7-5 Koh Tao - Day 3

Today was a bit of a repeat of yesterday. I didn't have class until 9:30am so I rode a short distance to Coffee Corner, as nice cafe with huge breakfasts and good coffee. They had a large flat-screen TV with CNBC market news on. It's a strange feeling to go a month without TV and any real news from home. It was a big reminder of how disconnected I was from everything. It's a great feeling, for now at least. Our two dives today were at Japanese Gardens again. G and Conner (the other instructor) kept me busy doing all sorts of drills. Trying to rescue someone while diving is much more difficult because of the risks you may expose yourself to. Decompression illness (the bends) and drowning are real possibilities for everyon. Dealing with panicked divers can be very difficult both under water and on the surface. The most difficult drill was rescuing an unconscious diver on the bottom. As I swam around boulder in 12m of water, there was Connor, face-down in the sand pretending to be unconscious. There are 10 different things you have to manage all at once in order to safely get the victim and yourself to the surface. Once there, I had to simulate rescue breathing every 5 seconds while simultaneously taking the victim's gear and my own off. Carrying and unconscious 180lb guy up a ladder on your own is tricky and not easy!

The search and rescue portion of the course was pretty fun. Using a compass, Connor and I swam in an expanding square grid from a central point, all the while with G tracking us overhead. You estimate your distance covered by how many kicks you make and also currents and landmarks. Connor worked on tracking our distance as I kept us on course. After 15min, we finally found what we were looking for: A sunken dive boat in 25m of water. It was just like the dive boat we were using that day. It had broke loose from it's mooring during a storm 6 weeks ago and damaged on the reef. It was towed into the channel and here it rests as a wreck dive. It was strange and fun to swim through and around it. By the end of the day, I was a certified Rescue Diver. It's actually a big responsibility now. If something happens during a dive, I am first or second in charge. It has motivated me to be much more aware and focused on planning the dive and dealing with problems before they become emergencies.

For dinner I walked a short ways to a Spanish fusion restaurant called Papa's Tapas. It was rated highly on wikitravel, whick is becoming my favorite source for local info. The chef here is Michelin rated and the atmosphere was very classy and beautiful. I had tapas of spinach risotto, prawn bisque, and a white sagria to top it off. Everything was fantastic! If it didn't cost a small fortune, I would have eaten there every meal! The dive boat was to depart at 6:45am, so I made it another early night.

No pictures as of yet due to a virus causing trouble on my memory card.