JOB OFFER

Nekton Pilot: I can't believe it. I only got home on Saturday and I'm not even unpacked yet. A friend send a job notice to me so I applied on Wednesday. Today I got a call and after a long discussion I was invited to visit the boat and crew of the Nekton Pilot. Its currently in dock in Ft. Lauderdale for a refit. I'll be going down to visit next week and if everything works out, I'll sail to Belize with them in a week or two. I try a week on the boat as an intern and it that works out, I'll start working full time on the boat. The current schedule is 8 weeks on and 3 weeks off so I'd commute back and forth every two months.

Gerri is okay with this so far and both of us are excited about the opportunity. There are still a million details to work but this sounds too good to be true. I thought I'd wait around for months before getting an offer from some resort or dive shop. Working on a boat sounds like a dream come true to me. The hours are long and the work can be demanding but living on the sea in the tropics can't be all bad.

More to come.

Update

Update: Sorry I haven't been able to update the blog lately. Gerri and I were aboard the Utila Aggressor for 7 days with no Internet access. We just got back home late last night and I have a huge amount of catching up to do. Hopefully I'll update the blog in a few days.

INDEPENDANCE DAY

Holiday: Yesterday was Honduran independace day. There were a few local celebrations including a running contest, boxing and greased poll climbing. I only saw the boxing and it was pretty funny. The ring was very small and just a temporary structure with a few boards and loose rope for the outer ring. They had 3 referrees just to keep the boxers off the ropes and boards. The just boxed until one gave up which was usually about 2 or 3 minutes. Several adults tried it and then a few kids. They used the giant adult gloves so they were pretty funny to watch.

My students from Isreal finished their class without any problems. The test was a real challenge to grade because our answer keys didn't match up completely. They took the test in Hebrew so we they got one wrong we had to have them read the question and answers in English and they try to determine if they got it right. The questions don't always translate well so it was fun trying to determine if they got the correct answer. They all passed however and they did very well on the 2 funs dives we had. They were extremely complementary of my teaching and they said I was "cool".

The reward of seeing a divers eyes when they see something new is unbelievable. It makes all the training and work worth every penny. We did the kick boxing underwater again and they loved it.

When we got back I let them use my computer to make calls and do some emails. They were extremely appreciative and even bought me a tee shirt and gave me a hand written thank you.
They also insisted that I have their email addresses so I could contact them if I ever go to Isreal. One of them is a professional tour guide and offered to show Gerri and I around.

Last night was a going away party and yet another snorkel test. Considering how many people have left recently we had a good turnout and a great time. We all went out to one of the local bars after eating and I stayed until midnight setting a new record for me.

Today is packing day. I'm already to go and meet Gerri this afternoon in La Ceiba. I talked to the boat staff yesterday and they said I could ride with them to LaCeiba but they were leaving at 6am. The ferry leaves at 2pm and that gives me time to get some deposits back, pack up and say some more goodbyes. I will truely miss many of the great people I've met here and hope to see many of them again someday.

MONSTER FOUND ON UTILA

WEIRD: A couple of nights ago we had a really wicked thunderstorm. One of the tranformers was hit and a lot of the Island lost electric for several hours. The news wasn't the storm as much as what is brought to the shores. A mermaid like monster washed up onto shore. We all heard about it the first thing in the morning and we all thought the Utilian's had gone mad. They are superstitious people anyway and this had taken things to the extreme.

Later in the afternoon the interupted the cable TV again and showed the so called monster. It had fused legs like a mermaid and webbed hands. It had a large boney structure from its shoulders up around its head. The mouth was perfectly round and very large in relation to its head. It was all pretty ugly. Someone had used a little imagination and some old TV or movie clips to create this "monster". Its actually a bit sad that the local people actually believe and watch this stuff. All the tourist sat around laughing wildly while the locals were glued to the TV.

My Open Water Class is going well. I'm team teaching with Tom and we've switched students around a couple of times so they get some time with each of us. I never thought I'd really like teaching entry level divers but its been and eye opening experience. The thrill you see in their eyes when the are able to complete and task is amazing. The look on their faces when they see their first underwater sights - even through the mask and regulator - is reward enough. I love it as much as they do.

