a mean poker

This morning was the childrens' last open water dive to complete the certification. The entire length of their course the dad had been asking if the children would be able to go on a night dive since the 10 year old girl really wanted to. The 12 year old boy was not as sure a night dive would be a fun experience. Logically, we chose to dive lighthouse wreck as their 4th certification dive in case they wanted to go on a night dive. This way the group would have dove the same site in daylight as they would dive for the night dive this would help ease their nerves. After we returned back to the boat from the daytime dive, both children were convinced they would like to sign up for the night dive. I would be assisting for this dive as well.

The afternoon lead to both a final written exam for the children to complete their junior open water scuba diver certification requirements. Jeff and I had to take our mid point exam as well for our dive master program. All of us passed! Jeff did beat me by one question as usual but I finished first (scores 97% and 94% respectively). We also had to color in our maps from Dakit Dakit and hand those in. There is a lot of required dives, tests and busy work but we will hopefully still complete everything in the month.

Mack, the children, their dad, and I got our kits ready and we were off for a night dive. It is much more like a dusk dive as we start our dive before the sun is completely down and really do not need our torches (flashlights) until the second half of the dive. Like stated previously, the night dive creatures are much different than daytime and it will be neat for the children to see this especially on a dive location they have already been. When we got on the boat, Mack told the boy he would be a buddy partner with dad and the girl would be my buddy. Boys with boys and girls with girls. The girl gave a big smile and yipee. Mack would lead the dive. As with other times I have lead, sometimes the girl is right on top of me which makes it a difficult dive. I definitely had to make sure their was enough distance so that I could control the situation yet close enough in case of an issue. It was not too dark when we reached the bottom and the site still looked similar to the morning. A little later it became more necessary to have our torches on and the night life of crabs started to scurry around. We all were doing pretty well with space control except for every once in awhile the girl would be right on my shoulder almost forcing me to veer towards the right, yet Mack was up ahead to the left. I eventually motioned her to follow in the other direction and the spacing became much more comfortable. She also is a little unsteady with her bouynancy at times which I would remind her to come lower to the reef. A quick reminder was all that was needed to get her on the right plane. All of a sudden she starts motioned that her ears are having problems, I just stayed by her to reassure her to keep clearing and not go lower until her ears had adjusted. It is amazing what communication and reassurance you can provide by simple motions, close contact, and eye contact. Soon her ears cleared and all was good again. I was able to point out some crabs, puffer fish, and scorpian fish which they all seemed to enjoy. Once again we all got clumped up and I needed to calmly distance myself from the group to leave adequate space and then it happened. Ouch, I set my knee right into a sea urchin that was on the edge of the wreck. I had seen several of the black thorny creatures, making mental notes of their whereabouts to avoid a poker but unforntunately this was unavoidable. It stung quite bad for a couple minutes but obviously there was no point in worring about it now since the damage was already done. The sea urchin is not poisonous but instead the prickers are made of a high calcium concentration that irritates a person's skin. The portion will break off into the skin and cannot be removed until it dissolves on its own. So off I went to continue the dive as if nothing had happened. Soon we approached a group of about 7 divers all surrounding one small coral. Mack stopped us in the sand just past this location and took the children one by one over the top to get a look. It was a blue ring octopus which is one of the deadliest creatures. They are very small and rare to find while diving yet are more common in the Philippines. I did not get a chance to see it but I still have time while I am here. Shortly after that we were safely ascended to the boat. Everyone was safe and sound. After we returned to the dive shop Jeff was waiting for me and he heard that the children had seen a blue ring. Excited for them he went over to the girl and asked her about it to which she responded "it was kinda boring". One could practically hear the jaws drop of the several divers around, many of whom have over 200 dives and this was the first blue ring they have seen. Once the children realized how lucky they were to have seen it they decided it was a little bit cooler.