Pool, Sea and Food!

Trip Start May 22, 2010

Trip End Ongoing

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Where I stayed

Sejuk Cottages

Flag of Indonesia Gili Air, Nusa Tenggara Barat, Indonesia
Monday, May 31, 2010

Today we probably spent almost more time in the water than we did on land. After going over our theory and doing a couple of tests it was straight to the pool to practice a pile of skills. We would have been in the pool for at least 3 hours straight but it was awesome!! Erica was doing amazing with all of her skills as well, the only task haunting her was mask flooding and removal which was making her quite nervous.

We had a bit of time to kill before our second dive so decided to sit our final exam and get it over and done with. We both got through it with flying colours and now just had the practical components to complete before becoming qualified PADI Open Water Diver's.

Dive 2 was at Han's reef again where we were to be tested on more skills and again to a maximum depth of 12 meters. The most fun skill for me was the CESA (Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent) which got us from 10m to the surface without air. This might sound challenging, but is simple if you take a step back and look at the maths behind it. When you are down at 10m, air is twice its surface density, meaning you can store twice as much in your lungs. So when you get your last breath out of your tank, you make your ascent while slightly exhaling all the way. The latter part is quite important, because your full lungs at 10 meters will try to expand to twice the size (due to air expansion) at the surface, so holding your breath is not advisable at all!!

We saw many of the same species on this dive as we did yesterday which was again breathtaking, I am especially a fan of the turtles. On this dive we crossed paths with a HUGE Dogtooth tuna and a cranky Titan Triggerfish. When you see a Triggerfish it is usually a good idea to back off before they decide to take a piece out of you! From memory Lynsay copped a nick on the elbow from a smaller one on this dive.We spent 50 minutes underwater this time (as our air use was improving) and again made it to 12 meters.

It is kind of funny going down to see all of this amazing acquatic life in action and thechoosing it from your menu at night! We went to Chillout Bar again (which was to be our regular until we left) and met up with Andy, Shamini, Lynsay and Steve. Erica and I stuffed ourselves with Tuna, squid and a massive prawn along with the usual fill of Bintang.

I had a good yack with Steve (Lynsays partner) and in the end decided to do a night dive with him tomorrow night to go towards my Advanced Qualification (assuming I passed my Open Water tomorrow). This got me all revved up as I would have three dives tomorrow...... time to get some rest I reckon!