Muse back!
November 18, 2006 / Saturday
Long Queasy Day
What a day. Woke up at 4:45 AM and headed for Monterey. Wasn't too hungry on the way there, but ate a TJ's vegan "cinnamon roll" once we reached the parking lot to get some food in me. My stomach felt kind of icky, but good enough to go into the water.
Dive 1 (1 of 4) - We did a tabletop entry, cruised around underwater, and crawled back onto the beach. The water temperature was much more bearable than I had expected. A few notes...
The ocean - This was my first time in the ocean past my knees since I was 4 years old. Salt water in my mouth, gross! Salt water in my stomach, even worse.
Tabletop entry - So tiring! I burned through 500 psi of air getting out past the surf. Glad that was a one-time skill.
Cruising around underwater - It took me a while to establish decent buoyancy and stay off the bottom (I'm told I was slightly overweighted today). Saw lots of starfish, some sea anemone, played with a crab, and caught the tail end of a harbor seal orgy.
Crawling back to shore - Even more tiring than the tabletop entry. Gravity so strong! Gear so heavy! I think one of the instructors was lifting my tank as he encouraged me to continue. Fortunately, this was also a one-time skill.
After dive one, my stomach felt downright crappy. I drank some water and ate a banana to keep myself hydrated and fed. I felt a little better after the banana, and suited up to go back into the water.
Dive 2 (2 of 4) - We got to enter and exit like normal people, took turns tired diver towing out to the buoy, did a bunch of skills at the bottom, and then cruised around looking for sea life. Our dive ended a little earlier than planned 'cause I needed to barf. More on that later.
Entering and exiting like normal people - Love it. Much less painful, and a much better use of air.
Skills - Actually managed a fin pivot keeping my fins on the bottom. Huzzah! Partially and then fully flooded and cleared my mask with no problem. All right! Chucked my regulator, picked it up again, and purged it. No problem there either. Did the alternate air source emergency ascent a couple times. Then we were off to explore again.
Exploring - I saw some really cute mini anemone on a big rock. Then my queasiness caught up with me. I swam up to the instructor, caught his attention, signalled that I wasn't okay, and that I wanted to surface. We surfaced, I established buoyancy, took my regulator out of my mouth, and barfed banana everywhere. Blech!
We got out of the water before noon, but I was queasy until well into the evening. I'm not sure what the cause was. Maybe my stomach wasn't happy about waking up so early, maybe I shouldn't have had a large cup of coffee on an empty stomach, maybe the bit of salt water I swallowed made it worse, or maybe I simply get seasick underwater.
In any case, I hope I feel better tomorrow.
November 18, 2006 05:17 PM | Water