Day 7-Sunday, December 13, 2009

 

The word of today is ADVENTURE. Today seems crammed packed with it, beginning with our early morning introduction to Scuba diving. A tense night of sleep, fearful of mosquito bites, made us quite willing to pounce out of bed at 8:00 a.m. this morning and head down the shore to our Intro to Scuba Diving appointment. When I got to the dock, I was glad to know that a pretty and pleasant young girl named Kya would be working with us, and not the crotchety Australian, although he was there and glowered visibly at me.

 

We waited about for a bit, then Kya was introducing herself to us, getting our sizes, and laying out our tanks. My heart was pounding like the cops at a crack house, but I think I managed to remain calm on the outside. She asked our weight and I balked at the question because I didn’t want to be deemed too overweight to scuba, so I told her I was 50 points lighter than I am. Shelli said I should have been a little more truthful, because she was asking to ensure my equipment was heavy enough to sink me, but I told her I’d cross that bridge when I didn’t sink under it.

 

Soon enough we were suited up in our vests, adorned with weight belts, and finally, yoked to air tanks. The equipment was EXTREMELY heavy. If it didn’t sink me, I wasn’t meant to be sunk. Kya went over the basic diving hand signals for us–I’m OK (same as in ASL–the thumb and index finger make a circle and the remaining fingers stay up; Go Up (Thumbs Up sign, not to be confused with I’m OK), Something’s Wrong (flexing your hand back and forth, palm down), and the most horrifying one, Out of Air, Let’s Share (cut throat, then bringing your hand to your mouth in a beckoning motion that means “BRING ME YOUR SPARE REGULATOR OR I AM GOING TO DIE!”) She also taught us how to equalize the pressure in our ears (plugging your nose and breathing against your nostrils), and reminded us of the importance to KEEP BREATHING using a little chart that shows what happens to the lungs under water pressure. We practiced inflating and deflating our vests, then we were ready to practice in the water.

 

Much to my relief, the first trial run took place in one of the resort swimming pools. We waddled over there in full equipment, and stepped into the pool. In the water, Kya instructed us to completely deflate our vests, then meet her under water on our knees, so we could practice the hand signals. Sounded simple enough. I spit in, rinsed, and put on my mask, puckered up to my regulator, deflated my vest, and dropped to my knees. And swiftly began practicing the “something’s wrong” signal as my nose and mask bubbled, filling up quickly with water, and instead of my knees touching the ground, my legs floated back and up, almost flipping me over. She gave me the signal to re-inflate my vest. When my head broke the surface, I explained to her that the seal around my nose wasn’t tight, so I was taking in a lot of water in my mask, up my nose, and choking on it. She advised me to tighten my mask around my head, and to try standing on one knee instead of both under water, to give more balance. I deflated and tried again, and it was OK signal. Once we got settled on the floor, she led us through NO AIR and the process of changing to a dive buddy’s spare regulator, then back to our own regulators. The moment I connected to Shelli’s regulator was a little spiritual though–something about breathing the same air made me feel close to her in a different way, especially when I imagined it in an emergency situation. Then we let a little water into our masks so we could practice emptying water from the mask under water. I choked and sputtered on the latter, but still she said I did it right, and there wasn’t any more water in my mask. Even though we went through these exercises, I prayed to God that I would neither have the need to share Shelli’s regulator, nor empty water from my mask, while we were in open water. Next she told us to take practice laps around the pool, to practice inflating/deflating our vests to achieve an ideal level for swimming on the dive. This took lots of effort for me–on the first lap, I was either over-deflated and scraping along the bottom of the swimming pool, or over-inflated and snorkeling from the top. The second lap went a little better. I managed to even kick my fins a bit.

 

Sooner than I felt I was ready, Kya announced it was “time to see some fish!” and we climbed out of the pool and headed back to the dock for our shore dive. The moment of truth was before me, and more startling than I imagined. “OK”, Kya said. “Fully inflate your vests so you’ll resurface immediately in the water. Take one hand and cover your regulator so it doesn’t slip out. Take the other hand and press your index and middle finger against the 2 lenses of your mask to hold it tight, take a deep breath and then take one big step off the dock into the water…” Umm…excuse me? Step off the dock? As in jump in? With all this equipment on? Are you f*ucking kidding me?! There’s a ladder or something right? She wasn’t and there wasn’t, because the next thing I knew, she was gone, having taken that daring step, with not even a “farewell” but a rather simple, “…like this.”

