The string of pearls

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Getting back into the water again after five years land bound was actually pretty scary. I have realised on this trip how age and experience has effected my fear tolerance. No longer am I that young fearless girl who jumps from obscene heights or chooses the sketchy ladder over the stairs. I have noticed that somehow I have begun to tread more carefully, trust less often and be afraid more than usual. This has defiantly changed the path I follow, as I choose not to jump of a broken rusty bridge into the free flowing river below or not to trust the rope swing with my weight I wonder if I am missing out or if I am just growing up?! I didn't really think when I signed up for my PADI Advanced open water about the skills I would need to remember and demonstrate or about the terrible post Nigrogen Narcosis blood vesal burst I had experienced in Thailand 5 yrs ago.
On the morning of my refresher I was shown once more how to ensemble my gear and don my BCD, then on the boat on the way out to the ocean I was briefed as to which skills we needed to refresh, ok I thought, I got this. That first breath underwater felt as alien this time as it did 5 years ago, that first decent, the need to equalise, the strange weight distribution. On my knees on a sand patch 5 metres under water, miles out to sea my breath began to quicken, Blair was demonstrating a skill, fill mask, remove, place back on, now it was my turn, I freaked "why!! I don't want to. My mask isin't going to fall off." He approached put his hand on my shoulder basically holding me down then calmed me with long deep breaths.
Getting over this first hiccup the second dive was a fun dive where I could rediscover the ocean and my confidence.
During my course as I refined my skills and slipped back into my underwater mediative state I remembered why I loved this underwater paradise.
The highlight of this underwater dream has to be the moment that 12metres down in the dark of night I was suddenly surrounded by the string of pearls, the string of pearls is the mating of bioluminescence, like a meadow of under the sea stars they fall like blue rain drops all round you. As I swam within this natural phenomenon I was completely mind blow by their beauty. This I thought to myself is a true natural wonder of the world.

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