Cruiseboats and Great Days

Cruise boat days can be the worst. Last week was about to do me in but luckily I, along with the help of Leanne and Pete and everyone else at the dive shop, managed to pull through. The morning out was perfectly fine. In fact I thought it was going to be the best cruise boat day yet. However in the afternoon that was a different story. It started off alright, however I knew that that was not going to last. We usually leave the dock at about 1:45 and that day I was supposed to be back at the docks at 4:15. Let me break things down for you. It takes about 25 to 30 minutes to get to the dive site. Then we have to get the certified divers in at one dive site and then move to another to do the intros. This takes 15 minutes or so. Once we are moored up, we get two or three groups of four divers in the water with gear and this can take anywhere from 25 to 40 minutes. Of course on this day it took a good 40 minutes. I then have to account for the 10 minutes to get everyone back on board and then the 30 minutes to get back to the dock. That means I had about 30 to 35 minutes to get through four skills and then a dive. The dive alone takes about 30 minutes and then sometimes the skills can take 5 to 15 minutes depending on if the person is stupid enough to inhale water through their nose. On this day I had stupid divers that took 15 minutes. That meant they had 15 minutes in the water which of course was not going to make them happy.
The site we went to is not my favorite. In fact, I hate it. It is a crappy reef that I always manage to get lost on. However on this day I did not mind and just hopped in the water hoping for all the best. Once my petrified divers were down things went alright. We had a good dive, and when my dive watch hit 25 minutes I knew I needed to find the boat so we could stay on schedule. However, I realized I had no idea where I was and I had no idea where the boat was. I insist that I was to intently focused on my divers making sure that they were not getting in trouble, and therefore I lost my sense of direction. After looking for the mooring for another 10 minutes I decided to surface and swim back to the boat. I knew at this point I would be behind schedule, but there is a small safety margin that I knew would keep me safe. However, destiny had other plans and as I was breaking down gear I noticed thick black smoke coming from the cover of one of the engines. I told George and when he looked smoke came pouring out. Not good. Turns out one of the engines was blown and we could only run on one engine. On top of this we were fighting the current, which ended pushing us into the wrong side of the harbor. By this time I was freaking out because I knew we would not make it, and therefore these cruisers were going to be spending the night in Vila on Nautilus's bill. I could just see my head being chopped off. I called the shop to fill them in and luckily after some intense conversations they decided to send the faster (not broken) fishing boat out to pick up the people and bring them in. Luckily everything worked out, and I only got a small lecture. Of course, turns out that the cruise was not going to be leaving at the time we were told, but a whole hour later, meaning all the stress and rush was not necessary.
This weeks cruise boat was just as interesting, but it went much better. The morning launch went off without a hitch and I was mostly worried about the afternoon one because Leanne was leaving for Oz (Australia) and leaving me in charge of everything. We got everyone on board and left and then I started on getting all the papers correctly filled in. Of course there was one person that had done no paperwork before coming so I had to walk him through it all. As my luck would be, the man was older and from Brazil. He understood not a word of English so I ended up somehow gesturing to him what he needed to put in each box. It was the worst game of charades I have ever played. Then on top of that I decided to fill out what I could for him and he thanked me by placing his arm around me and hugging me. This was no normal hug, for one I was standing up filling out his paperwork, also he refused to release me, and then whenever I tried to shift away from him he grabbed me hard and pulled me closer into the side of him. Of course when I tried to ask him to let me go he didn't understand a thing and instead thought if he pulled me closer he could understand what I was saying. I just ended up blaming the weirdness on the culture differences and tried to think nothing of it. Luckily for me, he was not in my group of intro divers. That was really the only interesting thing that happened on that cruise ship and thankfully we made it back to the dock in time.
Back down underwater not much has been happening. The most interesting thing that has happened recently is that the giant titan triggerfish are breeding and laying eggs. During this time they get very aggressive and territorial and will fight anything that gets in their way. If you have never seen these fish they are really dorky looking. They have big black bug eyes, a big overbite and some of the biggest buck teeth you have ever seen. Whenever I first saw these guys I wondered if their teeth could do some damaged so I Googled it. Turns out they have been known to go after scuba divers and I saw pictures of people that had had their lips literally ripped off by these fish. Not pretty. Anyway I happened to be having a fun dive and I saw a huge one of these fish. For some reason it did not swim away like they normally do and it actually started eyeballing me. I of course took notice and suddenly it turned on me and charged. And I mean FAST. It truly wanted a piece of me. Luckily I reacted fast and flipped my fin up and straight into it's face. This stopped it and it turned away from me and warily watched me. I kept going on my way watching it and it tried to charge me one more time. After that I quickly finned away.
Today was the sort of day that really makes me grateful about where and what I am doing. It started like any normal day, great weather blue skies and tons of sun. We had four people going out with us this morning and luckily I talked the boss into letting us go to Mele Bay, which has reefs that are completely different from what we normally dive on. The first dive was fun, saw some really amazing nudibranchs, a huge painted reef lobster (bone white with neon purple markings), a moray eel, and tons of different fish. The next dive was really neat. For one I didn't lost and have to pop up to see where the boat was (like the previous dive). Then on top of that we saw a huge turtle and also a blue spotted reef ray. Then on this site there are literally fields of sea anemones that cover the sea floor. And all throughout these sea anemones are all sorts of different species of clownfish. It was so amazing to be hovering over all this and have all these clownfish surround you. Pretty special. When we got back we ended up having the afternoon off. I got to chat with my family and also my second family (you know who you are). Then I decided to go to my favorite beach on Erakor and bake and read in the sun. It was a great afternoon and then to top it off I decided to walk to the best Asian food restaurant Pi Ha's (I think that is how you spell it). I had a huge meal for all of 13 dollars (US). Then I found out that they were celebrating their two year anniversary so I got a discount off of that too. My day really couldn't get much better. Hopefully my last few weeks here in Vanuatu will be filled with more days like today.

