Wow!!! What a fab day!!!

We started our trip at 8am this morning, on a very large boat called Ocean Spirit 3. There were quite a number of people on there, mainly Germans and most of them were just snorkeling today, but we thought we would be a little adventurous and try out a scuba diving introduction! We were told it was perfect weather to go out in the water, 5 knots (think that's how you spell it) and that only happens 20 days of the year!

We were presented with a 3 page long disclaimer form, with some scary text inside! Such as scuba diving is a risky activity and could result in death or disability! lol so ummmmmmmmmm we signed it! I was a little nervous I admit :S

Whilst travelling to the reef, all the brave divers :S LOL were sat down and instructed on how to use the equipment, plus signals we need/may need to use.

After two and a half hours cruising along the beautiful crystal blue water, we had made it to our first stop, Oyster Reef. We jumped into our stinger suits, to protect us from the nasty box jelly fish! And waited our turn to plunge into the water. Finally, the first group had finished their lesson and now our group was next! We put our funky flippers on and our scuba mask, then had around 60 pounds worth of equipment put on our backs! This included two weights tied to our waists. So now, we are sat at the edge of the boat and getting ready to push ourselves in face first into the water! Yes face first!!!! loll!!! Oh god we were really doing this! I thought! lol, Ian looking calm as always, lol :)

We were all guided to the side of the boat and held onto a bar in a line. We had to practice breathing with the regulator, which was quite difficult at first. You had to try and breathe just with your mouth and as normally as possible. If you fail to do this, you can tear your lungs! Natural instinct is to just get your head out of the water! but you had to fight that, lol. So three two one! heads in the water! Ian was first down to the next level, 2m beneath us, holding onto another horizontal bar. I was last! lol Down there was a little more complicated, as well as breathing, we had to equalize our ears, to release the pressure off your ears and sinuses, otherwise you could end up with high blood pressure and that is dangerous. Sooo You hold your nose and blow, your ears should then pop and the pressure is gone, simple! well not for me! lol I had to try other things, as my left ear refused to do this! but got there in the end:) Next was to take your regulator mouth piece off, just incase this was to happen for any reason. We had to tilt the mouth piece upside down, breath small bubbles out of your mouth; you prevent high blood pressure and then put the mouth piece back in your mouth. Slight problem now, it's filled with water!!! lol so you shout two!!! and the water is pushed out.

Finally all done with the training, and I had plenty of practice with the panic signaling we were shown and ok signal too, lol! So we were all told to let go of the rail, lock arms and move further down, over the reef. It was so strange! and I had a problem with the equalizing for a little bit, but after that, it was great!Sadly our time was up and we had to slowly make our way to the top again. We got back onto the boat, took all the heavy gear off then made our way to the top of the boat to relax.

We had our lunch, all included and very tasty whilst the boat made its way to the last stop being Upolu Reef. This time we were snorkeling and left to swim by ourselves in the reef. We swam to Upolu shore, which was being covered by the tide. It took us about 15 mins to get there, and after a brief rest we were pulled back to the main boat by a dinghy holding onto a rope! This was a lot of fun :)

This was the end of our time in the water.After we were all handed a glass of wine to drink and a piece of cake!! Ian and I swapped our cake and wine, I couldn't eat the cake and Ian didn't want the wine! :P Then we travelled back to the shore, relaxing on the boat and getting pictures developed.Xx