We had to be at the site by 7:30, and were told that the “biggest, baddest truck” down there would be the one that we were looking for. We got to the site, and sure enough, what made me think of a bread truck was sitting there, waiting for us. When I saw the guide, the first thing I wondered was, “If my life needs saving, can he save it?” I could not answer positively. My second question was, “Do I trust him to save my life if necessary?” I did answer ‘no’ to that question.
All the gear was out, and our guide guessed who everyone was, correctly, except for Becky and me. He got us mixed up. We sat through the presentation, put our wet suits on, put on the vest with tanks and went to get in the water. We swam out a little way and held on to a life ring. The certified divers went out a little farther to wait while the uncertified group went through a couple of exercises.
When it came time for me to do my exercises, I told the guide that I decided I really did not want to do this, and to please take me back to shore. He asked me why, and I told him that I couldn’t relax, and that when I put air in my vest, I was starting to hear a hissing sound. He responded, “You need to communicate these things to me right away.” I said, “I am right now. I just noticed it.” What I didn’t say was: “when am I supposed to communicate this to you? You were under water with my new friends and I can’t talk to you with my face in the water, a regulator in my mouth, making everything from my mouth past my esophagus, into my lungs dry from the canned air. Take me back to shore thank you very much!” He did.
I was feeling frustrated with myself and sat in one of the chairs for a few minutes. A lady from another dive group came over to check on me. She asked if I was ok, and I said yes, that I just chickened out. She said that she had only been certified for 3 weeks and had been a little nervous for her first dive of the morning, but seemed ok at that point.
I left the dive site and went back to the hotel. I sat out on the balcony, looking over the ocean and called my Mom. We talked for a while and she was encouraging. After our conversation and still sitting there, trying to sort through my feelings I decided to email my brother. I didn’t expect a reply since I thought he would be out fishing, but got one within just a few minutes. The words that he said to me really encouraged me. I don’t know why. They just did. He reminded me that it’s ok to not do something that I’m not comfortable with, then encouraged me by saying that he felt he saw more snorkeling than by diving. Go get out there and snorkel. I replied, then texted Kathie, asking where she, Corrina, and Liann were. Kathie texted back a few minutes later and said that they were snorkeling across the road. So, I gathered up my stuff and headed on over.
I found Kathie-she was resting, but Corrina and Liann were still in the water. Kathie and I talked for a little while and Corrina and Liann came back to shore. Pretty soon, Kathie and I got up to go snorkeling. I wasn’t prepared to see what I saw under the water. The last time I snorkeled was in Salinas, Ecuador-which also happened to be my first time
in an ocean. The scenery there was NOTHING like what I saw off of Po’i Pu beach. I saw pink and purple anemones (that word always makes me think of “Finding Nemo” where the teacher fish says, “Don’t hurt yourself, Kid.” As Nemo tries to say where he lives.) I saw the coolest white fish with skinny black stripes down their sides. There were angel fish, fish with neon purple stripes on their backs, fish with yellow and pink squares on their sides, totally AMAZING!About 12:30, we decided to head back to the timeshare and get lunch. The divers were back by now, and Cory, Karin, and Becky were discussing what to do next. We ate and headed off to the North Shore.
It took us 2 hours to get as far as the paved road would take us on the North Shore. The road ended at Ke’e Beach, and the water was really smooth. We all got in the water with our snorkels and masks and started swimming around. I followed Karin around, and at one point, she got my attention and pointed up. We put our heads up out of the water and she asked me if I had seen the thing that looked like string down on the rock. I said yes, that it looked like white silly string. She said, “Watch this.” Down she dove, and gently grabbed a piece of the string, and let it go. It slowly retracted itself. Karin and I put our heads out of the water and she let me know that was something she learned at the dive that day. I thought it was so cool that even though I “chickened out,” I was still able to see something that they had experienced.
Next, I turned and saw a school of tiny fish, all swimming as one. There was a huge group of them. I don’t know if there were two schools or if it was just one. I remember thinking they looked like diamonds the way the sun glinted off of them. I moved my hand and all of the “diamonds” moved, very suddenly as one, away from me. Then, they were right up next to me.
As soon as I moved my hand, they “flew” away from me again. I tried to laugh with the snorkel in my mouth but it didn’t work well, which made me laugh even more.From there, we went to find Tunnels Beach. We were done snorkeling and really just wanted to walk down the beach for a while. I was amazed to find that the sand that I had experienced on the south shore was so much more fine and soft than the sand here. This sand felt like tiny little pebbles, mixed with broken shell. We sat down and watched a kayaker in the sunset before heading back to the car to find some food and head back to the Timeshare.
No comments:
Post a Comment