Almost Done....

Ok, that was a first! Today I had planned a five-dive day, but for the first time since I started diving, I chose not to dive one of the scheduled dives. Woke up at 5:52 a.m. to a dogfight somewhere below my apartment. So, an early start, but nothing unusual about that. Helped with two open water dives in the morning with Natalie, so a 7 a.m. kick-off for that. It was hard work. There was this Swedish lady and let’s just say she was big-boned. Well, she needed 8 Kg on her belt and then another 2 Kg in her BCD to keep her down. I use 4 and probably could drop another one or two (Stone, you’ll have to help me with that). She was actually incredibly over-weighted, but would constantly panic and so had no buoyancy from her breathing. She would be dragging along the bottom one second, then flying up to the surface the next. Which meant my dive profile for the two morning dives looks like a fairground big dipper. I was above her one second trying to force down hundred of pounds of Swede, then above her a second later grabbing the yoke of her first stage to stop her from crushing the poor hapless coral below.

Who needs bloody gyms, I got my weights workout right there. And I also got my cardio three times today. On both of the open water dives I was having to kick a lot to play bouncy ball with the Swede, then to make sure we didn’t lose the group who were a little ahead. Visibility was back to “shockingly shite”.

Well, that was cardio circuit one. In between the two open water dives I got cardio circuit two. I have already told you how much I have been dreading the 400m swim. Too bad for me that another DMT is doing his around the boat. There was quite a bit of wind today. So much so that we had 3 to 6m waves (yes there were a lot of sea-sick students). Get back on the boat from dive one and a DMT who was doing his boat cover was doing laps around the boat for his 400m. I should have taken a sick-note, but I am so close I just wanted to get it done. So, I volunteered to Natalie to get it out of the way. I t was, pardon the vernacular, fucking brutal. On one side of the ship (the port side if you were facing the prow) I was actually moving quite fast, as the very strong current and waves were going sort of in that direction. “Sort of” because the waves would hit the side of the boat and then drown me on their way back out. So a faster side but quite a lot of sea swallowing.

On the other side (the starboard side if you were following a minute ago), I was equally as screwed, because then I had to swim against the current. That side would take me about three times as long to swim as the port side. And I would still swallow half the flipping ocean. I was a drowned rat when I was finished and feeling particularly ill and salty. Screw seasickness, just drink seawater to feel like shit.

You may remember that I have anticipated only needing a 1 for that skill (out of a maximum 5), but I just wanted to get the pain over with, so I think I scored a little higher. I completed it in 7:39 seconds. I’ll find out tomorrow how many points that is. Personally, I don’t care. Under the circumstances I think I was a fucking champion.

So, then we finish the morning dives, head back to port and have 20 minutes before I am back out for the afternoon dives. And we head to Chumpon Pinnacle. Chumpon is out in the friggin’ ocean a ways. Did I mention the high waves. They didn’t improve further out to sea. In fact they significantly increased. I wasn’t really feeling sea sick, but the stomach of seawater and the bouncing boat certainly didn’t help. Viz was still shit too. But, I had asked Scott and Celia to help me with my mapping project, so we tried mapping Chumpon. One of the deepest dives on the island. Not an easy task with limited viz. On top of which the currents were incredibly tough around the pinnacle today. It was cardio workout three just getting around the bloody rock.

Super cool thing though, I saw my second shark (well, it could have been 2, 3 and 4 because we saw a shark 3 times, but I think it was the same one). Scott spotted it first and we could make out its shape as it swam by. A bull shark. Then I spotted it behind us and we could make it out a little better. Then Celia spotted it glide directly below us at about 5 metres (15 feet)! I could make out its eyes, its fins, it colour variations, everything. So cool. It was Scott’s first shark to boot, so he was super-excited and also a little terrified. Yar, cool shark. It is about to be put on my map for the dive site when I get back to my apartment in half an hour.

So, the second dive was at Twins, a dive I have now done about 10 times. I was knackered, so Celia and Scott went and dived it, while I had a snooze on the boat. The first time I have EVER turned down a dive. Ah well…(we won’t mention the no-no of reverse profiling my dives by having a deep dive after two shallow dives….but the surface interval between them gave me an “A” pressure group [the least amount of nitrogen in your system], so shhhhhh).

Back to shore, a quick and cheap bite to eat at the Coffee Boat (yummy con gin jair food for me – ok, my spelling may be off, but it means Buddhist vegetarian essentially) and then back for a night dive with Noé and Celia. Well, Celia, as Noé ended up leading a fun diver…..hey the kids have to make money, so kudos.

So Celia and I had a nice little night dive…..viz was still a bag o’crap, but we did spot a bunch of MASSIVE barracuda along the bottom, as well as a sleeping triggerfish in a cleft in one of the pinnacles. Night diving is now so relaxing to me. It is like having a massage at the end of a long day. The darkness surrounding you is so soothing.

So, back at Sunshine for 8:45 and left at 9 p.m. Pooped, but dedication to blogging pulled me down to Café Del Sol to try and get this off as fast as possible. This place shuts in 5 minutes, but I think I can make it.
So ….. YES, I almost WIN. I had planned on finishing my divemaster requirements by December 15 (today), but instead I will finish them tomorrow (December 16). Not too shabby, so I am pleased. Plus, this gives me a bit more time for simply having “fun” dives and getting ready by completing my knowledge reviews for the IDC. On top of which I can now hopefully concentrate on finishing my law school application for my doctorate. Sweet.

My missus also gets here very soon and we are off to Koh Panang to a luxury resort for some pure mellow time. Ahhhhhhhhh, sweet mellow time. I am so getting a massage this week to get me ready for that!!

Oh! Something cool, but weird. A guy from the British Isles who is travelling around the world bought a hoodie in Canada. A Roots hoodie. Well he is off to Oz and learnt that “roots” means “fucks” in Australia. So he wanted to get rid of it. I told him he was being crazy. Roots is an institution in Canada. He wasn’t having any of it and gave me a hoodie. Sweet. Free decent clothes.

Also learnt yesterday that you can, in fact, post photos on Blogger. I will have to figure out how to do that.

Man, I am bloody tuckered. Bed for me after mapping.....

So, just to finish, now that I am set to finish my DM tomorrow, this means I have to do my snorkel test (not an official part of the PADI standards). I’ll let you know when my snorkel test is…..the blog the next day will be messy…….