Friday

Wow, what a day!

                                                 Photo courtesy of a new friend, Bruce Dickson

We got up at 6:00 and went over to the clubhouse for coffee and breakfast. I didn't have a big breakfast this morning due to a case of Honduran revenge. It seems that I had a salad on Wednesday that was contaminated....with what, I don't know. It looks like Pepto for me!

After breakfast we headed to the dive shop, and as I had guessed, we were give our written test. This is a 120 question test on all aspects of divemaster knowledge. We worked for about 1 hour and Patty graded our exams. I passed with a 91! What a great day so far....

Just as we were reviewing the missed questions, Alejandra came in and told us that there were some whales spotted by a dive boat, just up the shore from us. Would we like to go? I ran to the room for my camera, and jumped on the boat. This was a great way to celebrate our passed test! We ran up the coast for about 30 min, with no sighting of the whales. Damn... Oh well.

We got back to the dock just in time for lunch. Today it was fried chicken, cole slaw, and french fries. The dessert was awesome.....Tres Leeches! It was so good, I went back twice!

Once lunch was over, Alejandra had another surprise for us, we were going our to do our equipment exchange. Now for those of you who are not divers, this is a problem solving drill in which you have to do a full exchange of equipment with your buddy in 15' of water. No going to the surface! AND, you can only breath from ONE regulator! Can you say buddy breathing????

Greg and I went first. We started with the "Out of Air" signal. Greg then passed me his octo, and we started the buddy breathing. This is we took turns taking two breaths from the reg, and then passing it to the partner.

So far, so good. During our initial start, Greg got a mouthful of sea water. We had to stop so he could get himself back and breathing right. He was a real trooper! Not even a trip to the surface. In about 3 minutes, he was ready to start again.

We started our buddy breathing and did the easiest exchange...fins. This went great. 2 breaths, pass the regulator. Rinse-repeat... We then started loosening our BCD's and prepared for the switch. I took the BCD off that I was wearing, and sat it in the sand next to us. Greg then removed his and handed it to me to put on. Remember, all of this while sharing air from the same regulator! After I got my BCD on we put Greg's on and got everything properly adjusted.

Now for the last, and most difficult:  the mask exchange.... This does not sound too bad, until you remember that we are still sharing air from the same regulator!  This is where I remember that Greg can open his eyes underwater. Yes, Salt water. I take my breaths from the reg, and remove my mask. I pass him the regulator and mask and let him finish so that he can then help me.

Challenge Complete!

We went to the surface was congratulated by Alejandra! One more task completed.  We then swam back to the shore and got our gear cleaned and packed for the night.

Tonight is celebration night! There is a classic rock band that is coming to the resort. They are rumored to be the best on the island. I now have a Jack Daniels on the rocks in my hand finishing this blog. I'll get dinner, and then it's party time!

I will add pictures to this entry in the AM, as I am late for dinner, and I won't be in any shape to do it tonight!