Wow – what a great day~!! Started off with a wonderfully delicious small breakfast my Queen made for me, then headed out to the local dive shop for my first official dive as a PADI certified Open Water SCUBA diver~! First dive was [supposed] to be to 60’….. but I got a bit distracted and managed to get down to damn near 70’… my Dive Master automatically summoned me back up to where I belonged. Even with some large intermittent clouds, water clarity was amazing. Reef is not as alive (colorful) as some I have seen, but a site to behold none-the-less. Tons of pictures for you. Will not share them all at once, (way too many) but will sprinkle them in on ‘slow’ picture days.
Second dive was to 14meters (48.93′) which is well within my safe limits. Experienced my first (and hopefully last) mask squeeze. Wow – was that freaky~! I could not get my mask away from my face and it felt like it was sucking my eyeballs out – very, very painful and even more scary. I don’t want to say I panicked (that wouldn’t be cool) – but I damn sure got right up against it. I don’t know if I was taught how to fix it or not, but if I did – I forgot it bigger than hell….. I slapped the Dive Master on the leg, gave the trouble sign, pointed to my goggles and headed for the surface. Thankfully, he grabbed me and controlled my ascent. Got to the surface and rectified the situation. Wooo-Weee… got one semi-ugly eyeball to show for it now….. (Dive master coached me [again?] on how to fix it once we got back to the dive shop). Lesson learned~~!
Second dive of the day…..More pictures on this trip, got to see a beautiful spotted Eagle Ray, with probably a 5′ wing span…gorgeous~! Saw 1 big green Moray Eel, but was tucked too far inside of a hole for any kind of picture. Maybe the next time…. Finished the dives up with a couple of cold Heinekens back at the dive shop with my Queen. What a great way to end a couple of dives~~~ Decided we were both hungry and neither of us wanted to cook, so we set out in search of a “Chicken place” we heard about. (had our fill of goat burgers) Ventured into new territory looking for it. Finally found it just after dark….. Business is ran by a couple interesting women from Holland….. I believe they were of the Lesbian persuasion, but we found them to be a very fun and entertaining couple. Plus, they made some damn tasty chicken. My Queen had a couple of leg/thigh combo’s while I tried one of the shaved [chicken] meat wraps. My only regret is that I didn’t order 2 of them. They laid a nice bed of chopped lettuce, diced tomato’s and a little bit of onion on the wrap and slathered in a healthy dose of shaved chicken meat. Served [as a wrap] with a bottle of their own mix of mayonnaise, garlic and a couple of other things I couldn’t quite figure out what it was, but it nicely complimented the wrap. I tried a couple of my bride’s French fries and a small piece of her chicken she didn’t want – both were done very well, even though the chicken was a little bit drier than I like it. I’m not going to say what they call their restroom facilities (and that’s using the term politely) – but there is a picture of them below~~ 😉
I opted to try a ‘new way’ back to the house….. I really should know better than to do that, especially at night. What should have been a 20 minute drive to the house turned into about a 55 minute drive – but we made it home safe and sound (and inadvertently ‘saw’ most of the North end of the island). Another lesson learned…. in the dark and tired… take the way you know, back to the house… Still a very, very fun day — looking forward to a good nights sleep and seeing what tomorrow brings……. Auf Wiedersehen~!
