Some more shots from Carey Satin

My camera is still an enigma to me for the underwater shots so here are some more from Carey's dives.

 Here are some of mine.  First my classroom:

These little guys(about the size of a baseball) are all over the road starting around sunset










Stormy weather and some rain followed by yesterday's sunset. 

S. Heller - Lion Fish Hunter

I can't believe that I haven't written since last Tuesday, but not many noteworthy things have happened.  I am still proceeding through the course work and knocking out some of the 24 skills I will need.  The course work now includes the 5 specialty certifications that I am adding to my Dive Master.  When I am done in November I hope to be certified in Wreck, Deep, Night, Search and Recovery, and Fish Identification.  More books and exams.  And more dives ;-).

I am trying to inject some fun into my days and an opportunity came up to be trained and licensed to kill Lion Fish.  A little history about these pesky critters is, about 5 years ago Atlantis was built in the Bahamas.  A huge resort with an aquarium as it main attraction.  We're talking huge, like it covers the whole resort and contains millions of gallons of seawater.  They have thousands of sea creatures and when they opened they had many mated pairs of Lion Fish.  The sea water is pumped in and filtered to protect the expensive captive creatures from outside pollutants.  But the water is not filtered on the way out.  So they pumped out the spent water and with it Lion Fish eggs.  Now because Lion Fish are not native to this area, they have no natural predators.  They breed like crazy in warm water.  Eat ravenously anything they can find and have multiplied at an alarming rate.  So to try to control the spread, the only thing we are allowed to kill in the marine park is the Lion Fish.  We spear them and either take them to eat or most often we feed them to the larger predator fish in hopes of teaching them to hunt them themselves.  Snapper, Grouper, Shark, Morays all are being fed and it appears that they are learning how good the Lion Fish are.  The meat is quite good and there are many recipes for them here on the island.

Here is a 16 inch Lion Fish caught by the Marine Park guy on a night dive last week.  It so far has won the award for the largest killed.

This is one of my hunting buddies with his first kill. I have yet to get mine, although I have managed to wing a couple and dent the coral around a few.  Something we try not to do.

                                                            007.5  License to kill

Wait...what boat?

Hi everyone,  it has been a busy start to the week.  Actually it ended last week with a cool celebration.  I mentioned it before but this past weekend was Honduran Independence day and the street here was filled with revelers and families enjoying cheap beers and lots of local barbeque.  At the end of the celebration on Sunday there was a very cool fireworks show.

This is the last few minutes of the show from my deck.  It was sprinkling during the evening and Mother Nature added her part of the sights and sounds by throwing in a terrific thunder and lightning display.  Then, when all the man made spectacle was over, the sky opened up and a torrential rain tried, unsuccessfully, to quiet the crowded streets.  It didn't happen.   I think the noise from the street below my window finally subsided around 3 in the morning.  At 5 the crews came in and started tearing down the booths that had lined the main drag.

Monday was the start of some of the practical portion of my training.  I assisted one of my instructors as she taught a student getting her Open Water certification.  Many of the skills that my instructor was demonstrating to the student, were to be included in my skills tests later in my training program.  I would have to repeat these skills with demonstration quality expertise soon.  The skills portion was done in the bay near our shop and then we would do the same things out in the open water during an afternoon dive.

At the end of the dive, after being down for about 25 minutes, at 35-40 feet, winding our way around the reef and away from the boat, my instructor asked(via an underwater writing tablet) if I wanted to lead us back.  I was completely unprepared and declined the offer.  I did have an inkling as to the approximate direction but was not confidant about my natural navigation skills.

Today was much like yesterday.  We started out in the bay doing the second set of underwater skills with my instructor and her student and me observing.  Then in the afternoon we dove with the rest of the divers in a very pretty open water site.  Again, the instructor lead us out and away from the boat where we saw a turtle,  an eel, and quite a number of very cool creatures.  I was much more prepared for this dive and started out being very aware of where we put in and the direction we went.  I memorized the sun location and the area immediately around the mooring.  Then I starting counting the fingers of the reef that we passed over as we continued south down the edge of the reef.  I also made mental notes from my computer of the depth of our dive and the time we were taking.  A dive master needs to do this while also searching for the little beasties that make the dive so cool for the divers that they lead.

