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Published: October 18th 2010
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Ray up close!
photo cred: Mark Paterson DAY ONE: DIVE ONE
I arrived in Florida on Friday October 15th in the evening. Saturday I tested out my equipment in the pool a couple times and my first day of real diving was today! Auntie Evelyn and Uncle Steve were kin enough to give me a regulator, octopus (safety regulator) and a gauge to add to my dive equipment!
I was very excited this morning with some nervous mixed in, mostly because I hadn't dove in over two years (the weather isn't always dependable in Florida, so unfortunately I missed out on dive opportunities when I visited last February). But all the nervousness vanished when i jumped into the water and grabbed a hold of the decent line of the boat, which was anchored to the wreck I was about to explore. The wreck's title is the Sea Empress. It was a fantastic dive! We started by penetrating the first cabin of the wreck and establishing neutral buoyancy (one of the criteria for the advanced course). Once our instructor was satisfied with our buoyancy he signaled for us to move to the next cabin. To do this we had to swim to the very
Beauty!
Morray
photo cred: Mark Paterson bottom of the wreck and move through an opening at the bottom of the wall. We had to move without kicking our feet too much, which would result in lowering the visibility in the wreck because our fins would stir up the slit. Before the dive i was very nervous to do this, but once I did it, I knew hands down that this dive was going to an amazing one. We continued practicing natural buoyancy and moving between cabins in the same way through out the wreck (repeated about four times).
As we exited the wreck our instructor, Gary, quickly motioned for us to follow him. And there it was, a beautiful morra eel with piercing blue, blue eyes. Its know that a couple morras hang around the wreck hoping to grab some grubbed once offered by the dive boats. Directly after we left the morra we saw what (in my eyes) made this dive extremely memorable. We saw a HUGE ray lying in the sand partially covered. One of my dive buddies had a camera and he was able to catch a pic with me and the ray! (pictures to come once he emails me them).
Another morra
The boys
Right is instructor Gary and left is a dive buddy jim
photo cred: Mark Paterson eel mad an appearance before our dive was over; close enough to touch!
This dive was so far my deepest at 73 feet.... but just wait, in a couple days ill be down 100 feet!
The next dive of the day was a drift dive on a north-south running reef. Along side the reef we demonstrated navigation skills using various techniques and patterns. Once completed we enjoyed the rest of the reef at leisure. We spotted another eel (a small spotted one). A small lion fish (which some one was trying to spear it...) and apparently there was a huge lion fish that I didn't get to see, but it was speared. My buddy with the camera captured the last picture of the poor guy!
Drift dives are always fun, you just go with the flow and when you low on air the boat comes to you!
The deepest we went this dive was 45 feet.
I loved my first day of diving, even though I came home pooped! I cleaned off my gear, had some lunch, refilled my tank and began to diligently study (aka took a two hour nap pretending to study).
And believe it or
Acting goofy
They sometimes dance for you!
photo cred: Mark Paterson not im still zonked!
Oh, before my dive today I met a very nice lady (a wife of one of the divers on my boat). They're from Virgina but originally Georgia. She wanted to know if i was from here (Pompano Beach, Fl), i said
nope, Ottawa
Ottawa? Wheres that?
I giggled a bit
Ottawa? well its the capital of Canada.
Oh OTTAWA, I thought you said OTTAWA!
she replied (pronouncing the two exactly the same). Haha wonder what the Aussies will be like, living in a different hemisphere from North America...
more to come in the next couple days!!
.... AND I just had to fetch all my dive equipment that i forgot about and left out on the dock.... good one Brianna!
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Mama
non-member comment
That's my girl.
That sounds wonderful, your whole tone changes when you talk about diving. You sound like you are a happy girl right now. Your lucky to have your Auntie Evelyn and Uncle Steve. Love you. xoxoxo