Lol ya'll I am always so out of order with my posts these days. Sorry lol maybe I'll post them in order tho.
So my resort transfer took me back to the airport to meet my ScubaSpa transfer. I knew there would already be people waiting because at least 2 of them were on QR 676which was my flight the day before, which got in around 7am. According to the group chat, these girls had blue and turquoise hair. So I walked around until I found them but there were so many people with them I thought it can't be right. I connected to the airport wifi to ask in the group where they were and it was the right group! So I pulled up a chair to join them but they were all speaking German and I felt very fumb for not knowing German when they all know English as well. But I just reminded myself that I know Spanish so if this were a group of Latinos instead it'd be a different story. But now that we are on the boat if I am near a group they all switch to English for me which is very nice. Their English is all very good. They said they were taught it since 3rd grade in school and now I am mad at the American school system where my choices were only Grench or Spanish and only for 4 years max.
But anywhos, we got on the boat and were greeted with a fresh cloth and a coconut welcome drink. The coconuts are orange which is a bit odd I think. We confirmed our dive experience and were taken to our rooms. I got a private room, surprise, so I get to sleep nakey. We had lunch and then Katharina and I went to the Jacuzzi but to our disbelief, it was freezing! The air was also too cold and windy for us to get out. When I asked the guy if he could turn the temperature up, he just laughed at me! At the briefing we later found out it isn't a hot tub as it's only heated by the (so far non-existent) sun. Oh whale.
After we finally braved it out of the cold tub, I went an took a hot shower to warm up. Then we got our tails and went up to the spa deck to surprise Kat when she got here. We tailed up and waved at passing boats until Kat eventually arrived and joined us for a few pictures. Then i went to get ready for dinner. We had a welcome briefing, then dinner, then I went to bed. First dive 6am.
Speaking of dives, the Dive Manager, Branden, showed me to my room. My trauma brain is unfortunately no good at distinguishing accents anymore. Anyways, my senses are tingling about this guy. Then he's all like "your air con" and I'm like well I think the Brits and Aussies might call it air con as well? Then he's all like "see you just now" and I'm like he is South African! So then I'm like "hey, are you South African?" and he's like "yes, how'd you know?" and I'm just like "just now". So then I tell him how I just spent 2 months in South African and he spent 2 years in Sodwana! Of course he knows Grant and Sharklife; he worked at Reef Teach. I'm feeling much more at home now with him here in a sea of Germans. Between Branden and Cruise Manager, Max, who is Canadian, English isn't looking too bad now (even tho Branden probably understands the Germans because Afrikaans, but at least Max is on my side/level). So anyways I'm like what a small world and on the other hand I'm like maybe I really am in a coma somewhere and this is all a dream because what are the actual chances there'd be someone I went to college with in Sodwana with me and someone that lived in Sodwana for 2 years on my vacation; someone please do the math for me. Yes, Maldives is a popular destination for South Africans as well but like really? C'mon. Chris wants to know his last name because Chris has been in Sodwana a really long time, like 5-7 or even 10 years, but I've haven't asked yet because I don't want to seem creepy lol, maybe he'll ask me about it when he sees me in my Coral Divers sweatshirt.
I didn't sleep very well at night. Up every few hours. Around 2:30 was the last time I got up before finally falling asleep. I was having a very nice sleep when I was rudely awakened by my alar for my first dive.
Waking up between 5-6 is easy when you're on holiday, or just away from home, especially when it's for a dive. Which is good because most dives are quite early. I get 6 dives this trip (I can pay for more if I'd like). So going forward I don't need to always do the early ones, but all divers needed to do this morning's early dive as it was our orientation dive. At first this made me angry and I didn't think it should count as one of our dives. I still think it would be nice of them to have given us this one for free as it was mandatory, but it was a full actual dive so I also see why it unfortunately counts as one of our dives. We had to demonstrate some basic safety skills to refresh our memories and ensure we'd know how to do them if needed, but other than that it was a normal, boring dive. Okay, maybe Sodwana did spoil me because I'm sure it probably wouldn't have been boring to a normal person, as we saw a blacktip reef shark, 5 lionfish, 2 eels, and even a triggerfish that thankfully did not attack. We were split into groups and my group only stayed down for 39 minutes when the goal was 60, which at first really upset me (especially because I had over 2000 psi left), but the groups that did stay longer didn't see the sharky and I would much rather have a shorter shark dive than a longer no-shark dive. As for the boring part, the topography was severely lacking as everything was boring neutral colors, mostly sandy bottom, just lame. But the goal was for staff to see our abilities and you don't need pretty fish for that.
