February 9 - Australia: Cairns, Queensland
OWSI - Open Water Scuba Instructor Course - Day 5
Today we spent the day on ReefQuest to do our Open Water Presentations.
Yesterday, I’d made reservations for Monica and Martin to go snorkeling with us and I was lucky to get them on board. They only had four seats left when I reserved the spots for them. The bummer is that – because we were in briefings and on dives for most of the day – I really only got to hang out with them for 10 minutes at a time. But the lovebirds didn’t seem to mind at all. They seemed perfectly happy on their own.
I forgot to mention that - aside from the Open Water skills - we also did some Advanced Open Water skills. So we each had to present a navigation exercise as well. This skill, however, isn't evaluated. They are having us do them on the second dive because navigation skills are traditionally tricky to organize, and Vic and Chookie want us to experience some of that chaos.
Dive #1: Norman Reef - Troppo Lounge
Depth: 8.2 meters
Bottom Time: 65 minutes
Visibility: 5 meters
All decked out in our scuba gear
Conditions were the worst I've ever seen them on the reef. There were big swells on the surface, and some strong surges underwater. The visibility was absolute crap. I felt bad for Myrt and Martin, who were snorkeling on the surface. It was difficult to do our Open Water skills because of the surge. My skills were "Mask Remove and Replace" and "Buddy Breathing Ascent" - neither of which are easy skills. But we all got through OK. In hindsight, although the conditions added to the stress it was great practice for us. And a marked difference from last week, when the water was completely perfect.
On the surface, we did our Rescue Skills - Unconscious Diver on the Surface. Because we had to simulate mouth-to-mouth while simultaneously removing two sets of gear, we were able to see how difficult this is in rough water. Jon was my "patient" and he took on a lot of water. Oops! Sorry Jon!
We ate lunch with Myrt and Martin. Martin wasn't feeling too well because of the rough swells. But he was feeling better not long afterwards. They saw a moray eel swimming through the reef, which is a cool and unusual thing to see.
Dive #2: Norman Reef - The Wild Side
Depth: 8.8 meters
Bottom Time: 38 minutes
Visibility: 5 meters
For the second dive, we conducted our Advanced Navigation exercises. Mine was a natural navigation exercise. Jon's was a compass/reciprocal setting exercise. All in all, it was pretty laid back because we weren't evaluated on it. But it was interesting because we saw first-hand how difficult it is to conduct these complicated skills without detailed planning ahead of time.
Dive #3: Norman Reef - The Wild Side
Depth: 6.0 meters
Bottom Time: 15 minutes
Visibility: 5 meters
We did a quick third dive around The Wild Side, and saw a shark as soon as we went down. Jon and I dove with Elli, who got a little too close to a trigger fish. She didn't even notice it until it was charging her, so she backed away and we kept swimming.
Actually, there was a snorkeler on the boat who was attacked by a trigger fish. She had some very ugly bit marks on her cheek and it didn't look very fun. Not fun at all!
Debriefings
After we disassembled our gear, we all went to the wheelhouse to do our debriefings. We were SO HAPPY when they were all done, and very happy to have another major part of the class under our belts.
Rescue Presentations
But we weren't done yet. Because our time in the pool was cut short by the power outage last night, we had to go back to the pool to finish our Rescue briefings and presentations. We dropped Myrt and Martin off at home and told them we'd seem in two hours around 7:00PM. Then we hit the pool. As much as we were dreading going back into the pool, it was a good exercise. We each delivered a rescue briefing as if giving it to a class, and them demonstrated the mouth-to-mouth skill in real time. It was great practice.
We asked around if anyone had restaurant recommendations for us for tonight, and Tom recommended "Rattle and Hum" - a steak place on the Esplanade. Next thing we knew, a couple of people decided that they might come along. So we went home and Jon made reservations for seven people at 8:15PM.
Rattle and Hum
In the end, it turned out just to be the four of us and Tom. We found out later that David stopped by but left because we were running late and hadn't shown up yet. Anyway, Rattle and Hum is a very decent restaurant with some good Australian dishes on the menu. But we were all in the mood for the t-bone steaks, so we ignored the kangaroo and the wallaby selections. It was SO NICE to dine out again! It's been a long time since we've done this. We even ordered a bottle of wine! Wow. Luxury!!
Jon, me, Martin, and Myrt
The steak was all right, although terribly overcooked for a medium-rare steak. It was hardly pink. But I was too hungry to care about it or to send it back. In fact, it didn't even occur to me at the time that I could send it back. I guess I've become a bit less high maintenance in the past year of traveling.
Or maybe I'm just starving.