It is Thursday!

Christmas Tree Worms

 Started out the morning the usual way...Coffee and an omelette. What a way to get it going.

Went over to the dive shop to get the marching orders for the day. Alejandra tells us that we have a discover scuba diving student. Wow, a live one! As we wait for her to get all of her paperwork filled out, she answers yes to a couple of medical questions. This required further investigation with the nurse. It was determined that she needs to get a doctor's signature for her to take the class.  As Patty puts it..."Change of Plans".

Alejandra changes things up and we are now headed for our deep dive this morning. We plan our dive for 100' and we were to remain there until our computers went into deco. Well, we went to 106' and did a few pressure related experiments. We brought with us a can of soda, an empty water bottle with cap on, a yogurt, and two raw eggs. The first up was the yogurt. It imploded somewhere around 90'. The empty water bottle was completely crushed. The can of soda was intact, but when we opened it there, was no fizz or pressure release. The CO2 was completely in saturation. The last one was the eggs. They were completely intact. We tried to break them by squeezing them, and they had to be broken on a rock. The whites and yolks floated like jellyfish.

Our computers started to beep and warn us of impending deco, so instead of listening to them beep, we headed up for our first safety stop. We hung for a while there and moved up a little higher. Soon we were at our final 15' stop and waited the last 5 min there before heading back up to the platform.
 I was hoping to experience narcosis, to know what the effects are. Not this time. Maybe I'll go deeper next time....

We headed back to the lockers to get cleaned up for lunch.  Today was shrimp stir fry with fresh cantaloupe. Great lunch!

After lunch we did a discover scuba simulation. We each took turns being the divemaster with "student" that were having difficulties. Alejandra started us out. We played the "out there" students to the point of hilarity!  Thank God that you can laugh through a regulator. She was almost in tears from our antics. We all took turns correcting problems, and then headed out for the dive.   Now we got to play the same student, only on a dive rather then in confined water! The comedy lasted for 10 min for each of us.  Another requirement met!

After we got back from our dive we went to the office to find out what was going on for tomorrow. Alejandra told us that we will be assigned to a dive boat, and that we will begin the internship in the morning. The hours are roughly the same as class. 7-4:30. Only now we will be assisting customers, loading and unloading the boat every day.

 A new chapter begins.....

Female Basilisk