On Sunday, we went for the first dive of the year 2010. It marked the beginning of the dive season here. Usually, during the end and beginning of the year, the sea is too rough for scuba diving.
Unfortunately, this dive was not much fun for me. Actually, 'not much fun' is an understatement, I felt so sick, I almost puked, and I was so tired, I almost fell asleep while 12m under the sea!! Yes, for real... I closed my eyes for a while a few times, but didn't dare close them for too long lest I really fell asleep and started swallowing water, or Hubby might see me and panic, thinking I'd blacked out!!
Okay, it all started with not enough sleep the night before. We slept around midnight, and as usual I had to wake up twice through the night to feed Solomon. Then we had to wake up early, 6:30am, because the drive to the jetty would take over an hour. We also had to squeeze in the yummy 'kolo mee' (dry noodles soaked in pork fat) breakfast, which, in our self-designed weight-loss diet regimen, we are only allowed to have as a prelude to super heavy duty physical activity!
So anyway, I was pretty tired and also a little nervous as we went down for the first dive, because it has been almost a year since my last dive. The visibility was not too great and the current was really strong. When Hubby and I went down, we had to kick so hard to go in the right direction, we ended up 'crawling' on the seabed! I was really out of breath and maybe sucked in too much nitrogen!! :)
Then Hubby swam around looking for lobster and I had to keep up with him. I was also sneezing underwater! I had to hold on tight to my regulator, otherwise I would have sneezed it out! I had flu and already took Clarinase to make sure I could equalize the pressure in my ears.
When we surfaced, I was soooo tired and feeling nauseated. We were some distance from the boat and had to kick our way back. I could barely move and was trying to puke, so Hubby had to haul me back! He kicked while I just relaxed and floated on my back! My hero! :)
When we got to the boat, Hubby even had to take off my fins for me and I crawled to a corner of the boat and promptly fell asleep!!
After everyone had lunch (I didn't dare eat), we moved to another site and it was time for the second dive. I was feeling a little less nauseated, but was still pretty knackered. However, I was kiasu and didn't want to waste the opportunity for another dive, so I ignored my body and we went down again!
While underwater this time, I found that the slightest movement of my head would make me want to puke! Even when I had to look up to clear my mask (blow through the nose to get rid of water in the mask), I felt dizzy! So I just looked straight and downwards, as I swam. Hubby followed behind while I swam slowly. Looking behind to check on Hubby also made me feel sick!
Anyway, we spotted some lobster antennae under a rock and Hubby went at it! He wrestled with the tiny thing (it had super willpower though!) for almost 10 minutes I think, and finally tired it out. He made the mistake of taking off his gloves and ended up with painful scratches on his hands and itchy rashes on his arm and leg from the coral.
I am glad I did go down though, because that day there were plenty of beautiful fish to see, much more than the usual. When we did our safety stop at 5m (you have to hang around for a few minutes at a shallow depth to decompress or something like that), on top of a reef, the corals there were so beautiful, with many different colours. There were all types of colourful fish also swimming about.
When we surfaced, I was even more tired than the last time! I don't think I've ever been tired'er' in my life! Hubby had to once again rescue me, and I used every last ounce of energy to get back into the boat and fall asleep again!
I've learnt my lesson; the next time we decide to go diving, I'm gonna sleep like pig first!
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