PADI Open Water Course...Day 1 & 2

Yesterday I woke up feeling slightly rotten. A possible combination of the veggie plate I had last night and lack of sleep. Luckily it was mostly theory review before working on my skills in the water. We did all the skills just off of the dock here at the Hotel. This included full mask clear, hovering, neutral buoyancy, swimming with no mask, removing and replacing my weight belt and BCD, etc. I also had to do a relatively short swim to prove I could swim and a 10 minute float. Then I was done for the day.

That afternoon I watched some tv, talked to some of the other people here, and mostly just chilled the hell out. Although it hasn’t been a strenuous last few days, for some reason I am exhausted. Perhaps it is all the sand fly bites I have, but something is kicking my ass. So it’s easy to say that in the evening I didn’t get up to much other than movie watching. For example, I watched Independence Day and fell asleep. Life is grand.

Today however followed similarly, I had my Open Water Dives 1 & 2. I covered more skills from yesterday but mostly we just enjoyed the dive. I saw tuna, parrotfish, scrawled filefish, ceole wrasse, trumpet fish, and gray angel fish on my first dive. The second I saw snapper, blue chromis, tuna, and a porcupine fish. I highly suggest you google image the above! Absolutely amazing.

Finally when I returned to the dock I cleaned up my gear, had a shower, and went in search of food. I found quesadillas and banana bread at Myra’s (a restaurant on Jewel Cay with a typically delicious meal of the day).  That afternoon I spent generally lazing about again. A tough life, I know!

I have also been making an effort to sit and watch the sunsets while I’ve been here. Around 5:30pm you can head out and see it, plus it is a full moon right now and the moon is showing off. Either direction you look it is a sight too grand for my camera, but it does its best. Here is an example of what I watched today:

I finished off the day by watching Monty Python and The Holy Grail and Wallace and Gromit’s A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers, & A Close Shave. Seriously what do I have to complain about??

Also apparently “Tis but a flesh wound” in Spanish is “Es solo una herida superficial”. Somehow I like the English version better...