Diving the Needles

Had a great dive this afternoon. Nige - from Somerset, also staying at Belongil - had booked for the same dive at 2.00 p.m. this afternoon. He was one of the people who recommended Sundive to me. I was there for 1.15 as asked, in order to get kitted out. The hardest part is always squeezing into the wetsuit. The second hardest is standing up with the BCD, tank and weights on - though we didn't have to do this today as I did my first boat dive. A boat dive involves sitting on the edge of the boat (an inflatable in this case) and rolling in backwards - you've probably seen them do it on TV. I practised it once in the pool at Bingley Grammar - where I was having lessons - but it isn't the same at all. Oh, and the third hardest thing is getting back out of the wetsuit again - especially when one arm doesn't work properly! But there are always other people around to help.

The ride out to the Needles - where we were doing our dive - was some experience too. We went from what I think is Captain Cook's Lookout - a mound down on the beach (Watego Beach I think). We cut out through the middle of all the surfers who were riding the big waves. We were going into the waves so the boat was bucking and rearing. I was near the front and kept getting the waves going over me. Holding on was hard and you get thrown about a lot. At one point the guy who was steering the boat, Ian, stopped and turned to us and said, 'Look guys, I'm not enjoying this, honest!'

Anyway, so I went backwards, arse over tit, into the water. I was in the water about 40-45 minutes and used about 120 bar of air. I had to come out a few minutes before the other three that I was with, because as my tank got lighter (less air) I started being positively buoyant, in spite of the 6 weights and full wetsuit that I was wearing. I suddenly found myself floating back up to the surface and no matter how hard I tried to get back down. So tomorrow I have to weart 7 (seven!) weights on my belt. No way I'd ever manage to walk far with them and a tank full of air on my back I just kept bobbing up again.

Visibility was great, though not as good as at Lady Musgrave last week. There was quite a current too, you can see how the sand is moving about on the ocean floor and when you kick you just don't go anywhere, but seem to stay in one place. Sometimes it feels like you are a puppet on a string and you look around and that's how the others look too!

We saw two leopard sharks, probably about a metre and a half long - on separate occasions. One of them was very interested in us and gave us a good checking out. We also saw a beautiful small (12") fish with fan-like fins - I must check tomorrow what it was called. Loots of other fish too, in different sizes and shades of blue, green and yellow. I saw a brilliant blue starfish and a small pinkish eel. No sea snakes this time.

So, I go back for another dive tomorrow. Oh, it's such hard work being on holiday and trying to fit everything in. My dive tomorrow is at 11.00 a.m. so setting up starts at 10.15 a.m. My massage is at 3.00 p.m. I rang Cate - the massage therapist - this afternoon to ask if I could change from the 1 1/2 to the 2-hour treatment. May as well make the best of it, ay.

I rang Tam at Black Dog Surfing earlier (whilst having a post-dive cup of coffee and slice of carrot cake). I had said I'd get in touch about whether I wanted to book another (free) lesson. I told her I wasn't going to have time and she said to call in for a refund! I thought about that and decided I would get my refund, and I'll see if they do gift tokens. Then I can buy one and give it to Sandra at Bamboo Cottage - I like that idea. She was so nice to me the other day when I was feeling a bit sore after an earful from the owner (I changed my mind about a booking and she wasn't amused and dumped on me with some guilt-tripping kind of stuff which I didn't like.) As soon as I saw Sandra, she remarked - without me saying anything about it - ' don't take it personally, she'll get over it.'