To dive again…
You have all read my previous item and I am very happy to say that I have been diving again. And it felt great!
Although the wound was n0t completely closed I couldn’t hold it anymore, so 4 days ago I got along with the boat again. I started out diving with James who is (as most here) a regular at the divecenter. We had 2 nice and relaxed dives and I got to make some pictures again, you can see them down below. Happy these dives allowed me to take a camera, when I am properly guiding I cannot. The day after I dived with James again as well as Eddy who has been living in Khasab for years. Another two very nice dives were the result. Eddy had a camera with him as well and took the picture you can see above (thanks for that Buddy!). Sometimes you find some rubble on the bottom of the sea, here I found a stone weight and removed it from the coral.
The 2 days after these two divedays were different. It was busier because of the weekend (which is at Friday and Saturday here) and we went out with 2 boats. First day I was assigned to guide Bob and Maryla, and Maryla didn’t dive for 3 years so she was a bit rusty. After helping her a bit with the setup of the equipment we went into the water. She wasn’t feeling too confident of herself at the beginning and needed some time to get her bouyancy under control but in as the dive progressed so did she. The second dive was already a lot better from the start and she got to enjoy it more since her mind was less with the technique but more with the beautifull underwater world. It was great!
Yesterday we had a group of Indian friends on the boat. They are used to diving together so they went in together and Sandra (the divecenter manager) and me would follow and dive together. The current turned out to be somewhat stronger than expected and the group of 5 was scattered, at the end it turned out that one of them was blown of the reef and went back to the boat since his ears could not equalize. We picked up a lone diver in the current and I buddied up with him and on the way over the reef I picked up another diver. Sandra eventually got sight of the other 2 divers which were still together. In these teams we finished the dive. I must say, and maybe not all of the divers that day will agree, but the current was awesome! It was great to be flying over the reef only having to do some adjustments a few times. The second dive one of the divers asked for a guide, which was me in this case, since he was still afraid of more ear problems. Another diver eventually decided to come with us as well. The three of us had a very nice dive at Eagle Bay. Krishna ran out of air a bit sooner that us so the longhose came in handy, piggybacking on my airsupply he still for a full hours dive in. Three happy faces (including me) popped out of the water after the dive, that’s what we do it for!
Oh, I finally had a beer here as well. That’s always nice! The Golden Tulip hotel here serves beer and Michel en Chris asked me to come along. I have dives with Michel on the first day here. After that we had a good (and cheap) dinner at Al Sharmaliah.
Next days are a bit uncertain, there are no dives planned yet so it’s not sure yet what will happen. Today I will do a bit of sightseeing here in Khasab. Hopefully I can visit the Mosque. As you can probably notice in my writing I feel a lot better now that I can dive again. Hopefully the coming days will still allow me to dive!