Hawaiian Diving: Days 1 & 2

The four days I spent in Hawaii were amazing! The first morning, I was still slightly jet lagged, but had to get up early anyway for my dive course. I had a 7:15am pickup which was actually 2:15am according to my body clock... I went out for two dives. The first was a wreck dive, and I saw a sea turtle floating above the wreckage and got right up to it! We then penetrated the wreck and went inside. It was scary, and I ended up puncturing my thumb on a rusty bit of the ship. What freaked me out the most was that I was so deep that my blood looked green! After that dive, we went to a reef site for the second dive. I had to do my underwater navigation component of the course and had to be able to tell my instructor where the boat was when he asked me (we were way too far away from it to see it on the surface). After the second dive, I was dropped back at my hotel and was exhausted. I wanted to take a nap, but I was afraid that if I did, my sleep cycle would further be messed up, so I decided against it. I walked around a bit, wrote a bunch of emails, looked online for a house (I am thinking of moving back to New Orleans and since I'll be there on Monday, I figured I'd start the process by looking at a few places). Then, at sunset, I hung out on my lanai, watching a gorgeous sunset as I listened to a live band play Hawaiian music and a former Miss Hawaii danced the hula.



I also got caught up on Glee, and then called it an early night, since I had another early pickup the following morning.

My second day in Hawaii started early, as I had to get ready for my 7:15am pickup for diving. I got all ready for my last day of my advanced open water diving certification course, and ate breakfast. Then I was picked up and taken to the dive shop, where we got ready for the day's dives. We got out to the boat and were taken to our first dive site, which were two ships that had been sunk in order to create a platform for coral to grow. We got down there, swam over both, did some of my certification tasks, and then penetrated the wreck. On the second penetration, I was going through a porthole with my hands close to my side, when a little bit of wave surge pushed me into the sharp side of the ship, and I sliced open the middle finger of my left hand. It hurt. We did see some neat stuff down there, including green sea turtles, banner fish, and a small angel ray.

The captain of the vote was a volunteer fireman, and we was able to wrap up my finger so I could go on the second dive and finish up my course. The dive was a shallower dive along an underwater pipe which had lots of coral outcroppings. I had to do a lot of fish and invertebrate identification for my course and had to do a lot of buoyancy control exercises. I found them easy, and before I knew it, I was done with the dive, filled out some paperwork and then was certified as an advanced open water diver!

My finger really hurt, and was bleeding pretty badly. I was worried I might have to go to the emergency room for stitches. I noticed that there were little bits of rusted metal under my skin like splinters, except rusty metal instead. I had to dig them out, which was a very painful process, cleaned the wound, put some antibacterial wash and cream on it, then bandaged it up. Eventually the bleeding stopped and I figured I'd be ok without going to the emergency room. I didn't feel like doing much activity, because I was worried that any activity would increase blood flow, and I'd start bleeding again, so I took it easy with my hand elevated the rest of the evening. I again sat out on my lanai and watched the Hawaiian band play and the hula dancers dance, with the ocean waves lapping in the background. A nice evening, even if wounded. I plan on doing my site seeing tomorrow and Wednesday. I am so tired that I will call it an early night so I can get back out tomorrow! I just hope my finger is feeling better...



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Location:Waikiki, Hawaii