dive update

Well, one week from today we will be finishing up our dive trip in Yonaguni Island. The past couple of weeks have been filled with anxiety and excitement as we prepare for the trip.

I had a few conditions before I agreed to the trip. Kyle held my hand and told me we would take care of all of my requests. I wasn't asking for much -- I wanted to do a drift dive (the same kind of dive we will do in Yonaguni) and I wanted to dive with the Instructor who will escort us to Yonaguni. After one week of awkward phone calls with "Shark Guy" we realized we were sort of getting the cold shoulder. So, I had to take things in to my own hands.

I ended up calling the scuba locker at Kadena Marina and finding and instructor to teach an advanced open water class for myself, Kyle and B. I feel a lot better about our diving skills and I am really excited for the trip.

This past week we did four dives; we're hoping to get our fifth dive in this afternoon. This evening we'll meet at the dive instructor's house to discuss the technical book work and then we'll be certified. The first dive was at Kadena North and it was a navigation dive. The purpose of the dive was to assess each diver's level of proficiency with the dive compass. Eric, the instructor, started off with a short class explaining how to use the compass and the options for underwater navigation. Then we drove to the dive location, suited up and descended. The weather was a bit chilly but the dive was nice. It was cool to learn a particular skill (compass navigation) and then implement it underwater. We had to do an out and back, navigate in a square and navigate using natural surroundings. B found a really cool shell on the way out. Everyone navigated just fine, passing all of our skills tests for that dive.

On Thursday evening we met again. This time we were learning how to wreck dive, so we went to Devil's Cove and got ready to dive and explore a sunken fishing boat. The walk out to the dive location was pretty difficult. We were walking on a bunch of coral, some of it hard coral, but there was a lot of soft coral growing so I really had to watch my step. Once we got to the location we inflated our BCDs and dropped off the reef. After everyone signalled "OK" we descended to about 30' and looked at a small fishing boat. The wreck was nothing to write home about, but it was cool to see something human made sunken underwater. After exploring the wreck we swam around for awhile looking at the coral and a couple of sea snakes. Finally, it was time for our safety stop, which is a three minute stop at depth of 15'. Divers make this safety stop to ensure they don't ascend too quickly which could cause health issues. During the safety stop I started having trouble with my buoyancy. I had too much air in my BCD and I could not get the air out, so I ended up surfacing more quickly than I should have and more quickly than my buddies. When I got to the surface I looked around and realized it was a bit past dusk and we were pretty far from the shore. I looked up and saw the runaway lights and some sort of military plane coming in for a landing at the Air Base. I guess, in that moment, I just felt really small as I floated on the surface of a huge sea without my scuba buddy. I tried to descend again but I was on the verge of freaking out. As I let air out of my BCD I wasn't able to descend. And, when I looked down I couldn't see the dive instructor or B, because it was dark. At that point I really freaked out. By now Kyle had ascended and we were both on the surface. A few seconds later the dive instructor and B ascended. We discussed what had happened and debriefed everything. But, at this point it was dark, I was about 200 yards off shore, and I just wanted to be on dry land. I started freaking out a little bit and just kept telling the dive instructor "I just want to go in. I just want to go."

We grouped up and started swimming for the shore. The water was really shallow so we were sort of "climbing" over the coral. I really don't like touching stuff (or stuff touching me) when I dive or when I swim. Lots of sea creatures live in the coral. Some sea creatures are poisonous. I prefer to look but not touch. So, I just wanted that swim to be over.

Finally, we were on dry land. Well, we were on a sandy beach, but it was close enough to dry land for my comfort. The dive instructor made a joke about the grotto we were walking through - he said the service members used to drive down there and hide out in the rock formations having keggers. I responded with, "well, I could use a beer right about now."

Nothing really happened, I just didn't react well. I didn't have my bearings and I didn't expect it to get so dark. We weren't planning for a night dive so we had briefed any of the aspects of night diving. Also, I didn't have a light, which basically meant I could not see anything underwater. Ugh! Night diving will not be one of my scuba specialities anytime soon.