Terri and I finished a long weekend with our first open water scuba dive at a diving location in Turtle Cove called Two Coral. We had two dives (with our instructor, Robin). We were both very nervous in the morning as we prepared for this step in our scuba training, but we had been taught well, and it turned out to be very easy and a great day.
We got to the boat about 8am and met our boat captain, John--a local that is also an expert diver and knows the area well. We helped load the boat, checked all our equipment, and then set out for the dive site.
Once there, they tied off to a pre-secured buoy that has been placed at the location. Our first dive would be to about 60' for about 30 minutes. We suited-up, and then had to get into the water--hadn't practiced that yet! We had to 'leap' into the water with all our gear on... actually, not a big deal. We bobbed up and down in the water until we were sure everything was ready, then pushed the button to deflate our BCD vest, and down we went!
By adjusting our ears frequently as we went down, we had no problem dropping directly to the bottom...then we followed our guide around a very large coral formation, stopping frequently to look at different formations, fish, and odd aquatic life. The water was very clear, and surprisingly, was not cold, even at that depth. We spent about 2o minutes taking the tour of this marvelous coral creation, and finally started our slow climb back to the surface.
In scuba diving, you can drop down as fast as your ears will permit you to go, but returning to the surface has to be very slow, with a 'safety stop' of at least 3 minutes at about 15' depth. This slow ascent gives the body time to rid itself of the nitrogen that has accumulated from the pressure of the deep water. If people don't follow the rules, and stay down too long, or go too deep, or rise too fast, the nitrogen that is in the blood expands (rather than escapes) and can actually block arteries causing serious problems and even death.
But, novices that we were, we were in good hands with Robin, as he guided us back up the rope at the right speed, and made sure we made our safety stop, etc. We returned to the surface with no problems--a perfect dive!
After climbing back into the boat, we relaxed as the captain drove to the next dive site, a short ways away. Due to the same nitrogen problem talked about above, we were required to stay above water for at least an hour to permit the nitrogen to move out of our bloodstream (at least a lot of it). Then we were ready for another, more shallow dive--about 40' this time.
We again leaped into the water with our gear on, and dropped to the bottom. Then we began to swim to the first of several 'islands' of coral that made a ring around our boat location. Each 'island' was very different and had lots of fish moving in and out of the coral formations. We stayed down about 45 minutes this time (one uses more air the deeper one dives, besides not having the same time issues with the nitrogen). Once again, we followed Robin up to the safety stop, and made it back to the surface without incident.
We returned to the dock, helped unload the boat, and were done for the day--sort of.
We were then headed to Saipan on the ferry!
1 comment:
I think that only thing that beats that first open-water dive, is watching your children being born.
I was lucky enough to accompany both of my kids on their first open-water dive, and subsequent dives as an accompanying Dive Master, along with their Instructor, since each diver has to be physically held on to during their dives for Discover SCUBA.
My kids loved it & I was rewarded with seeing their joy of discovering the underwater world that I have been visiting for 31 years.
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