Diving with Others

Okay, so I just need to write about everything that is going on. I have had several long days back to back and I am just slightly on edge. It has been great to have lots to do and be back in the water after a few days out. However, whenever you are not feeling 100% and having to do everything to get the boat, clients, and everything else ready, it gets to be to much. Also I find it hard to deal with stupid, new, bad, and annoying divers. Luckily, I haven't really let my frustration be shown, and I try to remind myself how grateful I should be and that things could be WAY worse. So please don't think that I am ungrateful or complaining.

Yesterday I started an open water course. Of course he showed up with only two of his knowledge review worksheets filled out, so I had to take the next hour and a half to explain everything and go over the other three worksheets. He was not off on the right foot to becoming my friend. Those worksheets are for you to understand.......I already know that stuff by heart, so please don't make me answer all those questions. Then we hopped in the pool, and he wasn't terrible with all the skills. He had a hard time with mask skills. He was able to do them, but just before completing them, he would quit and shoot to the surface. I was slightly frustrated because he was not telling me what was wrong, or why he was not completing the skills fully. Anyway, we only got through half the stuff we should have because I had to quit early to do a night dive.

I, for one, HATE night dives. I was trying to be optimistic for this one since I was doing a night diving course. It is not the fact that they are done at night, but the fact that I never see anything, and they are a complete pain in the butt to lead and watch after others. Also you get back to the dock late, and then have to clean up everything. They always make for a long day. Anyway, there were no problems with that dive. It was just really boring, and the most I saw was a crab. I could even tell the other divers were disappointed and that made me feel even worse.

