The second installment of my diving trip report - my dive log.

Diving Log

Picture: Onboard MV Scubapro III

Dive Number: 3 Date: 7th June 2005 Location: Milln Reef Dive Site: The Whale Weather/Sea: Fine ½ Cloud/Calm Visibility: 10m Water Temperature: 25°C Maximum Depth: 17.4m Bottom Time: 26 minutes	Certified Dive #3 Because of our intensive start we had less key skills to practice this time: Free descent with reference Complete mask flood Oral fin pivot Controlled ascent Controlled emergency swimming ascent I saw a turtle, a Napolean (Maori) Wrasse, and a massive school of pinstripe Fuseliers. Most people in our group saw a reef shark, but I missed him - maybe because my vision was less than 20/20 due to my prescription mask. On the first 3 dives my weight belt kept slipping (it was faulty) forcing me to remove and replace it in the water, one of the skills we'd learnt.
Dive Number: 4 Date: 7th June 2005 Location: Milln Reef Dive Site: The Whale Weather/Sea: Fine/Calmish Visibility: 10-12m Water Temperature: 26°C Maximum Depth: 14.2m Bottom Time: 35 minutes	Certified Dive #4 Our last certified dive before qualifying as PADI Open Water divers. We practiced just a few final key skills: Free descent without reference Mask removal & replacement Hover Controlled ascent With less skill assessment to worry about, and with increasing confidence, I was able to concentrate more on marine life. This time I saw a Red Bass Snapper, Butterfly fish, and four large Batfish. My new weightbelt was fine, and I was starting to quite enjoy my diving now.
Dive Number: 5 Date: 7th June 2005 Location: Flynn Reef Dive Site: Gordon's Mooring Weather/Sea: Fine/Calmish Visibility: 10m Water Temperature: 26°C Maximum Depth: 13.3m Bottom Time: 28 minutes	Recreational Dive This was my first dive without an instructor, and I loved it. For the first time as a diver, I was genuinely disappointed it had to end. The change in my attitude and the growth in my confidence has been astounding and I have to give full credit to the instructors. It's also personally very satisfying. I'm now a PADI certified open water diver! Prior to this dive we had our first briefing with the certified divers, and we received a round of applause. I can't remember the last time I was applauded, and it was a gratifying and proud moment. We dived in a group of 4 - myself, my 'buddy', and 2 other people I'd become friendly with, Dave from Canada, and a lovely English girl called Tash. We descended to 13m to get depth for the next dive, then headed to the reef for shallower diving. We saw a ray, maybe a dozen Barracuda (very long, thin fish), some of the other types of fish we'd previously seen but in massive numbers, and a giant clam. It was a short dive, because Dave exhausted his air supply quite quickly, perhaps from the stress of being designated 'team leader'. As a nice final touch, we'd agreed that Dave would surface but not enough to be visible from the boat, get bearings for us, and we'd ascend at the boat. Steve the instructor said this would make us look very clever indeed. I played it to perfection by surfacing at the steps. One moment I was underwater, the next I was climbing up the steps

Picture: Action Man returns to dry land after getting the girl and killing the baddies

Dive Number: 6 Date: 7th June 2005 Location: Flynn Reef Dive Site: Gordon's Mooring Weather/Sea: Fine/Calm Visibility: Night Water Temperature: 25°C Maximum Depth: 10.9m Bottom Time: 30 minutes

Night Dive I didn't make any great friendships with the people on my course, and in a way I enjoyed the company of some of the certified divers a little more. Although there were undoubtedly some high achievers amongst them - including an RAF pilot - they were friendly and passionate about their diving. On the previous evening I'd watch them go on a night dive. Just watching was very exciting. First they were shivering on the deck, putting on cold and already-wet wetsuits, glowsticks attached to their air tanks. Then they were in the water, circling their torches to indicate all was A-OK, and down they went into the mirky depths. Well, 7:50pm day 2, and I'm about to do the same. Quite frankly I was less scared of jumping into the ocean at night than I was of freezing on the deck as I put on my wetsuit. Somehow I passed that challenge - and I can assure you it was unpleasant! - and I was in the water. Even at night the ocean was 25 degrees, a perfectly pleasant temperature. Down we went. It was fun and not at all scary. We saw 2 very large turtles including a large fellow called Brian who is over 100 years old. I saw a few fish too, but not a great deal to be honest. Some people in the group saw a massive stingray and a shark but, sadly, I missed these yet again. In all I didn't see much, but it was a thrilling experience nonetheless. During the night dive I somehow lost my regulator (I think I was trying to clear a bit of water, but I may have been coughing). Again my training came into play and I replaced it without incident. This was the fourth dive of the day, so for a second night it was straight to bed for me. No wonder I didn't make any new friends!

