Scuba Certifed
Trip Start
Jul 21, 2007
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10
12
Trip End
Jul 28, 2007
St. Johns,
Antigua and Barbuda
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Wed - Scuba dive certified.
We began the day in the pool at 8:30 doing some confined water skills - we had to take our masks off and stay underwater (breathing normally) for one minute and then put it back on (Caroline did eyes closed due to contacts) and clear the mask (remove the water) all underwater. We also practiced switching back and forth between our regulator and snorkel (at the surface) and we also unhooked our direct system underwater and manually inflated our BCD. Most unnerving was forcing our regulator to be free flowing and hold it near (not in) our mouth with our head tilted (underwater) and figure out how to breath the air between all the water bubbles - that took a couple of tries to get my brain to try to breath through all that. We also practiced helping a tired diver and cramp alleviation
Confined Water Skills
.We had a quick break before heading onto the boat for our 11 am dive - this time Caroline wore her full body suit - protection against any jelly fish and was very pleased.
This time Caroline had no trouble with her ears - think partly due to going down the anchor line (which is slanted and felt more gradual) versus the dive line which is straight down. I cleared my ears on each breath out and didn't wait till I felt discomfort. Much better than on Monday when I would feel pain and then try to relieve it without a whole lot of success.
All the skills were practiced in the ocean and we saw some incredible fish! We saw some crazy kind of underwater spider that the divemaster held in her hands and then handed to Caroline and also two barracudas. Thankfully I didn't know what the 'huge fish' we saw were until we were back safely on the boat - otherwise I might have paniced a bit. We saw them at 15 feet while we were doing a required 3 minute safety stop so our pictures weren't as good as we were all clumped together holding the anchor line so lots of bubbles from our regulators got in the way of great pictures.
Natalie (the dive master) said we did very well considering Jeff had a camera in hand the whole time
Underwater spider
. She said some very experienced great divers would go out with a camera and forget all essentials regarding body form (swimming horizontally) and controlling buoyancy while using all their attention on the camera getting a good shot. Doesn't help that the entire time it is trying to float back to the surface!We finished the dive, showered and ate at the new pizzeria for lunch - a little slow in clearing the previous table, getting us water or drinks and we waited at the table and then finally went up to the window to order our pizza - think all the kinks haven't quite been worked out on the game plan yet. Our friends ordered a custom pizza and they put anchovies vs artichokes on the pizza by mistake so it had to be reordered and then they just put regular mozzarella vs gorgonzola cheese on. My suggestion is to hang out and watch them make it so there are no surprises but the taste was good (and I'm usually particular - don't like homemade pasty bake at home pizzas).
At 3 pm we met back up with our divemaster and took the test on the 175 pages (three chapters) needed to qualify as scuba diver (vs open water which also covers chapters 4-5). Jeff missed one, and Caroline missed two but we both passed!! We will pick up our temporary cards tomorrow and official ones from PADI will be mailed to us
Underwater divers
. We went back - and got ready for our Signature Guest Dinner - Best dinner yet so if you are a returning guest be sure and go on Wed night when you are invited. We had appetizers, a group picture of our table, and great conversation. We sat next to Cletus the hotel manager and learned that 80 of the 180 med rooms are opened and occupied and they have great plans for the resort. Barefoot by the sea when it opens - we will dine with our feet in the sand - looks nice and will be our first thing we try when we come back next year. Il Palio will eventually convert to Caribbean fare with Marios being a full fledged menu driven Italian restaurant (right now it is buffet style only).
They also plan to enclose the current gym - have new equipment including elipticals in boxes ready to go but it has been pushed to the back burner as far as construction until the Med Village stuff gets completed (which is understandable). So next year we plan to bring our tennis shoes, try out the new gym, the Rainforest zip line, and maybe even a couple of the power walks on the beach.
Our dinner was very leisurely (3 hours) - there was a staff and guest talent show going on in the courtyard - we watched briefly and then headed back to Med village
Conch shell - with him inside
. On our way back we saw a huge (what I thought was lightening) and heard a big pop (sounded like fireworks) and then all on the Med village side went totally dark. A Transformer tripped and the back up generators were a little slow getting back on line. We walked up to our 3rd floor room - our card key worked - and just as we were finding things in the dark the power came back on - maybe down for about 15 minutes. Not too bad. Tomorrow is our 10 year anniversary - we made dinner plans to eat on the beach so should be able to give a great update once we are home...Our three day wireless pass ends Thursday night so we might be able to get back online to update.
Comments
glad you're having fun!
I would be too scared to try diving, but am glad you guys are having a great time. The pic of the spider was nice. Did you hold it, too? Talk with you when you return.