Today, I finished a 2 person Advanced Open Water. A French couple had continued through from their Open Water course with me, and it was quite enjoyable to teach them.

After completing their morning dives, Jen, me and a few other jumped onto the longtail to head out to Junkyard. The day before, during bad weather, the SeaTran ferry decided to park on Junkyard’s buoyline. Being a rather large boat, they dragged the anchor and sandscrews about 100m to the East hitting the edge of the coral reef. We were really concerned about the direction it had dragged it, and I had visions of 3 years of work on our nurseries was trashed.

Once we found Junkyard with Carsten snorkelling and me driving the boat around in circles (and rough waves!), Carsten dove down to tie a temporary line for the longtail to moor up on.

Carsten and his group surface swam to the anchor 100m away, while Jen and I dropped down to assess the damage.

The path of the anchor was clear… and it had missed causing massive damage to our coral nursery by inches.. it actually had only clipped the edge causing some structural damage… which I can happily live with.

Jen and I swam the path of the anchor and met the other guys, where we used lots of lift bags to raise the sandscrew and anchor to return them to Junkyard… It was a tough task and we have to return to move the concrete slabs tomorrow, but a lot got done.

With the anchor and sandscrews back, we plan to return tomorrow and secure the anchor about 20m South East of Junkyard to lower the risk of the same thing happening… we shall see how it goes!

That evening, yet another dive (night) with my 2 students, and then home to bed… I think we both fell asleep 5 mins later…

xx

SD

Nice gruesome update for ya..!

I completed a 5 person Open Water, with dodgy ears, which are improving day by day.. and then 2 of the students (French, and quite funny) continued on to Advanced…

Anyway… Day 1, was PPB and Navigation dives… the waves are huge, and boat was hiding from them as much as possible…  On the way back, I managed to scrape my toe on deck and pull it off half way.. Not to show my pain in front of students.. I stuck a plaster on, went back to the bar and commenced with the Eco Movie nite…

Eco Movie over, and back home for some serious convincing to Jen..  “Just pull it off” “I can’t!” ” Do IT!!”  “NO!!”  etc…

Anyway,  Jen plucked up the courage and on the 3rd attempt… the whole nail came off… not nice.. but I guess now it has gone… the body shall repair.. Enjoy the pic.. my nail is resting on my toe.

xx

SD

So, back to normal……

The family have landed safely back in the UK, and I have been snotty for 3 days, and now taking antibiotics to kick its butt..

In the meantime I have been hammering away with UK work, while Jenny has been teaching.. Another whaleshark spotted yesterday.. at White Rock… with Open Water students on the 4th dive… lucky sods!

Any way, I put together a quick vid of Roy’s Deep Dive… Its not HD… that’ll take a while!!

Next up, will be Roys Wreck Dive!

xx

SD