.

After our dinner of shepherds pie and veg we had a lecture and talk on lionfish and Rachael did a lionfish dissection demonstration to see how much it has eaten, whether it's male or female etc. It was kind of gross but cool at the same time.

 

It also happened to be one guys birthday so we got to have ice cream cake for his birthday which he didn't know about. I videoed his reaction whilst Rachael brought the cake out.

 

It was then an early night for me. I'm beginning to become old.

Toodles for now.

Day 2 of the Open water diver course! - Trip Day 12

Day 2 of the dive course started with pancakes, a lecture at the CEA and a theory class and quiz. Then our second trip to the hotel pool to learn some more dive skills which included taking the mask off and on again under the water. It took a little while for our entire group to master. It's harder than you think.

Lunch wasn't until 2pm and consisted of a burger and chips. Once lunch went down we went back to the dive centre for our second open water dive to practise what we just did in the pool but this time out in the open ocean. This time we went to Half Moon Bay and did the skills 16 metres deep. This dive was incredible. After we practised the skills we had time to go around some of the coral reefs and 2 eagle rays glided past us. It was a thing straight out of Finding Nemo! Also a barracuda and some turtle egg shell too.

When we ascended, after a 5m stop to decompress, we did some tired man tows. I pulled Alex along by his tank whilst he laid on his back but I don't think we even went anywhere. He found it funny and turned and pushed me the rest of the way by my feet. So much for him being the 'tired man'. We got back onto the boat and out of our equipment and basically became a speed boat on the way back to shore. It was a lot of fun. Alex and Analie signed our Padi dive books and got them stamped.

Dinner was chicken and rice. Then a lecture and a turtle talk and a turtle walk. We walked along to Playa Tortuga to see some turtles nesting, a couple were beginning to. We had a bucket of baby turtles to release into the ocean but they were sleeping so we couldn't release them otherwise they'll just get eaten. I fell asleep on some random hotels sun lounger as we were told we would be woken if anything happened. Unfortunately nothing really did and the rest of the team had to wake me up so we could go back to our hotel. As we were walking back along the beach some woman said hello to us and then continued to follow us for a while. It was creepy.

 

Toodles for now.