First Dive!
Yesterday I took most of the day off and went with one of my sections for my first scuba dive. There were 8 of us and the majority of us had never dove before. Two of the Marines had gone out for their first dive a week before, so they were the 'veterans' showing us the ropes...
Early yesterday morning we took a KBR bus out to the commercial pier in Djibouti harbor. Djibouti does not have a large fishing industry as I saw no large fishing boats like those that you might see in San Diego's harbor. I did see a lot of small, 1-2 man fishing skiffs that the locals used. Some line, weights, and bait were what they used to catch fish, nothing special.
At the pier we all stepped into a small dingy for a short boat ride to the dive boat. The boat was fairly big, but I was glad there was not more than the 8 of us, the dive instructor, and 2 crew. I was also heartened that they towed the dingy behind them as they motored out to the dive spot (and we almost had a good reason to use it!) It took about an hour to motor out to the spot. I was up very late the night before so I napped on the way out.
Once there we all prepped our gear. The dive instructor, Safwan, a Yemeni ex-pat working at the local PADI dive shop, took the first 4 Marines down for their first dive. They stayed down about 30 minutes. After they were in, I grabbed my fins, my mask, and a snorkle and jumped in after them. I was joined by 2 other Marines and we just paddled around for a few minutes, diving down a bit. I eventually came back up, sat on one of the benches, relaxed and read a magazine. Soon the first group was back and it was our turn.
I geared up and jumped in. We followed the anchor chain and the instructor down. We swam around for about 20 minutes. There were a lot of coral & fish, I even saw a Moray eel. Soon we stopped to practice some of our techiques. These included taking out the resperator, clearing it, and then breathing. We also had to fill out masks with water and then clear them. After that we swam around for 5 more minutes. I was glad that we were not down longer than that because my mask kept filling with water after we did the skills. That was rather frustrating...
Once we returned to the boat, we had lunch. One of the crewmen had made rice, a salad, some sort of mystery meat dish, and french bread. It was delicious. We all sat around for awhile to digest our food and just talked. One of the Marines was getting seasick and he stayed near the bow of the boat. The other Marines were giving him a really hard time and they all had their cameras at the ready in case he puked. Then came the word to gear up. I was one of the first ones finished and I moved to the dive platform, just in time to hear the sick Marine give up his lunch. Of course the current took his lunch from the bow to the stern of the boat and we all watched his lunch float by us. It delayed things a few minutes as we waited for it to float away from the boat!
This time the instructor took down all 8 of us. I had a great time again and at the end we stopped to practice more of our techniques. We were down about another 30 minutes and got as deep as about 45 feet. It truely did not seem that we were down too deep. Once we returned to the surface, we hosed down our gear and prepared for the return trip. I went to the top deck of the boat and passed out again as the boat headed for the port.
I woke up at one point when the engine quit. That didn't make me too happy, but we had the dingy in case anything went bad. They soon fixed the engine and we continued back to port. Once there we climbed back into the dingy and went ashore!
I had an absolutely great time and am looking forward to the final two dives required for certification!
Unfortunately, the photo upload is not working, I'll try again later.
DominicsDad, in Djibouti
Early yesterday morning we took a KBR bus out to the commercial pier in Djibouti harbor. Djibouti does not have a large fishing industry as I saw no large fishing boats like those that you might see in San Diego's harbor. I did see a lot of small, 1-2 man fishing skiffs that the locals used. Some line, weights, and bait were what they used to catch fish, nothing special.
At the pier we all stepped into a small dingy for a short boat ride to the dive boat. The boat was fairly big, but I was glad there was not more than the 8 of us, the dive instructor, and 2 crew. I was also heartened that they towed the dingy behind them as they motored out to the dive spot (and we almost had a good reason to use it!) It took about an hour to motor out to the spot. I was up very late the night before so I napped on the way out.
Once there we all prepped our gear. The dive instructor, Safwan, a Yemeni ex-pat working at the local PADI dive shop, took the first 4 Marines down for their first dive. They stayed down about 30 minutes. After they were in, I grabbed my fins, my mask, and a snorkle and jumped in after them. I was joined by 2 other Marines and we just paddled around for a few minutes, diving down a bit. I eventually came back up, sat on one of the benches, relaxed and read a magazine. Soon the first group was back and it was our turn.
I geared up and jumped in. We followed the anchor chain and the instructor down. We swam around for about 20 minutes. There were a lot of coral & fish, I even saw a Moray eel. Soon we stopped to practice some of our techiques. These included taking out the resperator, clearing it, and then breathing. We also had to fill out masks with water and then clear them. After that we swam around for 5 more minutes. I was glad that we were not down longer than that because my mask kept filling with water after we did the skills. That was rather frustrating...
Once we returned to the boat, we had lunch. One of the crewmen had made rice, a salad, some sort of mystery meat dish, and french bread. It was delicious. We all sat around for awhile to digest our food and just talked. One of the Marines was getting seasick and he stayed near the bow of the boat. The other Marines were giving him a really hard time and they all had their cameras at the ready in case he puked. Then came the word to gear up. I was one of the first ones finished and I moved to the dive platform, just in time to hear the sick Marine give up his lunch. Of course the current took his lunch from the bow to the stern of the boat and we all watched his lunch float by us. It delayed things a few minutes as we waited for it to float away from the boat!
This time the instructor took down all 8 of us. I had a great time again and at the end we stopped to practice more of our techniques. We were down about another 30 minutes and got as deep as about 45 feet. It truely did not seem that we were down too deep. Once we returned to the surface, we hosed down our gear and prepared for the return trip. I went to the top deck of the boat and passed out again as the boat headed for the port.
I woke up at one point when the engine quit. That didn't make me too happy, but we had the dingy in case anything went bad. They soon fixed the engine and we continued back to port. Once there we climbed back into the dingy and went ashore!
I had an absolutely great time and am looking forward to the final two dives required for certification!
Unfortunately, the photo upload is not working, I'll try again later.
DominicsDad, in Djibouti
posted by DominicsDad at 10:02 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home