Sunday 10th February
I was up early to review some of the homework, but the 07.30 start found me very tired (despite the fact that I had got to bed at 23.00 the previous night). I wasn't sure why I was so groggy, perhaps the diving the day before had taken more out of me than I had realised.
We got together to review our exercises, and we took the final multiple choice test, which seemed to go reasonably well once I finished it. There was nothing on the course that was too complicated, more a matter of remembering a fair amount of information, but nothing too major either.
We met again at 12.30, got our equipment together and headed for the boat. We returned to the same location that we had been the day before for our first proper 'open water' dives of the course. The whole routine and rules seemed to be clearer than the day before (which is always a good thing), but I was still slightly nervous about getting it all right (better to be this way than to be blase, and so avoid mistakes, like drowning myself!).
This first dive of the day was simply diving, and nothing else, no skills or tests. We just floated about, taking in the scenery and the goings on of life on a tropical coral. Some of the fish that we saw were cool and there was a large variety: bannerfish, rainbowfish, crabs, butterflyfish, and some amazing coral which opened and closed depending on the current. We became more competent at controlling our bouyancy – it's all in the lungs!; observing the rules of the buddy system; practicising how to use hand signals to communicate under water; and how to control our breathing. When we eventually resurfaced, I was surprised to learn that we had been done for 36 minutes, although it felt like half that time!
Once onboard again, we reviewed the dive with Glenn, and he gave us some feedback on what we were doing well, and a few things that we needed to work on. I was very happy to have Glenn as our instructor as he seemed very professional, thorough and took a close interest in our questions.
We moved on to another dive location for our second open water dive, and this time to a place called 'Three Rocks'. There were fewer boats here, meaning fewer divers. We got our stuff on and into the water quicker than before, indicating that, through more practice and repitition, the processes were finally becoming clearer.
On this dive, we practised dome of our skills. I still couldn't get the hang of the emptying of my mask of water when Glenn asked us to do so, as I panicked slightly when I was put on the spot. However, I was able to do this quite calmly at other stages of the dive, when I needed to get rid of a slight leak – sometimes it's better to just not think about these things.
This was the best dive so far, and I was becoming increasingly comfortable with the whole thing. Once I learned to relax, I started to enjoy the sights of underwater life a whole lot more. It's a completely new world down there. Although you can see a lot in an aquarium, you don't have that special feeling of being there in the thick of things. Also, being 'weightless' is really cool, gliding effortlessly along.
This marked the end of the third day out of four, and it was going well. We got back to the dive centre, left the gear off at the equipment room, and I had a kip before dinner as I was still exhausted from earlier on. I grabbed some food and got talking to an English guy called Mark who was preparing for his instructors certificate exam, and he gave me some tips on diving and good dive locations. He seemed like a nice guy, and he was intending to move to an island in the Pacific with his family and earning a living from diving instruction there.....what a career change!
I moved on to watch the Man United – Man City match, and it was another painful sight, following the horrible display against Spurs a week before. City won 2-1 and deserved by a mile. This left me in a bad mood, but not enough to keep me from sleep, and I went to bed shortly after.
