Diving Deep

I swear you all are going to think I never study at this rate! Truth is, I've probably studied more this weekend than most of my classmates, I just use my time differently. Instead of staying up all night on Friday for a party, I went to bed early and studied yesterday morning/afternoon. I also studied Friday night too before I went to bed. So I swear I do actually study!

This morning I got up early to complete more of my Advanced Open Water certification. Christie mentioned they had a group going today so I figured why not add one more student! We geared up quickly and headed out to the boat to set up. I'm proud to say that I've become pretty meticulous about checking and testing out all of my equipment before we head out after all of the little incidents in Mexico! Not that I shouldn't anyway as a diver (because everyone should!), but we tend to learn from experience and learn I have! We had a brief orientation before heading out to a deep wreck called Shakem. I'd never been there before but had heard good things about it.

The wreck itself sits in about 100ft of water. That's a pretty big number! Some of my friends and family can't even fathom going 40ft deep let alone 100ft, but it's really all just psychological. Sure, there are a few more risks associated with going deeper and it makes things a little bit more complicated, but here's the thing - it's really just a number. Once you're under water, it doesn't feel different to be 10ft versus 40ft versus 100ft. You don't feel the increased pressure, you don't really tend to look up because of the way your gear is oriented, so you're just focused on what's in front of you, below you, and to some extent on your sides. It takes a lot of effort to right yourself enough to awkwardly look at the surface because of the way buoyancy works. The things that are really different about diving deep are that it takes longer to descend (and when you look down initially all you see is nothingness), you use air up a lot faster, and you have to take more safety precautions when ascending.

We jumped in and headed down immediately. It took a couple of minutes to reach the bottom, but one minute all you see is each other and then the next you can see the outline of a sunken ship. I think if I was "newer" to diving I would have really noticed the mildly increased effort breathing from the regulator required (air is much more dense at this depth), but I barely noticed as I maintained a very calm and peaceful breathing pattern that I normally use. I of course checked my gauges frequently and it was amazing to watch how quickly the air diminished. We swam around the ship and then over top of it gently and slowly. Keeping with tradition, I was very slow and pokey taking lots of pictures, but also just enjoying being neutrally buoyant and floating along. I'm never in a rush, I like to go slow. My goal is usually to swim as little as possible! We lasted about 30 minutes before it was time to head back up. We did a couple of safety stops at different depths to make sure that our risk of decompression illness was very minimal and hit the surface with ease. I was pretty thrilled, because when we went around the group for air consumption, I was well above several people that were at the requisite exit amount (500psi). I'm definitely getting better!

This ship is quite large. The first thing you notice upon swimming over it are these huge sacs of concrete. There are dozens of them all lined up next to one another through the whole interior. It's an incredible site. The rest of the ship has taken on an eerie and old look because the skeleton of the boat exists, but it's been completely taken over by corals, invertebrates, and all sorts of inhabitants. When the little bit of sunlight illuminates it, it appears to glow against the dark water back drop. We saw lots of fish and although I really shouldn't be surprised, it was strange and amusing to see animals I'm used to seeing at shallower depths. In the grand scheme of things, this really isn't much deeper than I've been on other dives! We stumbled upon a large lobster at one point. He seemed confused and a bit annoyed to be sharing his space with so many divers (and he was probably hoping no one added a side of butter later!). I have become so obsessed with looking at corals and invertebrates, I really don't remember what we saw in the way of fish. It ends up being "just" another fish to me, except when they're something really odd.

Next we went over to BBC beach to hang out during our surface interval time. It's funny how until yesterday I had no idea where this beach was and now I've been there twice in a period of 24 hours! Since we were going to be there for awhile, I hopped out and snorkeled the area checking out all of the grassy patches. It was a nice place to swim for a bit in between dives.

Our second dive of the day was on the Veronica L., a small cargo wreck I've been to several times now. It's a nice little boat to dive on and provides some excellent pictures when you're looking for them! This boat is much shallower water, only about 45ft maximum. As part of our wreck certification, we had to "measure" the wreck with fin kicks (from one side to the other), observe potential hazards (such as sharp objects or corners), and then use a compass to determine what direction it's facing in. Cue the laughter now for those who know me well! I can get wickedly lost using a GPS! Imagine me trying to use a compass under water. Yeah right! My first down fall was not really remembering what I was supposed to do with the compass. Yes obviously you hold it and blah blah blah, but diving compasses have a "lubber line" on them to additionally help you navigate. Yes, it means almost as little to me as it probably does to you! I am going to be in big trouble when it comes to the navigation section of this course and who ever is teaching me is going to snort water laughing so hard. How can someone in veterinary school be so stupid when it comes to sense of direction?! Anyhow, I kind of sort of clumsily got a reading off the compass (not the right one, but I was close). Skill put off until another day!

After spending plenty of time getting some spectacular pictures of the marine life on the ship, we headed off to finish on the nearby reef. So many beautiful creatures and corals to look at! The highlight of this dive was stumbling upon a dark mantis shrimp "inside" (not really inside, but within) the wreck and getting to observe and ponder this gorgeous creature! He was very nervous and no doubt wasn't sure if he should fight me or just get the heck out of there. Thankfully he did neither and I was able to get some great shots! I also got some phenomenal pictures of some fireworms and christmas tree worms. Have I mentioned lately how much I love my camera? I adore it and it is simply the best!

After our dive several of us went to Umbrellas, the restaurant next door for lunch. It was fun to relax and unwind from the amazing adventures of the morning and having some real food and nutrition definitely helped all of us! I might have to stick with the peanut butter and granola routine that I did this morning though for future dives because that served me quite well. Must have plenty of energy to do so much swimming and thermoregulating!

All of these beautiful pictures made possible by the great folks at Eco Dive!

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