 

After she dived, there was a moment on the dock when Shelli and I just looked at each other. All my fight or flight instincts were flaring–I really did NOT want to jump my fat ass into the ocean baring 50 lbs of equipment for the SOLE PURPOSE of sinking to the bottom to look at fish. When I saw that Shelli looked ready to go, I asked her to wait. “Let me go first,” I said. “Because if you jump in, and leave me up here as the last to go, I’ll never go.” Shelli gave the “after you” wave, and it was all up to me, with the added pressure of making Shelli wait. I knew I had to stop thinking about doing it, and just DO SO. So I did. A million “could go wrongs” floating through my mind suddenly dissolved as I stepped off the dock and splashed into the water, resurfacing immediately as Kya had promised. Shelli’s splash was not far behind. We all gave the OK sign, then Kya gave the signal to deflate. I deflated my vest and immediately sank all the way to the bottom. I panicked when my feet touched the bottom, because I learned on our last vacation in Hawaii that stepping on coral kills it. I didn’t want to kill coral, but in hindsight I doubt it was coral that close to the shore!! I re-inflated a little bit and was OK signal again.

 

She gave the “follow me” signal and we began to swim while she unraveled a line attached to a DIVERS BELOW buoy that remained on the surface. We swam about, were soon beyond the shore and definitely deeper because I had to equalize my ears. She gave the “fish” signal and indeed, there were schools of tropical fish scattered about as far as I could see. I was still having quite a bit of trouble regulating my floatation. Several times I broke the surface, which was scary because the current was really rough and the open water waves are much bigger than those behind the resort’s breakwater wall. I was being tossed around. Shelli seemed to be having similar problems. I also started to catch a cramp in my foot from the drag of my fin, but it wasn’t bad enough to give the “something’s wrong” signal. Still, I tried to keep up….or down rather…with Kya.

 

Before I knew it, Kya was turning back to shore. Funny how fast 20 minutes goes by when you are breathing under water. Swimming back towards shore was more difficult, again because of the strong current, especially with my crampy foot. Within moments, both Shelli and Kya were out of my eyesight. I began to panic too because after a few breaststrokes and kicks I still didn’t see them, and I thought I might have been swimming in the wrong direction! It was really hard to tell because I was still close to the surface, to the water was rougher and not clear. Just when I was thinking about giving the “something’s wrong” signal, I saw a moving darkness ahead that looked like fins, and I swam toward it as hard as I could. It was Kya and Shelli, and they were back at the breakwater wall. She gave the “Go Up” sign, and we all surfaced. She instructed us to put on our snorkels, turn over on our backs, and swim back to the dock. I tried to do this, but was losing the battle with the current. Kya swam over, and grabbed me, attempting to swim me back. “Kick your fins” she instructed, but the cramp in my foot was suddenly a burn, making it more and more painful to try and swim. Still, I gave it my all because clearly her tiny frame was not going to be able to pull me through that current without all the help I could give her.

 

People let me tell you, I heard angels sing when my hands touched the ladder at the dock. Shelli took my fins and let me up the ladder first, then she and Kya followed. It was good to be back on solid ground, but as we were de-tanking I acknowledged the overwhelming desire to go again, and for a longer period of time, washing over me. We brought Kya a plate of breakfast from the buffet as a thank-you, and she offered to take some pictures of us in our scuba gear. 

 

I will definitely scuba again, and maybe even get PADI certified in my lifetime! Shelli said she was totally exhilarated by the experience. Scuba definitely spanks snorkel’s ass! Did I mention that it was all included in our Breezes Curacao package? ROCK!

 

We were supposed to go to town today after scuba diving, but I found out the shops are closed on Sunday. So, I think we’ll just hang out on the resort, and do what there is to do, which is a lot! 🙂 Shelli has suggested we go sailing again. I’m down!
 