When we reached the halfway point of our dive I was much more prepared for the instructor when she turned and asked if I wanted to lead.  This time I was enthusiastic about this task and agreed.  As I lead our way back I had to calm myself and continue to look for creatures and slowly weave our way back.  I didn't want to directly follow our path so I edged up the reef slightly so as we completed the dive we would be near our safety stop depth of 15 feet.  I counted the fingers again and studied the sun and the topography until I was sure we were at the correct channel that we dove through to start the dive.  But I couldn't see the boat.  We were still at about 25-30 feet deep, so I realized we needed to head toward shore, or East away from the sun.  I turned to look at my instructor and smiled and shrugged but gestured in the direction I felt we needed to go.  And she motioned that it was up to me and that they were following me.  So I swam in the direction that I felt was right and there it was.  It was right where we left it.  The other divers were above us and had just completed their dive too and were boarding the boat as we did our 3 minute safety stop.

This was a huge confidence builder for me.  I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the studying and skills.  Being out of my comfort zone, so far from home and the people & things that I know.  This was the first real indication that I can do this.  Here is today's sunset.  It was a great day.

Thar be Whale Shark

My apologies dear reader, for my lack of posts.  It’s been 7 days since my last post, and it is not for lack of trying.  I am realizing that I should at least write in my word processing program so that when the internet is working all I need to do is copy and paste.  I’m a newbie –I’m learning on the fly here. 

So yes, the internet has been down most of the evenings when I’m home, but a lot has happened in the past week.  I don’t think I could have planned a better time to be here than right now.  The first week I was here there was a celebration for the Marine Park.  This week is the celebration of Honduran Independence, and there is a huge fishing tournament. 

The dive shop has not been very busy as this time of the year is usually the rainy, off season.  Many locals take time off the island and not very many tourists visit.  This is a double edge sword for me and my DM training.  I do get a lot of 1 on 1 time with my instructors but part of my training is in customer service and without paying customers I don’t get a lot of practice.  I have had plenty of time to read my texts and will complete the written portion of my education this weekend.  I will still need to take the exams but at least for the DM certification, the reading will be completed.

There has also been plenty of time for Fun Dives.  These are free dives with little work involved except for escort and observation.  I tag along with the DMs and their customers as a back up dive buddy.  This has been a spectacular week for the island’s diving.  There have been multiple rare sightings by our shop and other shops this week.  Pilot whales, dolphins, a hammerhead shark, and an oceanic white tip shark were seen by people this week.  But the most spectacular was a visit by at least 2 whale shark.  

On a dive this week we surfaced to find that a cluster of dive boats had gathered a bit out to sea from the reef’s edge.  As we went to investigate, the dorsal fin of one of the whale sharks broke surface right next to our boat.  You need to be very fast and very quiet while getting your gear on and your butt back in the water.  And by the time we got in the shark had dove down and out of sight.  The next dive that day did get a much better opportunity as the sharks were right under them as they entered the water.  Here is a great shot of one of them that a friend took.

My camera broke last week so I am with out the visuals that I love to post but I am negotiating with another friend to buy her extra camera that also has underwater capabilities so hopefully soon you will be entertained by the beauty of this area.  Both above and below the surface.

Here are some shots that a photographer, Carey Satin, has taken.  She has been diving with us this week and is constantly taking photos.

 

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or as I like to call it; RESCUE HELL

The latter part of my first week was devoted to getting my Rescue Diver Certification.  I learned to apply all the First Responder aid I had just learned to "rescuing" another diver or swimmer in all sorts of different water scenarios.  Saving someone from the beach, a boat, open ocean, or under water.  Each scenario involved assessing the situation and how best to approach the rescue.  Then save the person and get them to a safe environment where EMS can respond.  This often involves physically transporting the person either onto a beach, up into a boat, or towing them in the open ocean.  After three days,  I "saved" myself and my buddies probably a dozen times or more.  I also studied written theory and watched educational videos.  By Saturday I was exhausted, and a Certified Rescue Diver.  YEAH!

 Saturday I worked a bit in the classroom and missed an opportunity for a fun dive, but used the time to learn about the expectations of the Dive Master course that I would start on Monday.  I also started to educate myself on the inner workings of the dive shop as I will be asked to assist everyday during my internship. In the afternoon the shop closed so that we all could attend the Marine Park birthday party.   I'm not sure if the whole island is in the Marine Park but certainly a large part is, and especially the area where we are diving.  I enjoyed the company of my new friends and the spirit of the residents in support of this wonderful habitat.  Please visit www.roatanmarinepark.com/

Sunday was my day off.  I dove in the morning and had a very leisurely day but with out my camera, air conditioning, or the internet.  It seems bad things come in threes. 