Last night was a really quiet night. Matt, Joe, Audry, Shanini and I went to La Pirata's and had a great dinner. Everyone headed back to their respective apartments by 9pm. Everyone was really exhausted from the diving and previous late nights.

BEN IS LEAVING THE ISLAND

Ben's snorkel test: Ben, the young new doctor did his snorkel test last night up at the Barracuda bar. We had a good turnout. His initiation was a little more than mine since he's drinks a bit more than me. He had rum, tequilca, beer and blue curasau all mixed together. He gagged a few time like I did but he made it in pretty good shape. He had taken his shirt off but his bathing suit was a mess as he spit up a lot of good booze.

Matt, Audry, Marious and Tony also got certificates even though they haven't completed the course. All of them will finish by Friday I think. They aren't sure if they are doing a snorkel test or not.

Many of us that have been here for a couple of months are leaving so the place is going to change a lot in the next few days. There are a few new students but they don't seem to party nearly as much as those that are leaving.

I'm in the middle of an Open Water class right now so I've got to run.

TEAM TEACHING

Team Teaching with Tom: Yesterday I went for a couple of fun dives in the morning and both were excellent. We went to Iron Bound and Aquarium. I led to dives for 2 other fun divers.

In the afternoon, I assisted Tom with an Open Water class as an instructor rather than a divemaster. This meant I was able to actually instruct one of the students. Tom was having problems with the class as they are pretty slow learners. I think they just want to go diving and don't want to learn the skills. I took the student with the most problems and worked with her. She did just great and got through the skills without any serious problems. Tom had her do the controlled emergency swimming ascent though and she has trouble with that one. She can get to the surface just fine but she can't kick hard enough to be high enough above the water to orally inflate her BCD which is part of the skill. I think she'll have to practice it again today and she's not going to be happy about it. Its the hardest skill to do.

The students asked me to come back today and help out and that made me feel really good.

A few people went out to an Israeli restaurant last night. I didn't think I'd like it but I had chicken curry and it was excellent. Our students who were from Israel showed up later also but we didn't sit at the same table. I made it an early night again and I was in bed by 10pm.

DONE TRAINING

Done Training: NO MORE CLASSES. I'm done. I'm now a Master Scuba Diver Instructor as well as an Open Water Instructor. Basically I can teach most of the PADI classes and certainly all of the popular ones.

We won the Pub Quiz last night and Bundo's . We've come so close for the last few weeks and we finally did it. We had 3 teams and we cooperated on a few of the questions (cheated). I actually knew a couple of answers again and contributed just a little bit. Two of the teams from our group won the "heads or tails" round and competed against each other in the drinking contest. They mix a giant bowl of booze and mix and the winners drink it in teams for 4 through straws. The team that finished the drink first gets 5 extra points. I did not participate as they needed some stronger drinkers.

We named one of our teams "The Music Round Sucks" and it did. We didn't do well again but the extra points plus scoring well earlier put us in second place. However our other team argued one of the songs and they lost 2 points for arguing so we tied for 1st place. We got a couple of beers each (about 20 of us) for winning and I think we also got some cash but I haven't seen any of it.

It poured down rain during the quiz and it didn't stop so many of us walked back to our various apartments but it let up enough that we didn't get totally soaked this time.

Today was Saturday and I went on a couple of great dives in the morning. Later I just relaxed and spent some time talking to everyone in the dive shop. I made another visit to the ATM to get more money. It doesn't last as long as I'd like. I bought a couple bottles of wine that should last me until Gerri arrives. I'll meet her in just a week in La Ceiba. CAN'T WAIT!

Jade Seahorse

Jade Seahorse: This is a picture of the entry to the restaurant we tried last night. We actually ate outside as we do in most places. All they serve is fish prepared various ways. It is a very unique place but the food was not that great. They also messed up some of the orders but we all got through it okay.

Later we went to the bar above called TreeTanic I think. I've mentioned it before. Its very unique with many levels and many varied seating areas. We went to the swing area again and enjoyed it for about 15 minutes when a powerful thunderstorm came up. We all huddled in the center of the cover for several minutes until it let up a bit. Then we went to the cave area and I've included a picture of Marius and Audry in the cave.

Earlier in the evening I did another night dive for my Master Scuba Diver Instructor class. Everything went smoothly and I even found my way back to the boat. We went to the location where we all got lost last week. Maybe I'm making some progress.

