Well, Randi is officially a certified PADI Open Water Diver and I completed my PADI Advanced Open Water Diver certification as well. Here is a quick picture of Randi after one of her dives...doesn't she look like a professional after a long day in the water
We had a blast in Boracay and it was difficult to come back; however, it was also nice to come back. It is always good to sleep in your own bed and we were both missing Henry a bit. To say that Henry was excited to see us, would be an enormous understatement. I have not seen that dog shake so violently with excitement in a long time, if ever. I was scared that his butt was going to come off. He spent a solid 20 minutes running around, shaking his butt, and bringing various toys to us to play with. He was definitely excited.
I don't really know the best way to wrap-up or final days in Boracay...other than to say they were fantastic. Randi ended up doing about four dives and I ended up doing a total of eight dives. To be honest I was actually a little tired after the final day of diving.
I started the day (11th) with an awesome deep water dive off of Boracay at a site called Yapak II. This was an absolutely incredible dive to say the least. I have to admit I was actually a little nervous/excited about this dive before hand. the dive was scheduled for a total of four people - two divemasters and two divers. Due to the fairly technical nature of the dive it was a recommended one-to-one dive...at least for the first time...by technical I mean: negative-entry, deep water (in excess of 33 meters), navigation (compass), and strong current. Additionally, it was a shark dive with the opportunity to see some whitetip reef sharks. So, you add all that up and I was experiencing a little bit of the nerves and a bunch of excitement. Randi will tell you if there is a little danger involved and a lot of unknown...I will be the first to jump in (in this case literally). So, the other diver and one of the divemasters didn't show up for the 7:30am dive which left Jeco (the other dive master) and me for the dive. To add to the excitement it was really windy and the waves were actually fairly large as we motored out to the dive site. The waves were actually in the 3 to 5 foot range which is actually pretty large. The New Wave Divers (the awesome diving company we picked) website has the following description for the dive:
Start Depth: 30 meters
Maximum Depth: 40 meters
Rating: *****
Description: Yapak 1 and 2 are actually two separate walls which begin at 30 meters and drop down to 70 meters. The most famous of Boracay’s dive sites, close encounters with white tip and grey reef sharks, dogtooth tuna, groupers, napoleon wrasses and giant trevallies are common. Surface conditions can be rough, and therefore a negative entry is often required, followed by a spectacular blue-water descent.
So, the "idea" behind this dive is that you do a negative entry (because of the waves and current) and meet up under water around 5 meters. Then you find your bearing (compass) as you are in deep blue water (100 meters) and then you swim with the current while descending down to around 33 to 35 meters - where if you were dropped off in the right location and found your bearing you end up on an awesome wall that slopes slowly up to the island. You then swim along the wall and get to take in the whole experience. Jeco pretty much described it as "God's Theater". He also stated that this was his favorite dive...it is now mine as well.
So, by the time we got to the dive site; I was pretty much pumped up for the dive. We donned our gear, deflated our BCDs (since we needed to do a negative entry) and got wet. Just going into the water was awesome as it was a deep blue and you are literally surrounded by water with nothing but blue water all around you. It was the definition of a blue-water descent. Jeco and I met up at 5 meters and then we headed down while checking our bearing and direction of descent every 5 meters or so. As we approached 30 meters it was as if the world just opened up. Suddenly the wall came into view and thousands of fish were everywhere. We headed to the wall and basically perched ourselves at the edge of a drop-off (down to 70 meters) and sat there just watching the fish for a bit. It was awesome. Due to the depth our bottom-time was limited. So, after about five minutes we just started to drift along the wall taking in the sites as spectators to God's awesome underwater creation. We saw baby sharks, tuna, and just about a hundred different kinds of fish. It was incredible. As our No Decompression Limits (NDL) got closer and closer we slowly swam up the wall a little bit more to extend our bottom time. Unfortunately our NDL came and we had to ascend up to our 5 meter safety stop depth. Ascending was pretty spectacular as well...as you slowly left the underwater world and were again surrounded by just deep blue water...it was as if the doors to the theater had just been shut. After our safety stop we surfaced and tried to find our boat; as the current is pretty strong we ended up probably 300 meters away from the boat. We signaled the boat and they made their way over to us. just sitting in the water waiting on the boat was pretty cool as well...as you are just floating on the surface...hanging out and you really realize how small we are and how large the oceans are. Very cool. Well, since the seas were pretty rough Jeco told me be prepared to grab onto the boat. So, the boat motored in on us and due to the swells it was pretty challenging to grab onto the grab ropes but, we made it. We got our gear off while attempting to avoid being bashed up against the side of the boat and climbed on board. All in all I have to say it was an awesome dive and definitely an experience that I would like to repeat. So, for those of you who dive and those of you who want to...get certified and come over to Hong Kong. We will take a two day trip over to Boracay and get a few dives in and we will definitely hit Yapak.
Randi and I spent our final night in Boracay at Cafe Del Mar...the same place we started our vacation. We enjoyed another beautiful sunset and we totally relaxed as we reflected on our first true vacation as a married couple. I've attached a few pictures of our final sunset...I have done absolutely nothing to these pictures.
As the sun slowly set, the small sailboats sailing along the beach made for a truly remarkable scene.
After the sun had finally set; the sky really became an absolutely beautiful canvas.
With a nice lantern on our table we enjoyed the final moments of the evening in full Technicolor.
So, we are back in Hong Kong and glad to be back although we will miss Boracay...and definitely the warmer tropical weather. Last night we found out that Randi's parents are going to come visit in April so, that will be fun. If you are planning to come visit us, remember that our two years is up in February of 2009...so plan your trips now.
1 comment:
I may take you up on that offer....
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