Tuesday's alot like Monday but reverse

This morning I was at the shop early to do some more reading and video watching before the crew arrived.  My skills testing and scenario responses where scheduled for this afternoon, and here it comes...but first I HAD to go on some more fun dives.

The 9:00 was with my instructor while she instructed an advance student about fish identification for her Naturalist dive.  This was another spectacular dive.  I just followed them and peered over their shoulders at all the little beasties that they were finding.  Another hour underwater at around 80 feet.

Now when I write the depth in these posts I mark the max depth that I dove to.  We start usually at around 20 to 30 feet and get to a maximum depth fairly quickly and then slowly rise over the course of the dive.  In some cases max depth is as deep as 130 or as shallow as 15.

When you go deep you cut the length of the dive short.  And sometimes you really don't see more sealife.  The best dive I ever had was at a depth of 15 feet off a beach in Cozumel.  It was teeming with life and I was able to stay down for 90 minutes.

My next dive of the morning was with our head Dive Master.  He leads all the tourist dives.  I was asked to dive buddy with a customer who was diving alone while the DM buddied with an older customer who needed more assistance.  I just followed along making sure that my buddy didn't come to harm and I would point out things of interest, like turtles, lion fish, eels, crabs, shrimps.  She was taking photos of all the little things so it was another leisurely stroll along the reef.  This time we were down for over an hour.  And it was probably the most alive site I had been to yet.

My afternoon was filled with Emergency Responder scenarios.  One of the other DMTs would act out an injury and I'd have to assess the problem and respond accordingly.  After about 10 hours of studying, 2 hours of video, a dozen scenarios and 3 hours saving a person's life, I am now certified to say;

"Hello, my name is Scott.  I am an Emergency Responder.  Can I help you?"

It's difficult to find the time to blog and study, so I'm only going to post 3 times a week.  I have one more certification before my actual Dive Master Training starts.  That's my Rescue Diver Course.  I've started the reading tonight, and the course work & practical portion start tomorrow.

                                 Tonight's sunset.

Monday 9/3 - First day of "work".

It's hard to really call this work, but that is what I'm here for.  So I'm going to use the word and not put it in quotes every time.  I am here to work for the dive shop while studying and being instructed on how to become a master diver.  Now, every once in a while a few non-work activities creep into my day and they are, dear reader, out of my control.  That being said, let me tell you about my first day at "work". 

It started out at 8am with the beginning of my Emergency First Response training.  Conducted in a classroom at the dive shop.  It's hot and isolated and I have to read and watch a video.  Followed by demonstration and attempting skills learned in the book and on the tape.  (Let me interject here that the dive shop has 3 dives a day.  at 9, 11:30, and 2:30 and sometimes a night dive once a week.  Also let me tell you that the 3 instructors teach a number of students at the same time.)  OK, so I'm watching the videos and reading and doing some skills when my instructor is asked at around 11am to take another student on a beginner course and would I mind if we only did half a day's work.  They offered that I could continue Tuesday with the final part of the EFR training, and that, if I wanted I could do a couple more fun dives at the mid morning and afternoon dives for free.  I could help the divemasters on those dives if I wanted to "practice" being a DMT(dive master in training).

So "student" becomes "employee" for "free".  I've just learned the definition of INTERN.  But I'd rather be under water than do anything else.

So my first dive of the day is to a spot called Octopus Acre, which was odd because the first thing we saw when we dropped down were a pair of squid.  If you don't dive, I'll need to apologize here because my descriptions in this blog won't be very, well, descriptive.  And I didn't bring an underwater camera.  But I'll do my best.  Diving here is like diving in an aquarium, that is over loaded with sealife, and in a hot tub.  The water temperature is in the 80s, the visibility is 100 feet or more, and Mother Nature sparred none of the box of Crayola crayons when she colored the life here(the big box).  The sun is out so the lighting is spectacular and the seas are calm with very little current.  For a diver, this is Mecca.  Or one of them.

The dive was lead by one of the DMTs as her last requirement before she becomes a DM.  It was beautiful and relaxed and fun.  We were diving for about an hour and were down at about 70 feet to start.

After some really great fish tacos at my favorite lunch places, called the Wet Spot, I followed another instructor on a dive where she was teaching a student Peak Performance Buoyancy.  This is where you adjust your weights your breathing and your BCD to achieve neutral buoyancy.  So you can stay at a certain level with very little effort and adjust your depth as you swim with just your breath.

