380869
5
Location
514150
<p>The only sound we hear is the sound of the motor of the small fishing boat we’re on.<span> The stars cast light on the mountains surrounding our bay. My feet are tapping rapidly to the rhythm of my heart, I can’t think of anything other then “oh boy, oh boy, oh boy…” As the boat stops we have to quickly fasten our fins, put on our masks and hold our regulator in our mouth as we awkwardly do a back drop into a silent and calm, black sea. As we let the air out of our jackets we slowly let our selves sink into the black abyss. The only thing that is keeping my sanity is the fact we all of flashlights pointing down to the sandy bottom which at the moment we can’t see or feel all I know is, is that my ears are starting to close on me. As a stumble to plug my nose and blow while hanging onto a descent line with my torch light and BCD inflator in hand I can’t help but think “what did I get myself into?” We finally make it to the wreck, there is a small cruise boat the was sank 5 years earlier to create more reef, it worked! Our first challenge was to get together in a small circle of 4 and turn off our lights to see the photoplankton glow when disturbed (later Josh told me he was quickly and violently waving his flashlight to make a light show that could rival the 4<sup>th</sup> July fireworks) what a dork. Next we did a navigation exercise with our compass, then it was independence time. Our “guides” left us to start taking amazing photos of all the creatures that come out at night, having been only our 9<sup>th</sup> dive it freaked me out a little bit. So I stuck to Josh like a little fish stuck to the underbelly of a shark for protection. We found out that parrot fish stick themselves under coral to rest their body’s as they sleep, we also found crabs and lobster come out a night along with the weirdest looking, HUGE, underwater worm. We looked around the wreck and josh stopped to take photos of funny fish, weird worms, and the ships sunken toilet. As my mask started to fog and 40 minutes had passed I noticed my air getting low 60 bar (at 50 bar its normally time to ascend to the surface). So I grab Josh’s tank pull his plastic ball to make noise on his tank and shine my light side-to-side waiting for the instructors to come help. I tell them I am getting low on air so we traveled together to return back to our ascent line that we follow back up to the boat. As one instructor has a hold of my vest I am frantically looking for Josh while deflating my BCD (air jacket), shining my flashlight upwards, holding my backup light down, trying to look at my dive computer for my ascent rate, in total blackness only to hear all of our computers start beeping loudly, we all stop kicking take it easy and then the beeping subsides, we then start to ascend slower only to finally see the bottom of our boat. Once we surface I take one big breathe and let out a huge WOW! That night I couldn’t stop thinking about my first under water experience, there were so many emotions that ran through me, excitement, fright, overwhelming awe, thrill and anticipation. It was one of the best and memorable moments of my life. PS. Josh was SO natural in the dark depths, I think he found his calling, what a super stud!</span></p>
2007-09-09T14:50:10-07:00
1228931072
2007-09-09T17:00:00-07:00
0
16
212167
5502493
380869
0
242760
0.0
2007-09-09T17:00:00-07:00
Published
0.0
Scuba Diving at Night
2007-09-09T14:50:10-07:00
100952
0