Then today I started another open water course. This one was better since they had already done all the knowledge reviews and book work online. All we had to do was go through the pool sessions in the morning. After the pool session, we had a break and then this afternoon we were going out for his (and yesterday's student) first dive. This morning's student also was bringing his 14 year old daughter to do an intro dive, which is the same thing as the first open water dive. Of course once in the water, we had trouble with equalizing and we spent 15 minutes on the descent line. That is never fun, because once down on the seafloor everyone has only half a tank left of air. After 10 minutes of swimming bouancy issues arise, and two of my divers are on the surface. One is the girl and she decides to give up and swim back to the boat. The other was the father and so I take him back down. As I was sorting this out, my other diver somehow forgot about his bouancy so now I was trying to get two new divers back down in open water. Luckily we got back down and we proceeded to continue the dive. Okay, so my biggest peeve with diving has to do with the fact that we are in an OCEAN of water. That means there is tons of room to move, so I don't understand why all my divers have to swim right next to, behind or on top of me. I can't even turn in any directions because then I will run into them. I always feel like a cow being herded in a direction I don't want to go. NOT fun! So after my two divers ran me off my course they decided to not pay attention to my direction and they ended up both going 180 degrees away from me. I decided not to give chase and just watch them to see how long it would take for them to realize they were not following anyone, and were essentially lost. Not nice, but lesson learned. After 4 minutes of wandering like lost sheep I decided to rap on my tank to get their attention and call them back. So yeah, rapping on the tank (no matter how hard) did not get their attention. I was making so much noise that literally all the fish had fled the area I was in. Finally, I saw them realize I was gone, and that something (me) was making a TON of noise. We got back on track and I managed to check their air. After I checked their air once, they became paranoid about me knowing their air pressure. I really couldn't even look at them without them checking their air pressure and telling me. It brought me to the point where I wouldn't even look back to see where they were because I didn't want to know their air pressure. Finally I decided to take them back to the boat and we made it back to the boat and everyone (but me) had smiles on their face. I can't wait to finish both their courses.....I am sure I will have some moments of exasperation.

Okay so now a funny dive story. I was supposed to be diving with these two certified divers on the outside of Pango Point. This dive site is right on the outside of the island and it can get rough so we have to enter the water by doing a giant stride off the front of the boat. It can be a little nerve racking for the new or inexperienced diver. Anyway, my two divers were a couple and he was experience but the lady was new and very nervous. She said that she was going to have problems and that I would have to help her. Of course I did not want to hear this because usually this means that terrible problems can happen. Even worse, this particular site is not forgiving for when problems occur. Anyway, I talked to her and told her exactly how things would happen. We got to the dive site and I decided to get my guys in the water first. I got both of them in (she did a very nice giant stride off the front) and both were feeling better since getting into the water. I hopped in and after checking with them we decided to drop down. The husband was fine and had no problems and went straight down. He did not care about his wife and left her at the surface. She of course was having trouble going down....not because she didn't have enough weights, but because she was afraid to go under. I grabbed her hand and coaxed her down. Her mask just got underwater when she FREAKED. She jerked upwards and spat out her regulator and was fighting to keep her head up. I was slightly uneasy with this and asked her to calm down and tell me what her problem was. Her response was “I couldn't equalize.” I almost started laughing and told her quite condescendingly and sarcastically that “Well......you have to be underwater to equalize.” You should have seen her face when I told her this. She was so shocked I would be so uncaring and she quickly shouted at me to “Shut up!” It was priceless! I put my regulator back in and dropped down. Her only option was to follow. Afterwards she had no problems, and she only had confidence issues so I held her hand through half the dive. After the dive, and back on the boat, I apologized for my sarcasm and she just laughed and told me that was the best thing I could have done. She told me it just showed her how stupid she was being. It turned out that they were a great couple and enjoyed diving with me so much that they signed up to come diving with me the next day. She was still lacking confidence on her last dive, and so her husband went to hold her hand. However, she swam to my side and grabbed my hand. I could tell that he was not happy with this, and even when she let go of my hand, he quickly picked it up and wouldn't let her drop his hand. It was pretty funny.

There really are so many other stories I could tell. Tomorrow we have a busy day with cruise boat people and they always turn out some good stories. I promise to write more often and let you all know what is going on her in Vanuatu.