The work part of all this is really before and after the dives.  I hump tanks, set-up and take-down gear, and clean and wash gear. 

I ended my day back at my room with my study materials and another beautiful sunset:

Sunday's fun dives

On Sunday, I was back at the dive shop at the crack of 10 for a breakfast burrito and to meet the crew.  I found out that I will be the only intern starting next week.  The two that are there now are about done with their Dive Master training, so I've already received a title: Tank Bitch.  You see the Dive Master Training program is cheaper because you also "work" for the dive shop doing whatever is necessary to help the tourist dive business, all the while learning how to be a DM.  This mostly involves hauling tanks up and down the pier.

I was asked to join the dives for the day as a check-out of my abilities and the dives were free.  The first was to follow the trainees as they completed their dive site mapping requirement.  This pretty much meant "hiking" back and forth over a dive site and drawing on an underwater tablet.  I just hung back and observed, as I will be required to do this skill later in my training.  I did see 3 turtles and a lot of assorted sea life.  The conditions here are ideal; water temperature is in the 80s and visibility is 100 feet. This first dive we went down to around 60 feet and stayed down for just under and hour.

The second dive was lead by one of the trainees as her final requirement.  It was just the 2 trainees, their instructor, another DM and me. we first went into a swim-through that started at about 18 feet and ended around 40 feet.  A swim-through is a tunnel in the reef that you can just barely fit in, gear and all.  This particular tunnel was filled with a million 1 inch long Silver Sides.  They are fish much like a minnow.  As the sun poked through tiny crevices it would shimmer off of their skin and light up the inside of the tunnel.  The effect was stunning.  At one point the fish were so thick that I lost sight of the diver's fins swimming in front of me.  The fish would move just enough to let you pass.  Because of the tunnel, they really had no where to go.  A very spectacular first few minutes of the dive.  We followed that up with a plunge down the reef wall to 130 feet just for fun.  A few cool creatures down here but the most spectacular was a lionfish that was slightly bigger than a softball.

My training starts tomorrow so I had better get some rest and start my reading.  I received my first books and got my name up on the board at the dive shop.  The shop is also connected to a small bar and grill.  How fitting.

Here are some shots to end this post:

Traveling is a b!#ch

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words so I'm going to try and fill the blanks with as many photos as I can.

As usual for Humboldt county, just getting out of Arcata was a daunting task.  My flight was delayed 3 hours bu I had planned for that by booking my layover to be 5 hours.  My second plane to El Salvador wasn't going to leave until 1:00am so I had hoped to meet my parents for dinner.  The delay was going to cramp my dinner plans but I was still going to make my flight.  As it turned out the flights out of Arcata were all delayed and they ended up getting me on the earlier, delayed flight which actually got me in to SF before my original, delayed flight had even left the ground.  So I had dinner with my parents and still had  4 hours at the airport.  When it was time to board the flight to El Salvador the early boarding line started to form:

By the time they actually started boarding there were 9 wheelchairs lined up.  I'm not sure but I think that is a better way to go than Premier status.  Must be some heavy healing going on in El Salvador.

I arrived Saturday mid morning and the weather was gorgeous. Moist air, blue sky and about 90 degrees.  I took a cab to the West End of Roatan. Only 20 dollars - Not bad for the only E-ticket ride on the island.  The entrance is usually very beautiful.  You turn off the main island road and you see the coast and the grand entrance to the West End area but unfortunately they are paving the main street which normally would be great but they aren't quite done yet.

So I had to carry my bags to my hotel.  Not usually a bad thing but having traveled for 24 hours and it being 90 degrees, I wasn't exactly pleased.  The idea of paving is a great thing for this area.  The dirt road, while picturesque, was a nightmare if it rained.  And they are adding drainage and potable water lines as they go.  Unfortunately trucks can't get down the road so deliveries are difficult and so is garbage service.

 

But I think it adds to the 3rd world charm.

I managed to get to my apartment house and found my place to be just exactly what I was looking for.  This was the view as I walked into my unit:

My place is 20 feet from the waters edge on a beautiful bay, appropriately called, Halfmoon Bay

Here's a shot of the building from down the beach.  My place is on the second floor under the satellite dish:




I got my stuff all settled and went down to the dive shop and checked in with Reef Gliders.  Then I went for a walk.  Here's a few shots I took as I walked:

 I found a great side street with some much needed shade.

Not bad for a little pocket digital camera








After a bit of island style chicken, I was home for a stunning sunset.  What a great finish for my first day on the island.