Wednesday, December 5th to Sunday December 9th, 2012
A very familiar scene.
As I'm sure you've noticed I have been diving a little bit these days. I decided I wanted to do another dive course. This time around I decided to get my Rescue Dive certification. I had done all the course online so I just needed to do some scenarios and answer a few questions and that would be it.
Kate knows a few dive instructors so managed to set one up who could not only do my Rescue Dive course, but also do her Dive Master course and her boyfriend Chris' Basic open Water course as well as another girl (Heather) who was also doing her Basic Open Water course.
So we arrived in Jeddah just after 1200 and managed to be in the water by about 1330 (1:30pm). We did several dives that day and got the majority of my course done. I didn't take any pictures because I was a little busy trying to save my instructor (Mike).
Anyway, it was good and we did some fun diving.
Thursday while everyone else was in their courses, I headed out on a boat with Desert Sea Divers. What I have probably forgot to mention is that since my last dive trip, I bought all my dive gear. Yes, I needed to replace my dive watch, but I also ended up buying a new wetsuit and a BCD (buoyancy control device) and a regulator. Now that I have my own gear I have no excuse but to get in the water a bit more.
Anyway, back to my day on the boat, here are a few pictures.
A look at Cable Wreck. That's my dive buddy Tom. They paired us up on the boat since we were both diving on our own today. Worked out pretty good.
Visibility wasn't the best but still got a good look at the wreck.
Always a few fish around the wreck itself.
I'm told the wreck is called Cable Wreck because the ship is an old cable ship.....but these look like pipes to me.
A little of the ship, a little of the reef.
Tom has a very good camera set up and makes a whole lot of videos underwater.
Some of the reef next to the wreck.
Some more reef diving. As usual on this boat trip we did 3 dives, one wreck and 2 reefs.
Beautiful underwater colours.
Little spotted ray. So cute.
You leave anything underwater long enough, nature will take it back.
Familiar reef view.
Puffer fish!!!! Love it.
Underwater geography. Becoming a favourite of mine.
Tom taking some more video along a really pretty reef.
My little video.
Common scene under the water. I still can just never get enough of the little fish.
We found these on one of our dives.....fish cages. Illegal around here but you'll still find them. Fishermen put them down and then will come back in a week or so to see what they've caught. Some divers on our boat let all the fish out and broke the cages so when those fishermen come back, they will have caught nothing.
Tom swimming around the coral.
A couple spotted rays. A little after I took this picture they kind of charged me but lucky they changed direction at the last minute.
That kind of looks like a statue to me. Just a reminder that sometimes nature is the best sculptor.
Some of the beautiful sunshine getting through the rocks.
I love these little blue fish.
Our evenings on this trip (like most trips) were nice and relaxing. We were staying at Dream Beach which has a fridge and kitchen and that kind of thing, so we grabbed some food from the shop across the street and went to bed early. Diving is awfully tiring.
Does this look normal to you? I thought nothing of it until I took a closer look and realised that the abaya on this woman has been coloured on with a marker.
The cats at the resort.......getting comfortable on the gear we left on the back table. In case you can't see, there are in fact 3 of them there.
The original plan on Friday was for all of use to head out on the boat to dive. However, there was a miscommunication and we weren't able to do it. So instead the group of us did a few dives off the beach. Heather and Chris were almost done their course and I had a couple more scenarios to do. The dives were pretty relaxing for me so I had time to play around a bit. I was still getting use to my new gear so it was really nice.
Kate, Chris, Heather and I getting set to go diving again.
Friday I did my first night dive. I was a little worried about all the darkness but it was pretty cool. Lots of things to look at in the dark. My camera is not so good at pictures underwater at night so I had to rely on Kate to get a few pictures.
Playing with a puffer fish. He's just so darn cute all puffed up.
Love him.....kisses.
Night time video not so much a problem for my camera. Check out the puffer fish.
Saturday everyone else went home but Kate and I had an extra day so we did a bit more diving. We took the opportunity to play around with our gear a little bit and to do some long dives. We took turns swimming around until our tanks were empty so we would know how are regulators feel when we run out (you know in emergency situations.)
Anyway, here are a few more pictures from the last few days of diving.
Last minute instructions before heading down.
This is Mike, our instructor. He was pretty relaxed under the water.
First time seeing one of these.
This is a snowflake eel. I much prefer the look of this one to the morays we normally see but I can still go without seeing an eel at all.
More pretty colours.
Laziest fish ever......just hanging out on a rock. Seriously what's it just doing there?
Clown fish. He looks like he's hiding but we found him.
Relaxing on the reef.
Seriously it was like a bed.
Hmmm that doesn't look right. Not to worry we had already safety stopped and were close to the surface. Just wanted to feel what my equipment did when I ran out of air. You'll be happy to know that when it gets to this point, I still have like 30 good breaths of air left.
Can you see it? That's an octopus trying to hide from me. He actually changed colours right in front of me. It was so cool.
Chasing the giant puffer. He didn't like it.
Look Nemo!!!! Found him.
I have discovered my great love for underwater acrobatics. I really like playing around on some of the man made obstacles. Kate managed to take some pictures of me.
Some giant swings on the rope.
Tight rope walking. Pretty good don't you think?
You can judge my form.
Back flips!!! I'm getting pretty good at them but still need to work on the landing.
So another dive trip done. Highlights of this trip: my first few night dives and my longest dive ever.......85 minutes. Great trip.
Julie
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