Picture: It's a hard life! Check out this sun goddess.

Dive Number: 7 Date: 8th June 2005 Location: Flynn Reef Dive Site: Gordon's Mooring Weather/Sea: Cloudy/Choppy Visibility: 15m Water Temperature: 26°C Maximum Depth: 26.6m Bottom Time: 26 minutes

Deep-Water Dive Miracles will never cease! I went from hating diving to progressing immediately on to the next level of certification, PADI Adventure Diver. I've long wanted to try diving. My brother, Greg, and I booked the Prodive course back in 2000 or 2001 on my first trip to Australia, but we had to cancel as Greg got sinus problems. I returned to Cairns on my second visit to Aus but was too nervous to do the course alone. This time I had additional motivation - my new friend Agnes had become a keen diver, and I wanted to meet her again for a dive, maybe in her home city of Hong Kong. I have no idea what the diving conditions are there, but I figured I may need to go deeper than the 18m I would be licenced for as a PADI Open Water Diver. Furthermore, I was told that most wreck dives are beyond 18m. With these considerations in mind, I enrolled for the Adventure Course. The first 'adventure' was a deep water dive. We entered the water and descended. I had no idea we had gone deep until I checked my dive computer - 24 metres! Merely a few days ago I was terrified at the bottom of a 4m swimming pool, and now I was 24 metres below the ocean without a care. We bottomed out at just over 26 metres. Here we played a game where we had to fit shapes into their plastic holder. I thought I was really quick but apparently my time wasn't too hot. At this depth I experienced a little nitrogen narcosis. I felt mildly stoned; I was a happy and was trying to touch the fish as they swam past! I still didn't get to see a shark, but we had the wonderful sight of a turtle floating in the water way above us. I was told that there were large bumphead parrotfish near the boat as we ascended but I'm not sure if I saw them or not. We were supposed to stop at 5m. My bouyancy had been quite reasonable but to my horror as I ascended to around 5 metres I found I couldn't stop. I hit the surface and had to rush back down to 5 metres for the stop. I did feel a little out of it for the rest of the trip but I was assured there was no problem. I was probably just tired. Diving to this depth was a great experience.

Dive Number: 8 Date: 8th June 2005 Location: Flynn Reef Dive Site: Tracy’s Bommie Weather/Sea: Fine ½ Cloud/Small Chop Visibility: 10m Water Temperature: 25°C Maximum Depth: 14.7m Bottom Time: 34 minutes Picture: 2 of my fellow students on the photography dive Picture: A beautiful reef fish

Photography Dive I saw a stingray but he was too fast to be photographed. I took some hopefully nice photos in the shallows but then noticed my flash was off. [Actually, my photos weren't great - you can see them online.] I went 'only' to 14.7m as I thought the best photos would be at 4-6m, but some of the group went as deep as 19.5m (deeper than the instructor)! Later, I was in the shallows taking photos, turned back round and everyone had gone! Fortunately, Mark (my instructor for the first and only time) came back for me. At the end of the dive, Mark took my camera underneath the boat to take some snaps of the big fish there for me (my air was low). His shots were way better than mine! It was at this point in the trip that I got the lovely photos of me in my diving gear. Because of the nitrogen levels in our blood after the deep dive, the Adventure divers could do only 2 dives on the final day, and so ended my trip. It truly was an adventure! Picture: Mark the instructor Picture: ...and one of his photos of the fish underneath the dive boat

Original Publication Date: Wednesday, June 29 2005 @ 01:48 PM EDT.