After a busy night in the end I get up at 6 am. Surprisingly I'm rested and ready to visit the deep sea. This time I let the clock, which is not guaranteed to the depths that we will lose, but I have a camera, that I can go down to forty meters.
The sky is the color of dawn, and I'm surprised the lack of cold, something I always associate with the moments before sunrise. And the water ahead.
quickly descended, following the anchor cable, and in no time we are at the bottom of the sea, the end of the thirty meters are nothing, you can walk in less than a minute. But the feeling a hundred feet under water, even being so close, it is so different. The pressure really does not feel directly, you feel like you are being squeezed because the body all water is not compressed, and the air we breathe is the same water pressure. But the water seems somewhat viscous, like oil, and makes the movements are slower. Ferdinand, the instructor who took me diving title. once said that at great depths, much greater than these hundred feet to the air feels like slimy pressure.
And not just the movements are slow. Thinking slows down, I find it harder to be aware of what is happening around them. Everything seems funny, funny. Enter euphoria attacks that cost suppress. Are symptoms of a mild nitrogen narcosis, which often happens to great depths, and not dangerous be harmful, but because it can cause reactions such as when one gets drunk, and you know, if you drink do not drive. I try to take pictures, but the camera does not operate ... or is that I am not pressing the play button? I touch all the buttons, but nothing seems strange.
And we all, some with mild symptoms of narcosis, which makes them laugh at anything ... and even laughter can be heard through the water so thick. We started with experiments.
In the first experiment, we compared the depth gauge of each person, and we see that there are major differences, as these are becoming less reliable as we go down deeper. In the second experiment, the instructor draws a table with numbers written in any order, and sent us to each play the numbers in order. And you realize who is most affected by narcosis, as some seem to take forever to find all the numbers.
The third experiment is the most fun. The instructor brings a fresh egg that pressure does not break because there is no air inside. The theory is that the pressure to break the egg makes the white and yolk still together, as if the egg was a ball, and we can spend the egg shelled each other. The practice is somewhat different. As the instructor breaks the egg, a fish who was hovering over us is released and plunges the content instantly. We try to remove the fish, but he is spinning. It is a big fish, half a meter or so. It is so insistent that we have to push it, but nothing, still. His movements are quick, ours are very slow. At the end of the day, this is his element. I get to touch the fish and try to push it. The feel of the fish is something special. The fish are in the surfaces are soft, but it feels hard like a regulation ball. The pressure continues surprises.
The instructor takes food from the manga for the fish (which saved more surprises up its sleeve?) And throws it as far as possible. And so we got to finish the experiment, passing the contents of another egg from one to another, until the fish is on again to finish with our makeshift ball.
The instructor asks us how we air. All are mid-air or less. I look at my flag, and I can not tell if I'm more or less than half. Give a signal something strange ... Now find the instructor that I'm half drugged? but the instructor does not seem worried, and takes us on a tour of the profundidates, to the coral. After a few minutes, less depth and with my mind more clearly see that was less than half the air. And that is when I discover the real danger from the deep, that makes people can be put in situations they can not get out alive. The danger of diving not so much the sea or animals, but the people themselves when they make fatal errors. It is a lesson that I hope will not forget.
Back in the boat waiting for us breakfast, and Mineko, and wakes up, tells me she has slept very well. Well, at least one has rested ...
The camera is working again, thankfully. It appears that the waterproof case holds the pressure, but the same pressure all the buttons pressed at once, and the camera becomes useless.
After breakfast we go to our penultimate dive. This time, to avoid cold water, we get better protection, a suit which in principle is what people wear in the summer to protect jellyfish, whose sting can be fatal, but it is not necessary in winter. We put it put it because others also to be more warm. And it is true, this material, or whatever, is warm, and when we normal suit over this canvas are so comfortable, that on entering the water did not notice that impression chilly water ... Why did not we had that before?