Morning Dive

Morning Dive: Yesterday I didn't have any classes scheduled except for the night dive class and it was cancelled. I went fun diving in the morning instead. We didn't see anything special but the sites were interesting as usual.

We had new trainee start yesterday. He's a 46 year old Chinese fellow from NCY. Several of us invited him to dinner and we tried a new place none of us had tried before. It was excellent and the price was about the same as anywhere else. We are all pretty tired of the restaurants here however and all of us can't wait to eat at a "real fast food" place.

This morning I came into the dive shop early to check my email and update the blog only to find that we had no electricity. You must pay in advance here and someone actually sets a meter that shuts your electric off when your KW's run out. Someone at the dive shop forgot to watch the meter each day to make sure we had some time left so we ran out. We had students taking classes outside and we took ours in the attached restaurant which has its own meter and paid its bill. This was so unprofessional but pretty much normal for the way things work in Utila.

The class I attended was the Nitrox Instructor class. This class has newer materials and is very straight forward. Since I had prepared for the class it only took a few minutes to complete.

WRECK AND DEEP

Wreck and Deep: Yesterday I went diving on the wreck to complete my Master Scuba Diver Instructor class for wreck diving. We did 2 dives and practiced the skills we are expected to teach. We did very well and I'm confident we could all teach the class. We mapped the wreck, laid a line outside for practice. The instructor laid the inside penetration line because we were running out of bottom time. The wreck is at 90 feet and bottom time is severely limited. We were diving on Nitrox however and that lengthens the time a bit. Anyway we pulled the line in while we completed the penetration. Of course I just did this same class as a student a few weeks ago so it was all fresh in my mind.

Today we did our deep specialty and used the wreck as our dive site again. We took down a coke bottle and bag of chips to watch them get crushed by the pressure. The chip bag gets to be a little ball and very hard. It all comes back when you surface but of course its mostly crumbs by then. This is a common demo used when teaching about deep diving. We also took several colored items down so we could see the colors disappear with the depth. Red is totally gone at about 35 feet or less. Green and blue are still pretty clear however even at 100 feet. We practiced a few other deep water skills and then surfaced. Since we were going down again we just stayed on the surface for 15 minutes rather than climbing back onto the boat. We were on a small speedboat with no ladder so getting on was a huge challenge for me. We did another dive just swimming around and then did a simulated decompression stop at 20 feet for 8 minutes while handing on to the mooring line. All of this was possible because we were using 32% Nitrox mix which allows longer bottom times and shorter surface intervals.

Someone from another school got bent yesterday and spent part of the night in the chamber. This really can be dangerous is you're not careful.

MASTER SCUBA DIVER INSTRUCTOR

MSDT

Saturday evening we had an orientation about the Master Scuba Diver Instructor classes. Three people including myself are taking part in the program. You choose at least 5 special areas of interest and then you study to become an instructor in those areas. I have chosen Deep Diver, Night Diver, Wreck Diver, Fish Identification, Digital Underwater Photography and Nitrox. By taking the class from a course director (basically a highest level PADI instructor), you are qualified to teach the class right away and you don’t have to teach regular classes first. These classes are easier to teach and usually make more money for the instructor and student.

Later that night, Ben (one of the med students - pictured above with his girl friend) had a birthday party. About 20 people showed up and most got pretty hammered. Ben actually managed to get several fellow students from England to attend. We had a great mix of people and even the course director came. We ate at the Irish Pub that serves Vietnamese food. I left at 10:30 and they were just headed to a couple more bars. Most didn’t get home till 2:30 or later and some had been drinking since about noon when they went to a small uninhabited island to drink, smoke stuff and snort stuff etc. They were totally wiped out when they got to the party. This group included at least 4 medical students.

I was suppose to start the wreck class on Sunday but one student had a cold and couldn’t dive and the other had a hangover and didn’t want to dive. I used the time to prepare for several other classes so I’m ahead of the game now. The day ended up being pretty boring as watching video’s and reading most of the day isn’t too exciting.

Emergency First Responder Class

This is a picture of Jack practicing rescue breathing on a baby Mannequin. This second picture is Jack practicing CPR. We practiced these skills and more in our class. We all had a great time learning on doing this. I can now teach CPR and FIRST AID to anyone anywhere. These class are not related to Diving.

