Today was a very long day. I started the day with 4:30 AM shark dive which was amazing. We saw a few thresher sharks that got pretty close. As the group was moving to a new spot to wait for sharks, I got a glimpse of a devil ray coming up from the deep drop off to my far left. I grabbed Jeff's arm and as he turned to look the ray glided right over us. I thought it was awesome. We also saw another devil ray a little later, along with about 4 thresher sharks.
After breakfast, Jeff was off to assist on the ending of his open water course. Mack had decided to have Sam take the morning off that way Kate could get caught up and they could finish their course together. They headed out to Dakit Dakit, while Mack was working with Kate (dive 3), Jeff was showing Oscar (dive 4) around. Oscar was very excited about all of the fish he saw and pointed everytime they came near a blue starfish. Oscar had come a long way since dive one when he was all over the place, this time he spent most of this dive playing with his bouyancy. Jeff would see him nearly crash into the coral then at the last second he would take a huge breath and float above it, he had really begun to figure it out. Kate on the other hand really didn't seem to be enjoying this very much. It can be rather difficult to work with someone that is not overly interested in what you are trying to teach them. She continued to stay in the same positioning and do the same things over and over. It did not matter how many times Jeff or Mack would tell her to lean forward to get horizontal in the water and straighten her legs to kick better, she just would not do it. After the dive was over, they got back in the boat and there was a big congrats to Oscar as he was now an open water scuba diver. They then head back to the dive shop for lunch.
After lunch they headed out to Ka Osting for Kate and Sam's final dive of the course. They both performed their skills and it was off for a fun dive. Agian they were rather lucky and got to see 3 cuttle fish, several lion fish and even a sea snake. Sam really enjoyed the dive while Kate just got through it. This was a very interesting class for Jeff to assist on as he got to see people go from awful to really getting a grasp on it. While also seeing someone just go through the motions and not really care about it.
While Jeff was assisting on the open water courses, I got to go with all the other interns to Calangaman for a diving day trip. To make up for the busy dive shop and limited amount of fun dives that the interns were able to get on, Dan (operations manager) decided to send most the interns to the day trip for fun dives. We were even all on our own boat and did not have to take care of any other divers or feel watched by instructors. I really would have liked for Jeff to have went with but this internship is not about paying attention to keeping couples on the same dives but completing all the requirements on time which left Jeff behind to tend to the course he was assiting in. I sometimes felt a little like the odd girl out with the group of interns since they were all used to being a group and this was the first time I was fun diving with the group without Jeff. Who would my dive buddy be? There were 9 of us in the group so one group would have to be a group of three. I was hoping someone would want to be with me. Right before we got ready to jump into the water, Molly and Max, two of the instructor interns made a loose dive plan and buddy teams. I was to be with Max and Rick it made me feel comfortable to be with Max since he seems like a very good diver. Clangaman consists of an island that is surrounded by beautiful coral reef walls. At the top of the reef there are also wonderful corals and colors, a perfect place to make an extended safety stop around 5 meters. As we swam along the coral reef, I counted our group every once in awhile to make sure everyone was there. A couple of times I thought we were missing someone but they usually were just a little shallower or in one case just slightly out of visibilty. Right after I would find the diver I thought was missing I would notice Max was looking around trying to find someone as well. I would point in the direction of the diver that was a little further off and he gave me the ok symbol. It was nice to know that we were on the same page. After diving around the shallow top of the reef for only a few minutes, we reached a sandy patch which suddenly broke out an unusual string of events. The interns that have been here longer all of sudden took turns taking off their fins and starting a tag team event of kung fu fighting with matrix style moves. It was hilarious to watch them act out fight scenes in this arena of altered gravity. I was one of the two with cameras and became the paparazzi of this scene. It was fun to just let loose and enjoy ourselves.
Between dives we had a huge barbeque lunch with 2-3 times more food then we needed. Pork, chicken, salad, fruit, noodles, and more. During our surface interval we also played frisbie in the ocean. Both dives were in the same area and we all enjoyed swimming through the larger than life aquarium. The second dive also ended with a little mischief as well but all within safe depths and performed by highly trained divers, do not try this at home, reads the disclaimer.
After we got back to the dive shop we had the rest of our Thresher shark specialty to go over. It mostly consisted of information on the Thresher sharks, why they are in Malapascua and how to tell the different types and sexes of threshers (as Mack put it, whether or not they have dangly bits) . After the classroom work was done several of us went to Ging Ging's for a cheap dinner. They have very good and inexpensive chicken and fish curry there. Afterwards it was off to bed as it had been a very long day.
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