Got up at 7:30, Harry up and working again of course! Had some breakfast and covered my foot as well as possible. Started diving course at 9.
Started with 2 set ups (putting kit together and taking apart). Then off for shallow water skills.
Started off the beach in waist deep water, quite rough, but not too bad. Really strange experience sinking below the water and still breathing, had to concentrate hard on relaxing and breathing at first in order not to freak out! Moved a bit deeper and practiced some skills (mask clearing and taking out regulator, not too hard as I'd been practicing those while snorkelling). I was also just getting used to the buoyancy you create by breathing (rise with full lungs, sink with empty). Eventually came in from the beach and went and carried on the shallow water skills off the pier, got to 6m depth, quite different when you're out of your depth! Felt myself getting panicked a few times, but managed to reign it in, just focus on the breathing and keep calm! I can see why some people do freak out (Harry has a story of a girl who freaked at 18m an tried swimming for the surface, and he had to grab her and stop her - you can't go straight up from that depth).
Went in for some lunch, then headed out for the first actual dive of the 4 on the open water course I'm doing. I was a bit nervous to be going to 12m, but once we headed I barely noticed the depth, other than having to equalise the ears as you go down. Really enjoyed swimming around the reef, saw loads of stuff (see cover photo) including a turtle which was awesome :-D
I've unfortunately fallen in love with scuba, why do I only seem to love the stupidly expensive sports?! Was over all too soon (40ish mins) as I was getting low on air, need to learn to regulate my breathing better, conserve the air.
Chilled in playing cards and jenga, and having a few drinks, late dinner at 8:30, then bed at 10, although I didn't manage to fall asleep until 12:30ish :-(