6 hours time difference is just stupid... (not to use a stronger swear word) - The picture shows the current status of seaweed on the beach, taken on a day with very strong winds towards land...
Sunday (5.2.223) - "only" 2 dives, but with AOW student. First "Fish ID" (together with 3 other customers as "Fun Dive"), followed by navigation in a fairly strong current - swimming a square is a real challenge. Thank goodness there were only 2 of us on this dive, otherwise it would have been utter chaos!
Monday - First dive of the day: Bull sharks including deep dive for AOW! Immediately afterwards another refreshment in the pool, on to a fun dive and as a conclusion the first dive of an OW course.
Tuesday - my day off! The plan was: take the laundry to the laundry, make a long phone call to Europe, go shopping and, if possible, get a screw that fits the front brake of my bike. It has become: taking away the laundry and losing the key in the process. Most of the day - around 9:30 am - was then blocked looking for the key! What I found: Cigarette butts that from afar look like an old (small) carbine; an (empty) beer bottle - it was empty before I found it; all kinds of glittering candy packaging; some nice blooms; many holes in the road;... what I didn't find: my key. Thank goodness I've had a roommate since Tuesday last week (the son of a friend of my landlady's neighbor) for whom I copied a key plus a second set for security .... only he didn't spend the night in the apartment ! And as usual in such cases, the battery of my mobile phone was empty - in German: "It's not raining, it's pouring". And that on the day that I actually wanted to use to make long and quiet calls to Europe again. It's not that easy: when people in Europe wake up to go to work, I sleep. When I wake up, Europe is working. When Europe comes home after work, I'm at work. And when I get home it's roughly midnight in Europe. I've come to the conclusion that the same time zone OR exactly opposite (+/- 12 hours) is actually optimal, +/-6 hours is exactly stupid; and I add +/- 2 hours each time. For the time in between - i.e. +/-3 or 9 hours, I think it depends on the individual person.... Have you had any experiences there or do you see it completely differently? I would be very happy about a comment on this!
Wednesday - The day of the "cover picture" - as mentioned, a day with strong winds! 4 dives were planned, it turned out to be one - but it was exciting! Strong wind and strong current, and that as a conclusion of an Advanced Open Water Diver - course! The current so strong that my student (a seasoned man of my age) could not swim against it, even "crawling" on the bottom! But it's good that this experience can be had with an instructor, you know - in this situation (current parallel to the bottom) not much can happen as long as the group stays closed. (There are also "underwater waterfalls" or currents directed downwards, completely different topic). On the way back found out: "Markus, you stay on the boat and do the bullshark dive right away". (instead of the planned break) - however, the customers then said that the current was probably so strong that the TG made little sense (strong current = a lot of sand in the water = poor visibility), so no dive! Tomorrow the wind should be less again...
Thursday - made the first dive today with another AOW student, navigation again. This time we also had another customer with us, who in the meantime adjusted his camera and took some nice photos! The 2nd dive of the day was with an OW student from France, very nice dive! If everything goes as planned, I will also certify this student!
Friday - Bull Sharks! And that as a guide, not as a safety diver! Very strong current - as a result "lost" a diver right on the surface... He was too focused on his camera and therefore missed the rope, and you can't counter the current there. So I "only" dived with 2 customers, my safety diver stayed with the "lost" customer. (By the way, they were taken from our boat 5 minutes later, so all good). By the way, there is a video of this dive here! The 2nd dive of the day was in "Jardines" (Spanish: garden) with 4 customers from North America - and there is also a video for that! Only from the 3rd dive I don't have a video, that was an OW course (dive 3 from my student from yesterday), and in teaching situations I don't have a camera with me. So the day was a very nice day with 3 very different dives, each enriching in its own way!
Saturday - the final dive for my OW student! A new enthusiastic diver for the diving world and a step closer to the MSDT for me too! And in the afternoon another bull shark dive! There is almost no better way to end the week!
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