We found out yesterday for sure that the junior college would not be holding classes on tonight as the teachers would be heading out for Easter Break. So, Dr. Catapano and I decided to go diving today.
We met at 8:30 and headed to the dock. I realized once I got there that the picture of my dive card that my mother-in-law had sent me was no longer on my phone. Just as I began to panic, they told me they could look it up in the Padi system. Whoo.... what a relief!
I has been a little while since I have dove so I was just a little nervous; but the dive master and captain made everything easy. Once I ran through setting up the gear and how it all works, I was ready to go...
We headed out to the first dive spot - Tackle Box Canyon. A father and daughter team from Los Angeles joined us. Once we got in the water, we headed down with the dive master. Since we were hoping to see some reef shark, he took chum with him. This dive was about 60-80 feet deep. The nurse sharks did come quickly and they were certainly bigger than the 3-4 foot ones I am used to seeing in Key West. These were about 7 feet long and looked really HUGE! As we started through the canyon, one wanted to travel along so I had to kinda wait and let it swim back and forth before I could get through.
It was so amazing to get back under the water! Unfortunately, I have traded places with my husband and I quickly sucked my air down... I started with 3100 psi and had to go back up at 500 psi. I was up and on the boat talking to the captain for about 10 minutes before everyone else came up. However, the two of us did have a good chat about the education system on the island... he is not a big fan. We talked about why and where he sends his children to school.
The second dive was at Esmeralda. Once again, the dive master took chum down with him. This time, the nurse sharks really flocked. I hovered above just taking it all in; however, the dive master did convince me to come to the bottom and I touched and petted the tail of one of the sharks... This is something I would never have dreamed I would have ever done!
The funniest thing on this dive was the huge eel who lives at this site. It came out of its home and swam over to another diver taking pictures of another group. There was a little gap where the pocket of his shorts opened. The eel decided it would be a good idea to stick its head inside the man's pocket. I was laughing so hard but the guy must have been totally engrossed in the pictures he was taking because he never flinched or even looked toward the eel. The eel got bored, I guess, and swam to another part of coral.
Because of how quickly I sucked my air down on the last dive, I hovered above everyone else most of this dive in order to try and save some air and make my dive last a little longer. The dive itself was no more than 40-50 feet but I hovered right between 25-30 feet... and I still sucked my air down and had to go back up early.
Once I surfaced, I could not see the boat right off. Another dive boat saw me and waved down the captain of the boat I was on, so I just floated in the water for about 10 minutes until the boat got to me and the other divers came up.
We got back to the hotel about 1:00. I met up with the rest of the doctoral students and headed to lunch. We decided to discuss a little more about the report we will submit to the dean of San Pedro Junior College and the suggestions we will make. Jaime and I finalized the goals, Greg had finished the script for the orientation power point. Cindy had worked on the enrollment application and had made a script for a graduate survey so we reviewed that. We didn't get any further than that because the rain came in and the power went out for a while. The student handbook still needs to be finalized.
We regrouped for dinner and Dr. Parker and the rest of us went to The Office for saveche and then to MoHo Chocolate for dessert.
Today was great! A little diving fun and a little work. The week has been really busy up to this point with San Pedro Junior College. It has been interesting to say the least.
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