Night 7

Well, scuba diving was definitely not enough breathing under water for one day for me, so after we had lunch and cocktails at one of the resort bars, I suggested to Shelli that we snorkel. I checked out 2 masks (no fins–my feet were still a little crampy, and the fins had been really painful for Shelli’s fractured toe) and met Shelli back at the beach in front of our room. Because I had snorkeled the previous day, I had a pretty good idea of where the schools of fish were congregating, so I told Shelli to follow me. 

 

Sadly, Shelli was having a lot of problems with her mask fogging, and it was already hard enough for her to see without her glasses on. No amount of spit seemed to stop her mask from fogging, and we both took several good hocks at it! So, I gave her my mask, which was fine, and we snorkeled briefly before Shelli decided to get out. I didn’t snorkel much longer myself, because I noticed that the rougher waters had drastically reduced the number and variety of schools. Waves were crashing so hard over the breakwater wall that it stayed very busy and looked murky underwater. The few fish I did see seemed to be running for their lives! So, I gave up myself after a little while, and went swimming in the resort pool next to our room. 

 

It had become my new favorite thing to take a dip in the water, so I did so as often as possible by taking the pools across the resort instead of walking around, or going from the ocean to the swimming pool to rinse off, or walking along the ocean shore instead of walking the sidewalks through the resort’s gardens to return to our room. While Shelli seemed mostly content to lay out in the sun in her sexy new bathing suits, and didn’t get in the water much at all, I couldn’t get enough of swimming and being wet. I explained to Shelli that I love to be in the water because #1 I hate to be hot and sweaty, and #2 it’s one of the rare moments in my life when I get to feel weightless. And when you weigh as much as I weigh, those are heavenly moments!!

 

After my brief swim, I laid down across the bed for a while for a brief nap, being lulled to sleep more by the heavy ocean breeze flowing through the sheer curtains covering our open patio doors and the ocean’s idyllic crash, than actual fatigue. I slept for only an hour, and then Shelli and I went back to the watersports tent to go for another sail. Herein lies the adventure of the evening!

 

Given that the waters were already clearly choppy from the strong winds and heavy current, as we discovered during scuba, this sailing trip was a lot more exciting than the first! Still clinging for our lives, but now the sail seemed unbalanced, tilting us to dangerous angles as it leapt waves. I moved across the catamaran in hopes of balancing it out, and our sailor seemed to navigate it to calmer waters. However, I started to notice that we had been out sailing longer this trip than the previous. While we had asked us earlier if we wanted to go out further (we said sure), we appeared to be REALLY far away from the resort, especially given the amount of time we’d been out, and the speed at which the sun was setting behind us. Our sailor was suddenly frantically adjusting the lines of the sailing equipment. Curious! “The wind is no bueno,” he told us. Hmmm….Soon we seemed to be heading back in the DIRECTION of the resort, but we certainly weren’t getting there any faster. “The wind is no good.” He said again. OK…..? I joked to Shelli, “Wouldn’t it be funny if they had to come out here and rescue us?”

 

Let this be a lesson to watch what you say, because 10 mins later, I noticed a speed boat approaching in the distance. Yes folks, they were coming to rescue us from the catamaran! I couldn’t help but laugh as it approached us, and the men aboard began yelling to our sailor in Papiamento. (BTW, at no point during the conversation did I recognize the word “Lesbi”.) They pulled up close to us, and told us to climb on board their boat and they’d take us back. We did, and I watched, laughing unbelievably, as they tied the catamaran to the boat and towed it, and us, back to the resort. 

 

After 2 ocean adventures in one day, even I have had enough of the water! Now I think we’ll get cleaned up and head for dinner at the Buffet (all the other restaurants were either closed or fully booked). Plus, I want a rematch on that ping pong game from Day 2! Until later!

 

Later

Last update–I won the ping pong rematch 10-6, but then swiftly lost the tiebreaker 3-10. 🙁 Tomorrow, we return to town for a final day of exploring and shopping, then we’ve scheduled a couples massage on the beach at sunset (FREE thanks to the very awesome “Curacao Now” package I booked which included a $200 spa credit). That will be the “last night of honeymoon” closer. I can’t wait!!

 

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