The skills we had to demonstrate were mask clearing, regulator recovery, and surface marker buoy deployment. I was actually excited/grateful to practice these skills as I know I will have to preform them at demonstration quality level for my divemaster certification in November/December. Mask clearing and regulator recovery were great as I do them all the time (well I don't need to recover my regulator all the time but like when I take it out to do bubble rings and such). I'd never really used a surface marker buoy before (for it's intended purposes) but we did use them down at Raggie Reef to bring some of the RUV equipment up so I was excited to see that I had in fact used one before and therefore knew how to do it. However I was struggling with my weights and buoyancy (when am I not? A huge concern I have about my DM course but certain Ivana can straighten me out), and when I released my SMB it brought me up to the top quicker than I'd like (not dangerously fast at all, just quicker than the rest of my team). I didn't really have any dive headache afterward like I normally do so I think I must've been coming up at a proper speed.
This was my very first time diving in my new diving gear. I tried it in the pool to make sure everything worked properly but this was my first dive in it, as well as obviously my first dive in Maldives, so a little getting used to time is to be expected, which also made me more okay with the orientation dive being mandatory. My travel BCD has like floaty pads in it where normal BCD's have the hard plastic so I was having a hard time getting down and Max had to give me 2 extra weights. He then took them back once we were down and afterward he said the weight I started with was good because the extras made me overweight and that to get down, let out all of my air from my mouth/lungs and don't inhale until I'm down, which I didn't know that was okay to do because in my head that goes against the "don't hold your breath, always be breathing" thing but I guess since you're just starting on a long exhale it's techniqually still breathing. Later we had a presentation from Kat and she said the same thing so I'll have to try that tomorrow and hopefully it helps.
I was really disappointed in myself for having the weight issues to get down as well as surfacing before everyone as it makes me feel like I'm not a good diver and not prepared/ready for my divemaster course, but there are bound to be some hiccups with new gear for the first dive or two and they will have me practice my skills over and over in my DM course until I am comfortable and confident, which doesn't take long once I do it a few times. In Sodwana I was helping just like the divemasters already, so it just takes a second in a new place with new gear but I know by the end of the trip I'll be back in my groove like a pro.
The diveboats here are also huge and very different from anything I've dove from before. The boat we had on the Great Barrier Reef was similar but that was before I was a diver so I haven't had any dive experience with such a boat. Much larger than I'm used to. They also get all our gear together for us and wash it all for us afterwards. It stays on the boat (which worries me because of the rough weather but they know what they're doing so it'll be fine). The whole situation is much different than what I'm used to, so it's good to get those different experiences but an adjustment period should be expected. I'm sure tomorrow I'll be all better and they'll be like "dang what a good diver!"
It has been storming all morning. The boat ride back from the dive was really rough and we all had to go to the front of the boat. One lady said it was just like Mozambique and I was like ha I know what you're talking about (I know I talk about Africa too much but it was just so amazing).
Once we got back from the dive we had breakfast and a bit later we were told we were in orange alert, with winds over 55 MPH, so dives were cancelled for the day and we couldn't move the boat like was planned. Kat gave an underwater modeling/posing workshop and we had lunch.
After lunch I went to the spa for my first (out of 4) spa "treatments". I got a body scrub. I was worried it would scrub off my tan but I guess after 7 months of sun it's pretty cooked into me. They also used a coffee scrub which coffee makes skin, hair, and teeth darker anyways. I came out feeling like a baby's bottom! I was fine relaxing when they had me on my stomach, looking at a bin of shells and feeling the boat rock. When they flipped me onto my back, my mind went on a jog... what happens next, how do I get the scrub off, etc. I can just make it at home on my own for free, good thing it was included because not worth whatever price, etc. Basically they just rub a sugar scrub all over me which I do at home all the time but okay.
They gave me tea and peanuts on the deck after but it was ginger tea and I am to ginger like a vampire is to garlic. I tried to just hold my nose, but it's not a taste thing; it literally burns my throat and mouth.
After spa, Kat was having a breathhold workshop but the boat was moving so it was too loud for a proper workshop so we just practiced some breathing and learned about our root chakras followed by some yin yoga.
I can't really remember what else I did after that but for some blogging and a nap before dinner. It was a very nice nap.
Despues de dinner I was awake thanks to my nap. We went to the back of the boat and dangled our feet in the water, watching the fish under the boat light. The smaller fish came to nibble our toes like a free fancy Asian pedicure. I guess my body scrub did the trick because I didn't get as many bites as Lille and Emma did. Even tho I wasn't too tired, my next dive was at 6am again so off to bed I went. This time I used my Carnival blanket and it made all the difference.
Until next time,
xoxo,
Tasha
