Scuba

Or adventures in the green brackish waters of Sydney.

I have been battling the flu which set on to my lungs when I arrived in New Caledonia and I was inundated with people the weekend before the dive course. I was overwhelmed and still had two chapters to finish before I was allowed to start the course. With the threat of a $100 course alteration fee, I knuckled down to read with people buzzing around me.
Heath cleaned the bathroom and one back room and Deb flittered around keeping Heath from being killed by piles of trash and sorting the stuff for charity.

I felt bad, my friends were cleaning my house and I was watching Dive videos. Still, I did the last few and the final exam, only misreading one question so I got 98% instead of 100% but MEH, I passed.

SO with the weather being 4C in the am, I drove to Ramsgate to Abyss Scuba and even missed most of the am peak traffic.
I was early but the shop was unlocked and I had a coffee so the instructor was happy to start early. She introduced me to a student instructor who was to be my instructor and we set off for the pool.

I did the confined dive work and the endurance tests were, frankly, easy. Any girl with my percentage of fat (43% currently) can float easily for 10mins. Any girl with huge boobs could too. HA. The 200m swim was also easy as it was not timed so I could do a leisurely breast stroke.

Ticked all the confined dive boxes, we headed off for my first ocean dive. They had to find somewhere calm as I wasn't going near surf and I had told them of my Easter incident. Maz, my instructor and Jen the actual instructor, found Bass and Flinders Point was calm so we suited up and went for a swim.

COLD!!!!! Jen had brought some AWESOME (But gold plated) heated vests for the swim and THANK GOD.

Saw lots of fish along the wall. One, a huge groper came up to us and swam along with us for a bit and I was kissed on the mask by the tiniest cat fish. Odd creature. Most animals avoid other, larger animals, but this swam right up to me.

Happy to get warm in the shower at home. Brr why did I choose the end of may and not late April when it was still warm!!!

Day 2 of my Open water course was 2C. Wonderful. The cars were covered in ice.
Today I was exhausted and yawning most of the day. GRR. I was with a heap of Advanced students who where doing search and rescue today. We all piled into a bus and we ended up at Lilli Pilli as, again, I wasn't going to face the surf at Carrs Point.

I had three dives to complete today. Two learning/skills dives and a fun dive, which meant I had to plan, in a way, the dive. ie. How long, (20 mins or 100bar before turn)  what was the aim of the dive (Find the octopus) and what direction. (THAT way!) The water at Lilli Pilli had a 13C layer on top of the 16C water. Odd. It was so icy at the surface!! BRRRR I had no dive gloves and no fitted dive shoes so I was cold at my extremities. (Have to buy some) Luckily I was lent a hood for the dive. My ears coped, slowly, as I wasn't 100% but Maz allowed time for my system to equalize and all was well.
Dive one was where the advanced ppl spotted the octopus. It proceeded to ignore us and went about its business climbing a rock. Very very cool. Tiny sea horses clung on to the net that was strung up for a swimming hole and tons of tiny cuttle fish. One even turned purple. SO very cute!!! One of the boys got excited about a Nudibranch when he found one but I had no idea what it was. (A sea slug thing) Looked like a clear stick to me. Finally as we ascended, a yellow sea horse was seen in a barrel.

Back to the surface and I could change into warm clothes so I was much happier. :)

Paperwork back at the shop and I have my certification!

Now to do the advanced course (Paid for already) in Spring when the weather gets warmer. No more icy swims for me~!!!! I don't have a 5mm or 7mm wet suit. BRRR

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