This time the dive site is different, I do not know, and had arrived late for instructions. Mark tells me what they have said, or rather, what you have understood, which is not much he did not know English. The idea is to go to the right and dive the reef to the right until reach a shallow area where there is usually a turtle. This is the idea but soon get lost under the water, and among those we reached an impasse. Here we go round and round, looking for lion fish that are supposed to exist in these parts, but nothing. And so on, when suddenly a huge line, much larger than that once saw in Jervis Bay. This guy should have more than two meters, and was hidden just below us in the sandy bottom. We dive, and we see a shark. Should be one of those who saw last night. He was calm, rested in the background, oblivious to us. We approach a bit to take pictures, and basking shark approach allows us ... these tourists, will be thinking. In the end, when Mark was trying to take a picture with the shark, goes away and leaves us. Now that I think perhaps we should not have come so ...
already on the boat look at the map of the site and discovered that, after all, have done almost everything that we intend to do except go to the place of the turtle. The streak was on the map, and the shark too. It appears that these animals are very territorial. Mineko told me that yes she has seen the turtle on his expedition with breathing tube, to envy!
And finally comes the last trip underwater. This time try to pick out all the details the map. The idea is to reach an area with caves and visit one of these caves, but again we are lost underwater. Come here and there, until you find the same dead end of again. We dive in shallow water to find another valley, and here we see a cave. This must be our destiny, and we entered. The cave is a passage under the coral, rather narrow. We have to go one on one, something that gives me something to fear as a golden rule is not separated from their peers. I go first, step rather quickly, with little claustrophobic. To be in an underwater cave gives impression ...
After about ten meters came at the end of the cave, at sea again open. I turn around, but nobody follows. Will not have dared to enter? What do I do now, only in this ocean? "I return to the cave to see where they are? And what happens if I meet them, and I can not turn around as the place so narrow? Fortunately soon see Sonia and out the mouth of the cave, and after that to Mark. Thank goodness.
follow the planned route. The area is deeper than I expected, too deep. It is our third dive and we should not go too deep or we risk having problems with decompression. The books say that if one is too long at great depths, the nitrogen accumulates in the blood, and out of the water it becomes a gas again, creating bubbles in the blood and excruciating pain.
see another shark, and we got to do more photos, until I see the flag and discovered with surprise that I am at 19 meters when he thought no more than 13 meters lower. So I climb at 13 feet, and beckoned to Mark and Sonia to rise. But not seem to notice my signs, and continue down. Marcos even lower again, following something that catches your eye. Would you be affecting nitrogen narcosis ...? So what am I under to pick? Luckily, Mark up again, but not until my depth. I think it's too deep, but he he looks calm and in charge of the situation, so I follow my depth, looking at Mark and Sonia from time to time, hoping it would not fall further.
the end we run out of air and we surfaced. I thought that we had not reached the boat, and discover that he was mistaken. The stream we had passed over the boat, and we have to swim on the surface, counter-current ... How tired! We are the last to reach the ship.
Well, no more diving. So long, coral, again. In the last dive I managed to avoid much of condensation inside the sealed chamber. Following the recommendations of Mark, before each immersion watched carefully all the joints inside the box, and discovered water drops loose, I had to dry completely before closing the box. Also, after these experiences underwater decided that the first thing I do is buy a table and pen to write underwater and communicate with people, and a compass. Mark and Sonia stay one more day, that your trip is three days, but I do not know if I could take any more days. I'm tired, until my hands hurt, perhaps by the effects of decompression, or simply for having been so long under water. And I dream to sleep in a bed that does not move. Moreover, I find that we have been too time underwater at depths too great. Later we discover that the risk of having the painful problems of decompression and it was not advisable to do more dives in the next 24 hours. I hope Mark and Sonia do not have happened.
Back on the boat under way to Cairns we find more whales. Or are the same as before? This time I rush to get the camera and take pictures. A whale comes so close that passes under the boat. It is so quiet, just floating on the surface, producing a flap in the air, as if sunbathing. Back in Cairns
we walk by people, a tourist spot with shops all parties. Back in civilization. There is a 24-hour market where there are numerous massage group asking us to let them make us massages. I'm tired, but I feel strange, as the joints are swollen by the pressure difference and do not want to risk that massages leave them worse.
had dinner in a nice Thai restaurant, the Khin Khao, where to eat, and sleep, tomorrow begins the second part of our journey.
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