the routine
so here's my daily routine... get up around 6 and watch the world wake up, make my way down to breakfast at 7:30, then to the dive shop at 8:30 to prepare my gear for the first boat that leaves at 9. i'm usually back by 11:30/noon at which point i put away my gear, go back to my room to nap a bit, maybe lay out, then it's back to the main restaurant at around 1 for lunch and then back to the dive shop by 2 for the 2nd boat that leaves at 2:30. back by around 4:30, disassemble my gear and then it's to the sunset bar for drinks with some of the people i've met (or alone) then around 7 i go to my room, nap a little more, shower and arrive for dinner around 9. maybe drinks afterwards depending on how tired i am but by 11 i'm in bed.
repeat ad infinitum. not too bad, huh?
i woke up on the 22nd with terribly itchy fingers and hands. i'm talking painfully so - but it comes and goes and is usually worse in the morning. i thought it was an alergic reaction to something here but after a quick check of my dive injury symptom chart i learned that the symptoms are consistent with mild decompression sickness. weird since it's only my hands that this is happening to. the only thing i can think of that would have caused it was my early morning dive on the 20th followed by the short flight (unpressurized cabin, only 450 ft. up) to filitheyo. it's gotten much better over the past few days of diving - maybe having to do with the nitrox mixture i'm breathing during my dives here. dunno. still... it's a little strange.
i went on a full-day exploratory 2-tank dive on the 23rd to a site in the north part of the atoll that had never been checked out before. the first dive, right after i descended i was surrounded by an enormous school of fish - hundreds. so many that i couldn't see anything around me - i even had a mild panic attack i was so disoriented. then i remembered... do you have air? yes. then everything is fine. and i calmed down just like that. easy peasy.
in between dives we stopped at this tiny little island that had it's own protected lagoon with baby whit tip sharks swimming around. just sand, trees, and lagoon. beautiful. the trip leaders that accompanied us were ibi - a maldivian guy that seems to be able to tell the direction and speed of the current just by looking at the surface... amazing guy - and niko - a young bronze adonis of an italian guy that's been all over the world teaching diving for 7 years and who speaks 5 languages fluently. it was amazing to hear him switch gears when talking to the myriad of people at the dive shop. from german to french to italian to english then back to german - effortlessly. wish i could do that.
the 24th i dove at a site that had the strongest current i've ever experienced. ibi said it was a 5 knot current - whatever. may as well have been a hurricane. you know that old video footage of the guy strapped to a chair facing a wind generator with his lips and mouth flapping around? that was me. hanging on to some hard coral for dear life while even the fish got swept by us. amazing.
then yesterday i took another full-day trip to the local manta point. we saw a group of about 7 or 8 medium sized mantas from the boat feeding at a low lying sand bank and were able see another one during the first dive - absolutely huge. it just flew in from out of nowhere hovered directly (~1m) above one of the divers in our group for about 15 seconds like some strange alien spacecraft and then took off - probably none too pleased with our presence there.
tonight was my first night dive here. really frikkin cool. some lobsters, 2 huge red snappers maybe a meter each and a buch of free swimming morays hunting for food. but the coolest part was at the end of the dive, right before we were to ascend. our guide marco had the 3 of us turn off our torches and suddenly the water was lit up with thousands of these bioluminescent plankton - like the ones i saw washing up on the beach a week ago. every movement you made was lit up with little trails of these tiny neon blue creatures. i could have stayed down there for hours just playing with them. seriously one of the coolest things i've ever experienced.
got 2 dives scheduled for tomorrow. then one more on thursday. then... it's time to rest and relax and prepare for the flight home. christ have i been gone for 3 weeks already?
repeat ad infinitum. not too bad, huh?
i woke up on the 22nd with terribly itchy fingers and hands. i'm talking painfully so - but it comes and goes and is usually worse in the morning. i thought it was an alergic reaction to something here but after a quick check of my dive injury symptom chart i learned that the symptoms are consistent with mild decompression sickness. weird since it's only my hands that this is happening to. the only thing i can think of that would have caused it was my early morning dive on the 20th followed by the short flight (unpressurized cabin, only 450 ft. up) to filitheyo. it's gotten much better over the past few days of diving - maybe having to do with the nitrox mixture i'm breathing during my dives here. dunno. still... it's a little strange.
i went on a full-day exploratory 2-tank dive on the 23rd to a site in the north part of the atoll that had never been checked out before. the first dive, right after i descended i was surrounded by an enormous school of fish - hundreds. so many that i couldn't see anything around me - i even had a mild panic attack i was so disoriented. then i remembered... do you have air? yes. then everything is fine. and i calmed down just like that. easy peasy.
in between dives we stopped at this tiny little island that had it's own protected lagoon with baby whit tip sharks swimming around. just sand, trees, and lagoon. beautiful. the trip leaders that accompanied us were ibi - a maldivian guy that seems to be able to tell the direction and speed of the current just by looking at the surface... amazing guy - and niko - a young bronze adonis of an italian guy that's been all over the world teaching diving for 7 years and who speaks 5 languages fluently. it was amazing to hear him switch gears when talking to the myriad of people at the dive shop. from german to french to italian to english then back to german - effortlessly. wish i could do that.
the 24th i dove at a site that had the strongest current i've ever experienced. ibi said it was a 5 knot current - whatever. may as well have been a hurricane. you know that old video footage of the guy strapped to a chair facing a wind generator with his lips and mouth flapping around? that was me. hanging on to some hard coral for dear life while even the fish got swept by us. amazing.
then yesterday i took another full-day trip to the local manta point. we saw a group of about 7 or 8 medium sized mantas from the boat feeding at a low lying sand bank and were able see another one during the first dive - absolutely huge. it just flew in from out of nowhere hovered directly (~1m) above one of the divers in our group for about 15 seconds like some strange alien spacecraft and then took off - probably none too pleased with our presence there.
tonight was my first night dive here. really frikkin cool. some lobsters, 2 huge red snappers maybe a meter each and a buch of free swimming morays hunting for food. but the coolest part was at the end of the dive, right before we were to ascend. our guide marco had the 3 of us turn off our torches and suddenly the water was lit up with thousands of these bioluminescent plankton - like the ones i saw washing up on the beach a week ago. every movement you made was lit up with little trails of these tiny neon blue creatures. i could have stayed down there for hours just playing with them. seriously one of the coolest things i've ever experienced.
got 2 dives scheduled for tomorrow. then one more on thursday. then... it's time to rest and relax and prepare for the flight home. christ have i been gone for 3 weeks already?
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