4 Mar--First Dive--Making Friends

Sun, 4 Mar .... up and ready for my FIRST dive this year in Utila !!!!!!!! ... i felt pretty comfortable after my You Tube lessons last night, and all of my Dive Master friends were on the boat this morning, .... L to R is Laura, Ashley, Greg, Corine ... and Chad in front ... and our super Boat Captain, Seth i asked Chad to help me and check to make sure i did my set up right. Greg was the Dive Master for my group and i told him that this was my first time this year and to 'watch over me' .... i felt good getting into the water ... i used to have trouble 'sinking', and was always apprehensive about it; ....which kind of makes you hold your breath, which is the exact opposite of what you should do when you are try to descend.... you should exhale all the air OUT of your lungs) .... but i pretty much figured that out last year; so i was happy that i was able to descend without any problems. we had a nice dive at Stannis Point ... there was a 'wall' and we went down to 60ft, which is the limit for an Open Water Diver (which is the first certification you get) ... and that's me .... :) i stayed pretty close to Greg ... early in the dive we saw this Green Moray Eel a Squirrel Fish Yellow Tail Damsel Fish there were a lot of these very large Barrel Corals ... this one was about 3ft in diameter ... after the first dive, one of the Dive Instructors, Chris, said he had heard that i was interested in getting my Advanced Diving Certification. i had been in the Dive Shop a few days ago, and said i wanted to get my Advanced. there was another girl on the boat, and he was trying to talk her into getting her Advanced, and it would be better to have more than one person in the 'class'. i said that i did want to. he was all excited and said we would meet in the Dive Shop after this dive and we'd set it up. our second dive was at Eagle Ray Alley. .. we did not see any Spotted Eagle Rays :( ...but it was a really pretty dive site, with lots of nice corals to look at. ..... i had a hard time focusing on anything, because something else kept catching my eye ... lots of vase corals Heather speared a LionFish and put it in this PVC tube for safe keeping ... that was pretty exciting ! so, after cleaning up our gear, Staci and i met Chris in the Dive Shop and got signed up for our Advanced class. we had to fill out a questionnaire about our health. there was question: 'has anyone in your family had a heart attack' ... i was honest and answered 'yes' ... well because of that, i had to go to a Dr before 7am tomorrow morning, ...and have him examine me and sign off that i was healthy enough to dive .... even though i just finished 2 dives :( i wasn't very happy about this. after much discussion as to where i would find a Dr on a Sunday afternoon; the one Dr only speaks Spanish, but would understand the form; another Dr didn't work on Sunday; ..... i understood that a Dr here at the Lodge could do the verification. today being Sunday ... was Funday Sunday at the Dive Shop. it started with the Fun Dives we did in the morning. then in the afternoon, everyone meets out on the dock for cheap beers and they have inflatable floating toys and everyone swims, drinks, and relaxes. i went back to my room and downloaded my photos and then went to the dock with my paperwork to find the Dr. i guess i misunderstood, they wanted me to try to go to the other Drs offices first before asking the Dr here...... so, while everyone else was relaxing, drinking, swimming, and partying ..... i was walking through town in the heat to find a Dr. .... there was a sign on the door ... Cerrado ... that's 'closed' in Spanish. ...back to the dock party with the news; and they told me to go to this other place where another Dr might be .... out i go again to the street in the heat ... while everyone is .... you know ..... i was beginning to feel like this was some kind of 'club initiation' .... there was no Dr there either, so i ended up back at the Dock Party and asking the Dr that was here in the first place to help me :( so, we went to a clinic room and i got an exam ... and he said he didn't see any reason why i couldn't dive :) i went back out to the Dock Party and saw that everyone was just finishing up their Chocolate Mousse ! ....poor me :( ..... shortly thereafter the party was over and i went back home to do my Homework ! i read my 2 chapters for tomorrow's 2 dives. there are 2 mandatory 'skills' that we need to do, and then we can choose 3 other skills for a total of 5 to qualify for our Advanced. one of our mandatory skills is Deep Diving ... of course ... they talk about the dangers associated with diving to 100ft and what you should and shouldn't do. this is really an elaboration of what you were taught when you first learn to dive. but i read it, it was a good review, and i answered all the questions at the end of the chapter. the second skill was Navigation ... now this one was a little more difficult. it is designed to teach you how to go on a dive (with a buddy, but without a 'guide', i.e. Dive Master) and be able to find your way back to where you started. ... yeah ok ... that's an important one! ..... when you're 100ft down, looking at fish and coral, and taking photos, you tend to not pay attention to where you are, where you're going, or how to get back. ....so, this was new material for me. this was a big day ... Sunday Funday ... we need more of these !!