Scuba day! We were a little bit excited today. We've not done a scuba dive for nearly a year and even though they said the cyclone wasn't near us I was still scared going out to sea. Lee was flapping a bit saying he'd forgot how to do all the checks, he wanted a refresher... Blah blah.
We got on the catamaran and were ushered to the front with the other divers. The guide strongly suggested we buy sea sick tablets. Me and lee both said we don't get sea sick but he was adamant so we bought some. It was a little bit choppy when we set off and then we started bouncing! It was like being on a roller coaster. Your bum actually came off the seat the sea was that rough. The Scuba man came to give us a brief when he was finished I turned to Lee and Lee looked bad. He was sweating, his eyes looked like they were about to cry and he was shaking. The tablet didn't work for him. We all had to go to the back of the boat to gear up. We were told to eat ice so lee was chomping like a loon but it wasn't helping. In the end he moved to the very end of the boat to get fresh air. As soon as the girl next to him vomited in her paper bag there was a domino effect. I was fine. To be honest I felt like a ninja in my wet suit. It was quite slimming?!
When the boat had anchored and Lee was kitted up he was fine and ready to get in the water. Lee jumped in 1st then I followed. The guide told us to descend..... My turn to freak out. The water was choppy, how do I breath? Through the mouth. Not the nose. Ok descend. Aaaahhhh come back up. Breath. Luckily the guide was waiting for everyone to get in so I had time to panic. By the time everyone was in the water I was ready to go. Lee had been sat at the bottom waiting. We did 3 dives in total through out the day. It was brilliant. We'd forgot how amazing it feels to swim in between coral next to the fish. On the 1st dive a giant fish called Nigel came right up to us. its like the super model of the sea! it knew we were taking pics and followed us to every dive site. We saw a shark on the 2nd dive which normally the pair of us would freak out but the guide was so relaxed. He pointed out the reef shark then gestured us to lay flat to the sea bed behind some broken coral and watch. When we swam away a sting ray swam in front of us then we noticed either another shark or the same one had circled us. It was just looking then it swam off.
On the 3rd dive a sea turtle was sitting on coral eating. There was only 3 of us by the last dive so the turtle didn't swim away it just sat still, eating. The guide picked some broken coral with algae on it and fed the turtle. We all copied. The turtle let us stroke it. It swam around us then we swam off exploring. Some parts of the reef have amazing colours. There's all different shapes and bright coloured fish. We loved it. It felt like time disappeared because before we knew it we were back on the boat heading back. That night when we got back to the hostel we were so tired. We literally eat and went bed. It was a brilliant day.