Diving In

My friends were supposed to remind me to write this. They failed. Which is fine, because I forgot our last writer date due to working too late. We're even.

That said, there's a lot to say and yet almost nothing at all, so I'm diving in.

No. Literally. This week is all about scuba diving. At least, it would be if health and equipment failures would stop messing with me.

This week, the bf and I are in the Cayman Islands (Cayman Brac) for diving. We went with an awesome group led by the people who trained us, Great Lakes Divers in Alpena, MI. It's an all-inclusive resort with a dive shop and three dive boats right here on site. Literally, there's no need to leave the resort unless you want snackies from town. (Town is a relative term. There are like 4 stores, and one of them sells strictly alcohol.)

After the first day where everyone is all checked in and the crew gives us the safety rundown, it's a whole lot of 'grab your gear and be on the boat by 8am'. In the morning, we set off on an early dive. Then we have an hour long surface interval. Afterward is our second dive of the day before returning to the resort for lunch. When we reach the dock, we're given a time for the third dive of the day. It's a wonderful system and Christopher is determined to get in all 17 dives while we're here.

Normally, I'd be right there with him. I love diving and I like doing it together. That said, sometimes life has other plans. Out of two major no-nos in diving, one of them is that you never ever dive after having alcohol. The combination of the air and the pressure will take one drink and make you feel like you've have four or five. It causes major disorientation and can lead to absolute disaster while diving. And the other thing you don't do is dive while sick. Head cold, flu, even plain ol' congestion: don't do it. The air that we use is a concentrated mixture of the air we breathe every day, but can do a mean number on congested lungs. The other issue is the way your ears get blocked from colds. Blocked ears mean it's impossible to clear them (aka equalize) as you descend. And attempts to force this can actually lead to ruptured ear drums.

I had a cold going into this week. My ears had not yet recovered by Sunday when our diving began. I missed all three of the first dives, and was lucky enough that the visibility was so incredible that I was able to snorkel from the surface and have at least 100' visibility all around, so I didn't have to miss much. The next morning, I also missed the first dive because I couldn't clear my ears. I worked on it and worked on it, however, and was finally able to clear them enough that I was able to go on the last two dives.

Guess what happened on that last dive. My computer died. Apparently, I didn't screw it down enough when I changed the battery or something, because it leaked and ruined the battery and all that fun stuff. So yeah... I'm using a rented one now.

So far, it's a decent chonker of a computer. That's all I can really say. When I'm down, it's easy enough to understand. At the surface, I'm sitting here like "just tell me how long I've been at the surface, not how much time I have to be here" (if that is even what it was telling me). It's all a learning curve.

Alas, between the dives and the meals, there's not a lot going on here. Except writing. I am getting that done. (The streak is alive and well at 76 days!) Which is what I'll be returning to now. Goodnight.