28th. December 2013 - 10:00: Baruna introduces Master Basho Matsuo to the Book of Kings.

And it came to pass at the seventh time,

that he said, Behold,

there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea,

like a man's hand.

And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab,

Prepare thy chariot,

and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not.

[1 Kings 18:44]

Without much fanfare, we were on the boat and sailed out to the buoy at Dog's Point, Sanur, Bali, Indonesia:

Dog's Point, Sanur, Bali, Indonesia

As at the pool yesterday, we were briefed, kitted up and completed our pre-dive checks just as the boat anchored over Dog's Point in Sanur Harbour. In the moments of silence that followed, I could hear the the distant roar of the sea as it broke across a reef about two kilometres away towards the east on either side of the shipping channel in which the boat was anchored.

Unlike the giant stride entry at the pool, our entry was a classic backward roll off the boat, followed by a textbook five point descent into Dog’s Point:

An old silent pond...

A frog jumps into the pond,

splash! silent again.

[Master Basho Matsuo (1600)]

For our first dive, our instructor had taken care of the Dive Profile, which left us free to concentrate on our first open water dives and the skills we needed to acquire and be assessed on.

The five point descent SORTED, with the aid of an anchor rope I descended after my buddy in a storm of his bubbles roaring past me, going the other way. At around 5 meters, we levelled off, left our tether on a slow descent towards the bottom. We had reached a point of no return from our now inevitable destiny.

On the way down we drifted past a preoccupied Lionfish (Pterois):

Lionfish (Pterois)

 , complete with acetylcholine safely tucked away in those conspicuous but thankfully relaxed pectoral fins. Soon, a school of Spadefish (Chaetodipterus):

Spadefish (Chaetodipterus)

muscled in on the act and moved as one darting here and there. Like a floating stick a horizontally challenged but curious Trumpetfish (Aulostomus maculatus):

Trumpetfish (Aulostomus maculatus)

took an interest in my mask. The last fish we saw before we got down to business on the sea-bed was a Spotted Sweetlips (Plectorhinchus_chaetodonoides):

Spadefish (Chaetodipterus)

I could have sworn that it had a smirk on those sweet lips because it had seen what was to happen next all too often.

One on the bottom, with a sea-snake for company we commenced what we came here to do. No different to the exercises in the pool, we practised and were assessed in mask and regulator fumbling. Only this time it was in salt water and against a slight current. Then STELLA called and we went top-side.

On the surface we practised and were assessed in addressing diver cramp and diver towing which is really harder to do than first meets the eye. Then it was removal of weight belt and BCD in the water and before we knew it we were back on the boat.

Our second dive took us straight down to business. Buoyancy control, secondary regulator breathing and CESA and we were done for the day.

For those interested in our numbers, here’s the dive profile:

Dive Profile: 28/12/2013