Thursday, September 6, 2007

Finishing up my Advanced Open Water Course


Oh, diving is what I love to do. Saturday were my last checkout dives for my Advanced Open Water certification. And while we really only had to do one dive, the night dive, we went for a late afternoon dive with the group to do a navigational dive as well as the instructor is infamous for his fun navigation exercise. We arrived in Monterey at about 4:15 pm having battled all the traffic heading to Santa Cruz, kitted up and entered the water at about 5:15 or so. While the instructors were setting up the course, we floated on our backs enjoying the relatively calm and surprisingly warm waters at the Breakwater. After about 30 minutes, the instructors informed us that we wouldn’t be able to do a navigation course as intended due to a white out from other divers who had carelessly kicked up the silt and sand, causing visibility to be less than 4 feet. Joy. So we dropped down, directed 300° to the kelp and then 120° back to the float line. Surprisingly we found it given the lack of vis, and even more surprising was that the other divers and the instructor didn’t make it back but were off about 30-40 feet. Ha. That made me feel good. Dropped down again with a compass heading of 270° back to the shore.

As we neared the shore, I noticed a seal darting off. Couldn’t see much of him except his outline and size. I was thrilled as I love diving with seals. But then something else started playing around. As we were only in about 3 feet of water, we stood up and were surprised to see two sea otters about 6 – 8 feet away from us in the water. How fun! They were really engaged with us, floating on their backs and maintaining eye contact, one dipping under the surface of the water, coming over to my fins and nipping at each one of them and then heading back to the surface. And then again, but this time with Mark’s fins.

While we were sufficiently engaged with the otters, we knew that we had to get out of the water and start preparing for the night dive. Having had a bit of apprehension about the night dive, Mark and I went over our buddy skills, hand signals, lost buddy procedures, etc. Kitted up and had a snack and waited for the sun to dip below the horizon.

At dusk we headed into the water with 2 instructors. Hanging out in the water we watched the two otters playing on a float that was left by a group of divers who had left for the day. Finally we dipped down under the water with a plan to skirt along the side of the pier, near the rocks. Lights on, we descended. Apprehension quickly lost out to excitement and marvel. There is something infinity amazing about night diving – colors seem more vibrant, discoveries lie just outside of the edges of your light’s beam. Gracefully gliding over a field of purple sand dollar poking ½ out of the sand, we found our way to the anemone field that we had previously dove several months earlier. Anemone seeming all the more eerie with their tentacles waiving around pulling in nutrients, tucking back in at the sense of my finger. Continuing on, we found giant nudibranches in vibrant reds and oranges, crabs, watched octos blowing sand out of their holes and came upon a sea pen (like in the photograph), its colors almost shining in my light. Soon, too soon, we were heading back to shore, over the anemone fields, through the sand dollar patch, slowly heading shallower. Amazing and fun and itching to do it all over again!

Swimming back to the shore on the surface, tired and happy. Holding hands and just relaxing. Fins off in the water, walked up on the shore, happy having finally completed my coursework. Even happier to feel that some of my nervous-air consumption issues were not present!

Dive Stats:

Dive #26: Breakwater Cove: Max depth 18 feet, bottom time 15 minutes. Nice short dive! Beach dive, water temp 59°, vis approximately 3 feet. Surface interval 1 hour 55 min.
Dive #27: Breakwater Cove: Max depth 46 feet, bottom time 39 minutes. Beach dive, water temp 55°, visibility 7-10 feet.
[Image is not my own]

No comments: