Friday afternoon and Jake cometh. He gets situated and acquaints himself with the beach (and also keeping an eye out for bleached urchins for his mom’s art project):
We’re set for morning dives each day he’s here: all 3 of us going Saturday morning, Jake and Michael on Sunday and Jake and I on Monday. The daily routine is pretty consistent: bike to the dive shop, lock our bikes, I wiggle into my 5mil wetsuit, then we walk across the street, through the Osprey Beach Hotel grounds, and step onto the boat from the beach. Then a whole 7 minute ride to our dive site, get the dive briefing, and in we go. Nat is our divemaster all 3 days (yay!), and he graciously hands my dive gear over the boat to me, already bobbing in the water, and I suit up. Other divers are entering via backward roll, but I don’t want to take any chances with my back. I think it’s a great way to go!
All of the dives are so beautiful; I don’t know what was going on on my first few that were just meh. Clear visibility and such beautiful coral walls and formations. Often, when we get to the wall, it’s a sheer drop down 7,000 feet. At one site, it was a sandy hill that just disappeared into the blue haze. Some spots have quite a bit of life, others, just the beauty of the coral. Ben, a Denverite on one of our dives with his dad, is supposed to be uploading to YouTube a great video another dive companion shared with him. Service too slow here on the island, but hopefully I’ll be able to add that video link to this post soon after I get home. I promise it’s worth coming back to check out!
Photos of the divers:
Getting ready to go:
Resting during the 40 minute interval between first and second dive:
The second dive was wonderful: a spot called mazes, where we swam up and down sandy channels between coral walls. However, the most spectacular part of the dive came at the end. At the end of each dive, we do what’s called a “safety stop”. We hang at 15 feet deep for 3+ minutes, just to equalize everything in our bodies before surfacing. Nat always went up to the boat first, so he can help the rest of us on board. I’m generally one of the last ones up, because I’m a shallow breather and always have lots of air left. Well, when Nat and Jack were on the boat, they see something in the water that causes them to put on their mask and snorkel and jump back in the water. Jake and I get to enjoy the whole scene from 20 feet under (that’s me with white fins on at about 22 seconds, 33 and for real at 43. Jake is beside me with blue fins). The whole adventure actually lasts for about 30 minutes, and the video really doesn’t capture the the delight of the observers, nor the playfulness of the 7 visitors:
We are all so happy, and head back to the dive shop, bursting with our story. We check out, then meet Michael for lunch at the Sandbar:
Yes, those are the infamous (and ridiculously strong) rum punches before us, as well as a dish empty from conch bites that we scarfed down in about 8 seconds. We ended up being joined at the table by our divemaster, Nat, the Denver family from the boat – Randy, Susie and Ben – and Jack, who arrived from London 25 minutes before we set off! Lucky for us, too, because it was his GoPro that captured the fun dolphin encounter.
That ends my dives as well. Our last dive was so incredible that anything else would be a let down. You will just have to wait for the video and accompanying text to know what I mean.
Boys left Tuesday morning, and I now have 4 days to enjoy the quiet relaxation and try to burn the feeling into my being. I hope that the length of this respite has given me tools and exercises I can practice to bring more calm into my ever day life. That was the whole point of “sitting” in one place for a month. Time to heal and rest after the incredibly hectic fall of 2013, and even deeper than that, the stress of the past 20+ years. That will take a bit more time, but this has made an incredible dent in that fatigue. Way to take care of myself! Hope to see or speak with you very soon….