Stupidity

Okay, so I just looked back and realized how very little I have told you about my amazing experiences here in Vanuatu. I am really mad at myself right now. So much does go on here, and it all just kinda clumps together to form one big memory. I could have sworn that I have related most of the stories that go on but really I have said so little.
Lets see......I shall start with some of the diving stories. Open water diving students are always good at providing a few good stories. My last student was this middle aged lady that was so excited to start diving. She was pretty good in the water but then she forgot some of the basics when trying to complete underwater navigation. We started the exercise on the bottom of the dive site (12m down) and as she started navigating she forgot about her buoyancy and started drifting to the surface. I couldn't stop her and have her drop back down so I just emptied my jacket to make myself as negatively buoyant as possible. I then grabbed onto her BCD and tried to act as a weight. She took no notice, and so here I was hanging upside down underneath my student who was navigating a line. I felt like a remora fish hitching a free ride. My attempt really didn't work to well and we ended the exercise in about 4 meters of water. It then took a good 5 minutes for her to get back down to depth. I am sure it would have been quite amusing to see me curled up in a ball hanging from my students BCD.
Another good story comes from when I was leading two new divers from Asia. They were a bit nervous and not to sure about scuba diving still. We dropped down onto the dive site and started to enjoy ourselves. They stayed quite close to me (to close to where I was kicking them...annoying!) and they started to act a bit more confident. We were coming to the end of the dive and we came around the side of a huge coral head. Underneath at the bottom of the coral head there was a 3 meter leapord shark. It was gorgeous and we were probably less than 2 meters from it. I turned to my students to make sure they saw it (it was VERY hard to miss) and they were just staring at me. I pointed to the shark to show them and they refused to look at it. It was so strange, here I was freaking out because I have always wanted to see one of these sharks and they weren't even going to look at the thing. I wasn't sure they knew what it was so I decided to give them the shark sign. Yeah.....that wasn't the best move. I gave the sign and pointed to it and both of the diver's eyes got huge. I was surprised that niether one of them tried to shoot for the surface. Luckily the shark swam off so my divers calmed down a bit. After the dive on the surface I tried to figure out what they thought it was or what they were thinking, but they were just nonplused and really didn't say much about it. They were some of the strangest divers I have taken diving.
A fun dive that I did happened with a large group. We were doing a drift dive, and I was chosen to lead it since Chelsea refused to lead it (her navigation skills are not to the standard of mine...haha). We had about 7 divers and then the 3 instructors, and I was not excited to have the responsiblity of getting 9 people back to the boat on a drift dive. I was religiously following my compass and feeling good about everything and sudden I hear a frantic tapping on one of the divers tanks. It ended up being Chelsea trying to get attention (like always) and she was pointing to a hige dugong appearing from the right. It was headed straight for one of the divers and he had no idea he was about to have a collision. I quickly got his attention and pointed at the dugong. It was a little late and as he turned his head he got a huge whump on the head from the dugong. His reaction was priceless, as it should be. If I was bumped by a 4 meter animal underwater I would freak just a bit too. Anyway the dugong just joined our group and come up to people to be scratched and socialize. It ended up following us for the majority of the time, which ended up getting me very upset. Of course, everyone was focused on the dugong and had no interest in where I was leading them. They totally disregarded me and refused to follow me. I ended up angerly beating my tank to try to get their attention and of course that didn't help. It was like trying to herd a bunch of cats, it was not happening. Anyway, finally I got Chelseas and Logans help and we managed to cohearse everyone back on track. I ended up getting us directly back to the boat and everyone had an amazing dive. I have to admit that it was one of the top ten dives I have done here.
The other day I had a different kind of dive. Some people might say that I had a 45 minute underwater date with a 46 year old married lady. Haha......yeah anyway she was an intro diver and she was really excited. However as soon as she hit the water that excitment became nervousness. I could tell she was not confident at all and very unsure of everything. We started to swim off and she just blanked out and started drifting to the surface. I grabbed her hand and pulled her down. I could tell as soon as she realized I was down there with her (physical contact) she calmed down a bit. That being I just decided to hold her hand the entire dive. She was fine with that and ended up having one of the best times of her life (her words). At one point of the dive I loosened my grip to see if she would release to dive on her own, but that just made her tighten her grip. Needless to say, after 45 minutes my hand was quite sore and tired. She ended up doing another dive and she luckily had enough confidence to swim on her own for that one. It is times like that, that being an instructor is so rewarding.
I know there are other good diving stories but it is late here and that is all my brain can think of at the moment. I will write more soon, and I will also write about life on land here. It is an amazing place, filled with some amazing people. Though I must admit that I miss all the amazing people back home in the States.