The Certifying Dives

As many of you know, I did my open water dives over the weekend. And, as many of you have asked, this post is regarding those dives and how they went. I had imagined a nice sunny morning to put all my gear on and jump in the water, experience the peaceful Puget Sound, see the sun's rays shining through the water, and witness incredible underwater life. So when we woke up to the pouring rain, I was definitely not that excited about diving. We had to be there at 8am, so we left at about 7:15 from Andrew and Maria's. I'll try to keep this short because I know that most people don't read long blog posts.

Anyway, I had a hood, a wet suit, gloves, and boots to go along with my fins, my face mask, my air tank, and my BC (the vest that carries the tank). The only skin that was supposed to be exposed to the water was right above my mask on my forehead, and my chin area. However, my wet suit that the dive shop had let me borrow was too small so the leggings, which were supposed to go over my boots, high-watered and the skin just right above my ankles was exposed. Not cool for a dive in 40 degree water.

But I did it. And froze. If it hadn't been for Rhett, I don't think I would have made it through the rest of the dives. He ran to Albertson's, bought some water jugs, emptied them, took them to Starbucks, and had them filled with hot water. Then he poured them down my gloves and into my boots to keep my phalanges warm. He carried my tanks and hooked them up, he held the umbrella for me as I got ready, he put on my weights for me, and then gave me a good luck kiss and watched me waddle back out into the freezing water. All the while feeding Summer breakfast and keeping her entertained. I couldn't have done it without him. But I was definitely dreading the second day of my open water diving.

The second morning of the dives, I woke up to a beautiful, peaceful snowfall. For some reason, I didn't think, "Oh great." I actually thought, "Wow. That is so beautiful. I am witnessing a beautiful part of nature, and now I get to go witness some more of nature." So here's a picture of the snow (from the car) on the way to the dive site at 7:30 in the morning. I'm sitting in the car with my swim suit on. (Now that I think about it, it's actually quite hilarious.)


And once again, with the help of Rhett, a new enthusiasm for conquering the dives, and a little bit of Dave Matthews Band, I geared up and headed out into the water.
This is a picture of the divers I was with. Dan is the one without a hood. He was my instructor. I'm the one looking at him with the blue tank.

And this is my "Woohoo!" cheer after coming up from my fourth dive. My fingers and toes were numb, but I was super excited that I had finished. I hadn't chickened out. I had actually just spent more than 80 minutes total time under COLD water. I didn't know I'd had it in me.

And yes, this is me, sporting somewhat of a smooshed smile from my mask. I had just come out of the water for the last time on this dive trip. I was done!

Every time I came out of the water, Rhett would ask me, "What did you see?" Two problems with that--the first being I had no idea. "Uhm, a white thing with kind of pokies on it . . ." Yeah, he had no idea either. And the second problem was that I couldn't remember. I remembered a few things, but everything was so new and different than what I'd ever seen before, that it was hard to remember exactly what I saw. I realized that the best part of the dives was that I could just live in the moment--I had to; it was the only way to experience the world I was in.

One thing that I do remember, and one of the coolest things that I saw was a BABY SQUID. It was about the size of the tip of my thumb to my first thumb knuckle. It was so cute! The diving assistant I was with had a flashlight on it, and when she stuck her finger out to touch it, it shot a little tiny squirt of ink at her. It was so funny. I chuckled. I also saw lots of NUDIBRANCHS. This is a picture of one of my favorite nudibranchs that I saw.

(Picture taken from http://www.seaotter.com/.)

I loved it. I thought it was so beautiful. I also saw a leopard nudibranch (below). (Picture taken from http://www.hershman.smugmug.com/.) I saw lots of giant star fish (the size of both my hands put together), lots of crabs, and lots of sea anemones.

Although it was uncomfortably cold, it was an amazing experience to be able to be a part of this under water world, and I am looking forward to my next dive that I'll get to share with Rhett.

And what would a blog post be without a picture of Summer?