Diving
Monday Today was the first day of our PADI Open Water with Pro Dive Manly. We were split into two groups, our group was Rachel, Sally, David, Daniel, myself and our instructor Nick Salt. The morning was spent in the classroom learning the basics of diving, the afternoon was spent in the pool getting used to using all the equipment. After a very tiring day we spent the evening watching TV and then off to bed early.
Tuesday we headed straight down to Shelly Beach for our first dive. It was a lovely day and the visibility was good. We spent the morning diving off the Shelly Beach and much to my surprise it was good fun. I don't really like the feeling of diving but whenever I felt a little panicky I would look at the other guys especially Sally and they would make me laugh. The second dive was all about learning stuff in the water. We finished the dives at lunch time and Nick kindly took all the stuff back so we could have our lunch on the beach and then walked back for our afternoon training in the pool. Another great day and again everyone was exhausted. As we had our sailing exams on Thursday and Friday Sally, Rachel and I headed to a coffee shop with our books and tried to study for our meteorology exam.
Wednesday more studying in the classroom followed by an exam, which we all passed. After lunch we headed back to the beach, this time we went from the beach just around the corner of shelly beach which was called fairy bower. This dive was much better for things to see. Straight after our descent a giant cuttlefish came over to say hi, which was then followed by a common stringaree (sting ray) then a Eastern Blur grouper and a pipe fish. We then headed for an old pipe which is normally home to a Wobbegong Shark and there he was I didn't actually see it until Sally screamed in my ear and then I saw it. After some more practicing and exercises under water we headed back to the beach then back to the dive center. Here we were told that we had all passed our PADI Open Water :-). Nick also arranged for us to have 2 boat dives off Long Reef when we return from our last offshore. That evening we spent doing some more studying
Thursday Met Exam. Off we headed to the Flying fish office for the start of two of our exams. We spent the first part of the morning going over what we had learnt in the past few weeks. Then we sat the Exam, which I didn't think I did too well on as the weather is my poor subject. That afternoon we spent a few hours going over the nav stuff we needed for the following mornings exam. We were given a practice paper which a few of us decided to complete, the others headed off surfing. We all had to return to the office to have a briefing about our final offshore (next week). We were given our boats and crew and had a small meeting to discuss where we were going. We then headed home to have a proper meeting, the skipper for the first passage is David and therefore has to arrange everything ready for Monday morning. This was then followed by another quiet evening in.
Friday Navigation Exam. Firstly we were told how we did in the Weather Exam and to my surprise I passed, in fact we all passed. Now it was time to take the final exam, I found this fairly straight forward but I guess I need to wait until Monday to find out how I did. We were all finished by lunch time which meant that we could head off to the mall to get the provisions for next week. A few of us decided to head out for something to eat to celebrate the end of studying, this was followed by a Flying Fish social which of course involved lots of drinking.
Saturday Sydney Mardi Gras. After a morning preparing meals and a quick dip in the ocean a group of us were heading into Sydney. Fiona, Guy, Rachel, Lucy, Sally, Daniel and myself went in first and headed to the Rocks for what we thought might be a nice meal, however it wasn't. The service and the food was not good and everyone was very disappointed. We then headed off to Oxford Street (Hyde Park) to meet up with the others. We managed to meet up with almost the whole group just in time to get a great spot ready to watch the Mardi Gras parade. What a great evening the atmosphere was great there were so many people just having fun, and the floats were great. What an amazing city they sure know how to have fun.
