Happy Birthday Betty

When we ate breakfast in the morning, I started to tell one of the instructors about our skill dance moves and my mini dance class at the disco. He informed me that this is a small island and he usually knows what the interns have been up to before breakfast which made me a little nervous. My worries were relieved as he continued by saying he was glad I had fun and that having fun is important to. A few of the bar and restaurant staff had been at the disco as well and seemed to be more friendly to me this morning. I guess after my night at the disco, they may now see me a little more laid back and approachable. Now it was time to put the disco in the past and focus on the advanced class I was starting to assist with today. The instructor pointed out our advanced students which happened to be the dad and boy I had seen at Blue Coral the previous night. Too bad I did not introduce myself yesterday but there was no way of knowing I would have been working with them today. They got to the island (Malapascua) late yesterday and still did not have their boxes set up or any of the rental gear. I also needed to gather some tools for the peak performance bouyancy class which would be the first dive of their advanced course. While I would be starting another course, Jeff would be off with 3 of the other male interns to the Gato island day trip for excellent diving and lunch. I felt like I kept getting the short straw. I got everything on the boat and off we went for the first advanced dive course. Once the boat started heading off the instructor looked around in a panic for our bouyancy tools. I gave it to the boat boy so they have to be on the boat somewhere. At this point I was sure someone must be sabotaging my equipment set up. After a long painful minute or so, the equipment was found. As the boy and dad set up their gear I made sure to set up my own next to them in more or less demonstration style in case they needed a refresher. The boy seemed a little lost on how to connect the regulator to the tank and I helped him out. I chatted with them about different marine life here and got an idea of what marine life they had seen in the past which allowed me to find out when and where their last dive was. By just starting a conversation and watching how the person sets up their gear, it is pretty clear what experience level they are at. This was going to be a fun training dive that would work on improving bouyancy control through a few games. First everyone descended to the bottom and reached a sandy open area just a meter from the anchor. Here our games and bouyancy checks would take place. We first tried to hover to check for neutral bouyancy and the dad kept hitting his tank on the bottom. Based on his negative bouyancy, the instructor removed one weight from the back of the dad's tank. It was intentionally placed on the back of the tank for easy removal. I was watching the instructor to see what the next skill would be when all of sudden he pointed up at the dad who had floated back to the surface. It is interesting since I feel like I could actually hear the instructor's voice as he motioned. I could hear him say in his accent "look, he floated back up, go get him and bring him back down". By the time I reached him, he was already poorly attempting to make it back down. I told him to go back up since we were hardly under the surface. At the surface he informed me he needed more weight (which it was evident minutes ago he had been overweighted). I told him to just give good long breaths out and this would help him reach the bottom. As he re-attempeted the descent I was eye to eye, motioning to him to concentrate on his breathing with good exhales to allow calm breathing and reaching the bottom. While underwater the instructor had us swim through a square that was made of pvc pipe and knock down weights on the bottom of the ocean floor with our chin without letting our body, arms or legs hit the sand. We even threw around a football type toy to work on our bouyancy control while quickly shifting to slightly differing depths. The focus was on controlling our bouyancy with breathing not using our hands or feet by waving them around or by inflating and deflating the BCD. I would have to say they did pretty well with these skills and I definitely benefited from being part of this dive. At lunch I visited with Betty and Garett which was nice since Jeff was off at the day trip. It was Betty's birthday today but unfortunately she felt a little ill. She had not drank any alcohol yesterday and thought it might have been all the sun she had during her Gato trip yesterday. Garett was encouraging her to continue to drink lots of water and gatorade. This was Betty's first time even hearing of gatorade but she said that she quite liked it. Betty taught me many things during lunch. She ordered a plain baguette with butter and a separate order of french fries to create a common sandwich favorite where she is from, a chip butty. It was fun to watch her line her fries up one by one horizonitally on the bottom slice of bread then add a top layer that criss-crossed. For dessert she also had some peanut butter M&Ms which she stated she can not get in England. There is an M&M store that sells individual different colors and types of M&Ms and she was so upset that this store did not carry peanut butter M&Ms. Poor girl, maybe I will have to figure our how to ship her some when I get home. Jeff Arrived back from his trip to Gato island around 16:00. They had been working on CDL (certified diver leading). Basically they each lead half of a dive, making sure they knew where they were going, watching current, checking everyone was following, monitoring everyones air, all while trying to find cool creatures to point out to the group. Then finishing the dive within the previously decided dive time and making sure everyone does a 3 minute safety stop at 5 meters. Jeff said it was excellent diving, there was a very cool cave he got to swim through. Many times when divers exit the cave there will be white tip sharks swimming around the exit which makes for an amazing view. Jeff didn't see any sharks today, but he was very happy overall with the 2 dives at Gato. The instructor did have a remora (the fish that attach to sharks waiting for a free meal) that attached itself to his scuba tank for about 20 minutes. Jeff's portion of the dive lead went according to plan with no problems. As Jeff was cleaning and putting away all of his gear, I was getting mine ready again. The second dive of the advanced course was a night dive. For this dive they learned about the added dangers of diving at night, along with proper signals to use and torch etiquette (do not shine in peoples eyes). As part of their night dive they had to navigate using a compass in the dark. The instructor had me wait at the starting point with my torch covered while they swam out and navigated a reciprical line. It was a little eerie when they were out of view and I just sat at the bottom of the ocean all alone in the dark. Luckily by this point I have become very comfortable with night dives and just waited patiently for their return. After that was done we were able to swim around and look at all the cool creatures that come out only at night. The father and son very much enjoyed their dive. Once back on the boat, I did thank them for completing good navigation skills and making it back to me. By the time I had gotten back from the night dive it was after the 19:00 meeting time we had planned for Betty's birthday dinner. I quickly ran back to the room showered and changed clothes. Then off we went to Angelina's (a very nice italian restaurant), in true island fashion everyone else had been running late as well and had not even ordered yet. Betty ordered a bottle of wine for us to share which was very nice, I didn't think she should have to pay for it since it was her birthday. Come to find out in the Philippines you are expected to buy for the group on your birthday, so we let her buy the 800 php bottle of wine. About $20 for a bottle of wine back at home seems reasonable but here we have already adapted to the lower prices making this seem like highway robbery. As with most of the restaurants on the island when we had this big of a group our meals arrived 1 or 2 at a time which meant half the table was done eating before the other half even got their food. When we were all done eating Garret gave the secret motion and out came 2 waitresses with not 1 but 2 large chocolate cakes. It was a fluffy chocolate cake with a blue super whipped light frosting. Betty was super excited stating she had never gotten two cakes for her birthday before. We ate as much as we could and offered cake to everyone at the restaurant including the people walking by. The group managed to finish off one of the cakes and decided to take the other over to Malditos as it would surely lead to making new friends. Jeff and I had both had a long day, and I was on the 5am shark dive in the morning so we decided to call it a night after dinner.