Two dives in the morning--our first open water dives! Then just hanging out in the afternoon, and watching the night divers in the other course after sunset.
Weird Wildlife Sighting
A giant clam on the bottom, in about 10m of water.
During the night, I had checked the GPS and saw that we had anchored off the northwest shore of Hayman Island. The weather report had indicated gusts of 30 to 40 knots, with seas of 3 to 3.5 meters, so it's not at all advisable to go out to the reef, another six hours or so out. So we're staying put here, at Blue Pearl Bay, where the corals grow along at depths from 18 to 5 meters.
We were on the first group to go into the water at 8:45--we went out in the inflatable, and rolled back into the water. Salt water is quite a bit different than fresh, heavier and more buoyant! I was still concerned about my mask... though I used Vaseline, it still leaked. Grrr. The dive didn't go well at all. One of our group has a tendency to be difficult: he doesn't listen, and says he understands things when he really doesn't. I'm glad Chris is my buddy.
Anyway, I did OK, though I tended to swim at an angle with my legs pointing down, rather than horizontal. Also, all of us played around with our buoyancy far too much--we had got ourselves neutral at the bottom depth of 10 meters, but then we were constantly filling and emptying the BCD vests. Fortunately, this first open water dive was pretty mellow--we didn't have to do anything other than just stay with our buddy and follow the instructor, who afterwards gave us a pretty heavy chewing out.
After that first dive, Chris wasn't all that happy, and said he just wasn't liking this. While he likes snorkeling, he said this wasn't any fun for him, and he took a short nap in the cabin. I thought it was fine, although I was still concerned about my mask.
The second dive we did was a lot better, and we did quite a few things, like fin pivots on the bottom to practice neutral buoyancy, clearing partial and full mask floods, and an alternate air ascent. After that, we descended and did a brief swim. Visibility was still fairly decent, at 10 to 15 meters, and we did a lot better with swimming up and down, looking at things like fish and coral and this giant clam I saw. The clam wasn't really visible, like sitting on the bottom--rather, all you could see was its wavy gap in the coral. It was cool, and I liked it a lot. I am surprised, though, that there aren't many fish. In New Caledonia, there were many more fish in much clearer water just offshore at the Ile de Canards.
That second dive I did more or less get my mask in a position where it'd seal. It rides fairly high on my face, and works pretty well. I also 'got' the how to clear your mask of excess water.... for me, it's best to look more or less up, then exhale through my nose, pushing all the water out of the bottom while holding somewhat tight onto the top.
In the afternoon, we had a lunch of yummy tacos, then we slept, then read a little bit in the Advanced Diver's book. I enjoyed taking pictures of the shore, in an attempt to lure the Shulman's here. I think Michael would enjoy the sailing, Helene would enjoy the warm water and sand, and Anya would enjoy the snorkeling! There's a pair of great looking beaches here, with lots of hoop pine on the hills behind and on the rocky points and islets that bracket this beach.
Tomorrow we'll do a night dive, which sounds very interesting--a whole new set of creatures comes out at night. Crayfish, lobster come out, and the coral polyps stick their fans out to filter the water, so you can see the orange/pink/red/blue corals, rather than the off-white ones you see in the daytime. Also, the parrotfish curiously 'cocoon' themselves in a ball of mucus, and the sea turtles sleep. Oh, and the sharks come out to feed. I'm looking forward to it.