Near Perfect Storm

Near Perfect Storm: Last night proved to be very interesting. We had small group of people that decided to go night diving again. It was lightening in the distance but no one seemed concerned so we left the dock about 6pm to get an early start. We planned on visiting a site called Aquarium which is one of the better dive sites in Utila. About half way there a rain squall suddenly hit us. The boat captain continued on however and indicated it would blow through quickly. When we got to the mooring buoy the seas were pretty rough and we tried to put the rope on the tiny little eye hook on the buoy several times. It got really rough and we had to put on our scuba mask just to see a little bit. We were blinded by the rain and strong wind. It got so bad we coudn't even see the buoy after about the 4th try.

We had 2 guests on board and they were a bit scared and cold from the rain so they climbed into a small compartment at the front of the boat that is used for keeping things dry. There is also a "head" up there but it doesn't work. The place is really dirty and nasty but they climbed in anyway.

The boat captain couldn't see either so he just put the boat into a tight turn so we'd stay in the area. Unfortunately it continued to get worse and the boat was rolling more than any of us would like. Gear was coming loose and racing across the deck. The captain decided to head back although I'm not sure he knew which way was back. We came across another boat that had divers in the water that appeared to have broken loose from its mooring. We all stood on deck with our lights and masks and attempted to spot the divers underwater. We finally saw their lights and they were right near their boat so we assumed they were okay.

It calmed down just a touch so we found another buoy with a very large eye loop and attached to it. The instructor with 2 students advised the students to stay on board and the rest of us decided to go diving anyway. It was very strange. Because the rain and wind made us very cold, the ocean water was like being in a hot tub. It was almost too warm. We quickly descended and of course under the water everything was calm and we proceeded to dive. I think we were at Ron's Wreck. We went diving as a group and all got lost together. I can't believe 3 instructors and 2 divemaster trainees would get lost but we did. We came up about 50 yards or more from the boat and we had to swim back. I think this was the most difficult swim I've ever had. For a while, I thought someone would have to rescue me. I was just so tired but if you stopped swimming the wind and current would carry you further from the boat. Needless to say I hope I never see another dive like that.

RELIEF

Wow: What a relief. I'm so glad that's over. Most of it was a lot of fun but the book work was a killer.

The pictures I've included today are from Fidi's beach restaurant with world class chef "Mario". We ate there a few nights ago. He only serves about 4 or 5 items - all fish. Its pretty good but no not close to "world class". His soup was great however. I have no idea what it was other than some sort of "fish soup". We ate at the table next to the sign. The tide was up and the chair nearest the ocean was in fact sitting in a little water. No one sat there of course. It also slopes backward and is virtually useless. I guess you could dig the front legs into the sand to level things off. Anyway is was a fun little diversion. The building is the place where the food is prepared. Its most an empty shell with a small counter to pay and a little Honduran home kitchen.

Thursday was a day off and I got a bunch of running around done again. More laundry of course, gathering up all the books and materials I accumulated during the class. I can't figure out how I'm going to get all that stuff home.

I went to take the pictures shown today and stopped at a tiny little store and ended up talking to the locals for a fairly long time. Some of the people are just so darn nice you feel rude when you try to leave. We mostly talked about the weather here and some of the places they have visited. Its been really hot for a couple of days around here. One of them said its a bad sign. He said that the lack of breeze means a hurricane would not be pushed away if one formed nearby. Normally the wind pushed them north and away from the Island according to him. I certainly none form down this way.

Four of us went out and had a nice long lunch. Most of us a pretty bored with the food around here and we are all looking forward to some "real" home cooked food. I've eaten more chocolate cake than anyone can imagine.

I went for a night dive last night. Me and another newly certified instructor were actually asked to act as Divemasters becuase one of the staff was sick. We had fun doing it but its a little scary trying to track people at night. It got a little confusing when another group crossed our path. There were lights going every which way but no one got mixed up. We saw an spotted eel and a large size octopus that just stayed around. They usually hide quickly when lights shine on them but this one was feeding we think and wasn't really bothered by us. I'd guess it was about 2 feet across. It stayed pale blue most of the time but it was switching colors as it moved along.

We ate at the attached restaurant and then went back to the apartment and drank beer and talked till we all just gave out for the night.