Times of Diving

So I really can't believe that I am on my fourth week of being in Vanuatu. That is so crazy to me. I am still getting used to things here, especially since it is so much more laid back than Croatia. Not laid back in a bad way where the diving is unsafe. It is just a much warmer, fun environment. I feel guilty if I ever say that this is my work. So there are three instructors working here, including me, then we have the two bosses, Leanne works with the scuba stuff and Pete runs the fishing charters. Then we have several different Ni-Vanuatu staff that do an amazing job at making things so much easier for us. There is George who often skippers the boat, Jim who skippers and also works as a DM, then we have Wendy who cleans up after us (she does our laundry!) and makes amazing cakes, there are several others too that fill tanks, do maintenance around here, and run the fishing boats. It really is a great group of people around here. It took a while to get used to their sense of humor (if you can call it that) and also all the dynamic personalities. The first week I just sat around trying to take it all in, not take offense to anything, and try to blend in. It was pretty obvious though, that I was the newbie from America that really wasn't used to the Aussie and Kiwi ways.
So most every day we are diving, in the morning we have two dives and in the afternoon we have one. We finish up most of the time around 5 or so and then have the rest of the day to ourselves. We trade of days cooking for the group so sometimes we have to get right onto making dinner. After dinner we might go to the movies at the outdoor cafe, or we might just play a mean game of cards. There are slight variations of how the days go, it all depends on if you have students, intro students, or just certified divers. We get a good mix of everything so you never get bored. Also Wednesdays are when the cruise ship comes in, and we only cater to the cruise ship on that day. We get to sleep in on these days, and we only do one dive in the morning and one in the afternoon.
The diving here is amazing. You have such a great variety of dive sites. We have wrecks with good visibility, wrecks with wreck quality vis., plane wrecks, reefs, bommies, a cavern, and just about everything else. The sea life here is astounding too. Coming from the barren Adriatic sea, this is like the Sea of Eden. Life is everywhere it seems, and I have such a hard time focusing on one thing. I swear that my head is constantly swiveling everywhere trying to take in everything. I think I am just starting to get used to it, but hopefully this is not a sign that I am getting bored of it. That would be terrible. Most of the life here is small, the biggest things I have seen here are turtles, a ray from far away, and cuttlefish that might be as long as my forearm. I have to say that the cuttlefish are my favorite animals. They are amazing and really fearless. Plus if you get real close you can see their skin constantly changing color. It is really spectacular. I love the look of new divers faces when you show them a cuttlefish. It is as if they have found an alien, and I must say that that is a good description of a cuttlefish.....very alienlike. Had you asked me what my favorite animal would be a week ago I might have said the "friendly" clownfish, but one dive quickly changed that. So of course groups of clownfish live in anemones, and they are very protective of their babies. These babies are tiny and to really see them you have to get close to the anemone. Often times when you get to close the adults come out and swim in front of your face and chase your hand. It seems all harmless and fun, but really they are trying to chase you off. Most divers just think they are curious. Anyway, on this one dive I had one intro student and I was showing her the clownfish and there little babies. There was one adult that did not like me and kept biting my regulator. Just as I was turning away to leave I felt something slam against my forehead and rip out a chunk of hair. I of course screamed into my regulator and looked to see this clownfish retreat back to his anemone with a lock of hair in it's mouth. I looked at my intro student so see if she had see this and she was laughing her head off. I have to admit it was quite funny.
So really that has been my only run in with the sea life. I have seen some amazing things, and I even got to swim with dugongs. Those things are amazing. Also just the other day I ran into a sea snake and actually petted it. It didn't seem to mind and now I can saw I played with one of the most poisonous snakes in the world.
So also with the diving, I am still learning the different dive sites and how to navigate around them. I am fine with just about all of them except for this one area with three of our sites. The place is called Konanda, and it consists of a wreck, reef and wall. It should be easy, and I can do the wreck just fine. However, going from the wreck to reef, staying of the reef, and finding the boat is not very easy for me. I always get turned around, and I think I have only been able to find the boat 2 or 3 times out of the 6 or 7 times I have been on it. Not good, and much to my embarrassment. I think it is just that the reef looks much the same and also I just found out that the wall doesn't run parallel to the main island. So hopefully, I will be able to get around it next time. I also finally got to do the dive on Star of Russia which is a old clipper ship that was made by the same company that made the Titanic. It is a gorgeous wooden ship that is the picturesque wreck dive. It lies in about 36 metres of water and so the bottom time is quite short. One of the best parts is "falling" to the bottom and flying through the schools of batfish that swirl around the mooring line. There is nothing like it. Another wreck I got to do that was neat was the airplane wreck of the Tasmine. It lies at about 40 metres and is covered in silt. It is a little eerie to dive to that depth and have this plane loom out of the gloom. To make it spookier, there are hardly any signs of life on it. Maybe a few fish that lurk in the shadows. Also since I have been here I have only done 2 night dives. The first one I was just tagging along and the second one I was actually leading. The night dives are fun cause you do see lots of different things, but I just think it is not worth the stress and everything else. When I was leading I did start freaking out because I had no idea where I was and my compass was just spinning aimlessly around. Luckily, I realized (thank the Lord) that I was going in the opposite direction that I should be and after backtracking I found myself directly under the boat. I had never been so relieved. That dive though we saw 4 turtles (amazing) and also some crazy looking slipper lobsters.
Back on land though, we do get some time off so I have been able to explore. My first day off I went to a small island called Hideaway Island. It is home to the only underwater working post office, and if I was fun I would have sent postcards from it. However, I did not feel like snorkeling out there and was lazy and just laid on the beach. I paid for my laziness by getting burned badly. Luckily it turned brown over the next two days but then my skin started peeling. Not pretty.......but I guess it could have been worse. On my next day off I went to a different island resort called Erakor. That island is gorgeous with some amazing beaches. I marched to the end of the island and had a small 12 metre beach all to myself. I did not see a single person that whole day. All I did was bake in the sun and read my book. It was a perfect day. I got to go back there recently with Chelsea, and we hit up the market beforehand and packed a small picnic. That was such a good idea, and we had a really nice afternoon relaxing on the beach. It is times like this that I have to remind myself that I am not on vacation and that I am actually working in such a amazing place.
So I have lots more to talk about but I will save it for later and hopefully I will not wait so long to blog again. Will is going to be leaving us in another week and a half and we will be getting two new instructors that Chelsea and I will have to train. Should be fun and I am sure I will have some stories to tell.