the water is a very warm  29 degrees
On our dive there are 9 Germans, 2 Singaporean and us.
We had 2 dives today.
I  was quite nervous still, will I remember everything?
But I rolled off the boat and was almost instantly rewarded with a stunningly rich coral reef
teeming with fish, incredible colours.
So exciting . I thought I heard someone else scream with excitement at the same time that I saw a big fish…oh wow I thought  then realised it was me  shrieking into my regulator / mouthpiece
Our dive guide a local named Igo led us along the reef and pointed with his torch and dive clanger thing (metal tube and striker he uses to get our attention.) Tiny crabs in weed. Nudibranchs and sleeping turtles. Yes some of those big green turtles we’d seen from the boat yesterday must have been as weary as us because they are sleeping in ledges along  the reef wall. Others turtles swam past and  almost through us. Absolutely chilled.
We also saw  a spectacular lionfish in a crevasse . They are AMAZING. And a Napoleon fish.  We would call it a humphead wrasse.  Grows up to 2 metres and endangered by overfishing
We swam drifted along a vertical wall of reef.  We  mostly stayed at about 18 metres depth.  I have to work to remember not to swim with my arms…the goal is to use as little energy as possible. There is quite a strong  current and I’m still staying  nervously close to the dive leader
We were with 2 others . Anya just finished the training part of her course here yesterday and today’s dive will complete her certificate..She did it flawlessly.
I’m special so I did it in my own special way.
At one point I suddenly found myself at the top, not quite sure how I had got there and Igo was  there signalling me to descend. Oooh I had a hard time equalising again..but after an uncomfortable minute staying still (yes I should have ascended slightly, paused and gone down again) I was confused I couldn’t see Steve.. it occurred that he had gone up because his dive was over (out of air) and he was back on the boat  .I was so fixated on staying close that I had gone up when I didn’t need  to. I still had enough air for about 15 more dive minutes.
I really only understood when Steve said that Igo had done a face plant /eye roll at seeing me surface..

It is soo much easier diving off a boat…and especially when someone else washes and dismantles your gear.  No trudging up the beach with all that weight. This might be heaven..  but I never expected to feel so tired when I got there…or have blisters.