It’s an early start to go on our first dive. We meet at 7:30 to collect our kit and get a speedboat out to the diving boat moored about ½ km off the shore. We do two dives today, one at ‘White Rock’ and one at ‘Twin Peaks’, a pair of small mountain islands with a sandy beach linking the two.
The first dive at White Rock goes swimmingly for the first half hour or so, and the visibility is good. At the bottom, at about 16m depth, we do some exercises such as taking the air supply out, finding it with a sweeping of the arm, and replacing it. There are a lot of colourful fish on the coral reef the type of which I would only have seen before in aquariums. Not that I can tell you what they are called mind.
However, I have trouble with my mask, which keeps filling with water, and I have trouble equalizing (clearing air spaces, e.g. holding the nose while breathing out). After about a half hour, I start to breathe water through my nose and start to rise. Poli tries to sort me out and hold me down, but I start to panic and eventually surface while he goes back down to the group standing at the bottom. Not a good end to my first dive then.
However, for the second dive I use another mask, which works better. Cookie had said that on the first dive, you don’t really see very much as you are concentrating on yourself so much, but it gets easier as you gain confidence and you look around more. I am a lot more confident on this dive, and do look around more. It’s weird down there. I emerge on the surface feeling somewhat redeemed from my first dive.
I am discovering a new kind of wilderness. I feel like diving is the most dangerous thing I have ever done, but at the same time there is a deceptive tranquility about it which could become addictive.
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| the instructress |
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