Deep diving!

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I decided to take the opportunity and go for the deep water diving course today! That meant I had homework last night!! I had to read a chapter and answer 10 questions... homework in Thailand! Then I went to bed for a good night's sleep in preparation for the big dives! Until this time, i've only been down to 18 meters before. That's what the PADI Open Water Certification limits you to. Anything below 18 meters is considered a deep dive. Also, recreational diving is limited to a maximum of 40 meters. So you understand that 30 meters is quite deep! After reading the book I was a bit nervous about it... there are additional precautions and increased risks... such as increased chance of decompression illness and nitrogen narcosis.

My instructor was Martin, a really nice Swedish guy. He spoke to my dive master from yesterday and was totally confident that I wouldn't have any problems with the dives. They said I am a great diver and would do fine. Nice to hear encouraging feedback!!!

Martin was so excited to be going to those dive sites. They're really well known and some of the best in Thailand. We met up at 8am and all the divers got the gear together and loaded onto the speedboat. Then we spent an hour and a half, at full speed, crossing the ocean until there was no land in sight.... finally there was a rock. That was Hin Daeng! (The second dive site). It was more like rocks that happen to be above the water level... really can't be considered islands. I'll bet you Hin means Rock in Thai....
The first dive site was Hin Muang... and this rock didn't even reach the water surface! Incredible how the divers have even found these places!

Dive 1:
The first dive of the day is always your deepest... so that meant that I was going to 30m! We descended along a line (the line is just helpful when descending, but not necessary) down to 12 meters. It is so strange to descend... you release the air from your BCD (the vest that the tube is attached to), and slowly sink... constantly equalizing your ears (On descent, the air in the middle ears is reduced in volume by the increasing surrounding pressure. So you need to equalize your ears to avoid the pressure - a bit like when you are in an airplane). You see the surface getting further and further away.... when we reached the bottom of the line there was a giant moray eel peering out from a hole... mouth wide open. Apparently, that's how they breathe! Kind of threatening. Oh and remember that we were hoping to see manta rays or a whaleshark!!!! So the whole time we were searching for them... no luck... but it was probably a good thing because being at 30 meters was enough to deal with!

After the 12 meter point, we descended further down along a wall of coral. Picture this... on my left was the wall, full of coral and fish... on my right was green darkness, and below me was black darkness.... and there we go... 15 meters... 20 meters.... still falling into darkness... equalizing... 25 meters... 30 meters. Sand bottom. Martin picked up a weight belt that was laying on the bottom. At this point I felt the beginning of narcosis.... it felt like a dream.... I knew I wasn't dreaming, but all of a sudden things slowed down and it felt like a dream... that's the best way I can describe it. I thought of my friend Marques - we have had a lot of dream talks, and this was just like those dream movies we'd seen recently! I understand how narcosis could be dangerous because i'm sure you could just go deeper and deeper into this dream and forget all about going up to the surface! Luckily, I knew what I was feeling, so I went up a bit. Turns out that we were actually at 34 meters at that time. The weight belt distracted him! We went up to 30 meters and I had to do a test. This is to see how affected I am by narcosis at the 30 meter mark. Later I did a similar test on the boat, and my speed at that depth was just 10 seconds slower than at the surface! The questions were simple things written on a whiteboard. "what do cows drink?" "what is the date today?" "1+1-1=" etc...

Then we started swimming... staying at 30 meters for quite some time. To be honest, there was not all that much at that depth! But it was quite interesting to be down there... looking up and seeing fish and corals as far as I could see. The surface was not visible, I could just see the light.

Also, something has happened to the coral at the bottom in this site in the last few months. Everything has died! Martin was extremely depressed... he thinks it is either a poisonous algae, or cyanide fishing... Hope it is not something that will continue, but it is a well known fact that the world's coral reefs are being destroyed. A very sad sight -- looks a bit like a cemetary...

As we went up to 15 meters there was more life. The corals looked healthy and colourful, and lots of fish. Although, Martin said there is hardly as many fish as just 3 months ago.

The highlights of this dive were: a big bat fish, grouper, morays, giant barracudas, lionfish and a huge spiral triton shell that Martin found. It was as big as his forearm! oh just remembered about a giant lobster I saw yesterday... a meal for a family! just his antennaes were about 2 feet long each! the body was massive!!!! mmm.... anyway, couldn't take him... just look... too bad!

Then we went up to the surface and had the surface interval time and lunch break.

Dive 2:
This dive was at Hin Daeng (the rock that sticks up above the surface). We went down to a maximum of 22 meters this time. Its nice that I now have the freedom to go deeper than 18 meters... but I dont necessarily need to go to 30 always! The highlights of this dive were: varicose wart slugs (soo cool looking!), crown of thorns starfish (very bright blue), Nemo's cousins again, Emperor angel fish, cleaner fish (these are so cute!), a baby trigger fish (size of an aquarium fish), lots of blue trigger fish, large Titan trigger fish, and a pineapple sea cucumber. Martin picked this guy up... he's got tentacles on his underside, so when i held him, he attached himself to my hand! I felt his fatty body and all the tentacles sucking on my hand! umm... then he didn't want to let go of me... and I ended up with some tentacle bits stuck to my hand... eww. This dive site was really incredible. FULL of fish. Every direction you looked. I felt like i was swimming through and they were going on with their regular business... going to the market, the anemone bank, the movies... or whatever fish do. They don't mind you at all. The clown fish (nemo) are actually the only ones that look at you really. The rest swim right past your face! Trigger fish are another that could be a bit annoying... they are territorial and could attack you if you go in their area... its never happened to me, and they're not that big anyway... (except for the Titan ones... they're a bit intimidating). I was swimming on my back at some points, and just enjoying the view up towards the surface. fish everywhere... then my bubbles going up... I didn't want to end this dive!!! it was beautiful... even without manta rays or whalesharks. it was a real dive. the rest have been just so-so compared to this one. As we were floating at the 5 meter, 3 minute safety stop (to prevent decompression illness - you always do this!), I was watching all the fish around me... large schools of hundreds of fish passing by... then I saw 10 or so barracudas slowly cruising by below me... wow.

I'm so happy for this world... there is so much to see... above and below the water! But by the way... the world is 70%!w(MISSING)ater you know............. go explore it!!

Jessica

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Comments

[Kim af East T'sook]

The Mermaid
The reason, you feel so happy underwater, is that in fact you are a true Mermaid. Beautiful,.... free spirit with imense sense of beauty, freedom and curiosity. Soon....you will be back on dry Land, but your spirit has changed with the Dives and Your silhouette will be swimming at Hin Daeng, spreading light to other divers, so that bottom at 34 mts, will be like a Canadian lawn in a Summer evening. Your Spirit, enriched the Thai waters and its inhabitants, where, even Barracudas are pretty and "gentle". Way to go my Girl ! Go deeeeep always thru life, but...be careful with "narcosis" and witches that can take scales out of your shiny tail! Sea U soon Abracos e beijocas. Dqts

[Nelly]

Amazing!!
Congratulations, you did it!!! Nice to know that everything went ok. Have a nice safe return home. Hasta pronto amiga!!