Diving is a good second when there is no surf to be found!
It is hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that we are leaving the South Pacific - Australia is considered to be the Coral Sea - at least the East coast where we are going. It is a great consolation that we intend to stop at Chesterfield reef, an atoll about 500 miles from here that is supposed to be a paradisical stop-over with great diving, snorkeling and other cool wildlife activities. It also breaks the trip up into 2 four day passages rather than one 7-8 day passage. I like this. However, this is weather permitting, so we will see how things go.
Aside from bingeing on junk food and internet, Mark and I did one last dive yesterday. Actually, he is doing his last dive today, but our dive to see "The Lady" - a restored relief of a lady riding a horse - at a depth of 135 feet inside the Coolidge was enough for me.
In fact, that dive was pretty freaky. I know you are now sick of hearing about dive adventures, so this one will be brief. We descended to the deck of the ship at about 80 feet, and after getting the OK signal from all four of us, our dive leader descended into a pitch black square cut out of the hull of the ship. It is counter-intuitive to go down into a dark whole in a wreck 80 feet under the water, but I paid $50 for the dive and was not about to chicken out, so I followed.
We followed our guide down the black tunnel, dodging overhanging beams while looking down into the infinite darkness below, also being careful not to kick the walls or beams so as not to cloud the visibility. We descended another 50 feet inside the ship, making our way down to "The Lady". By the time were at 120 feet I was breathing as if I were running a marathon, really trying to slow my breathing but finding it hard not to suck the whole tank in one breath. In reality I had lots of air, but my adrenaline was pumping and I was pretty narked.
Being "narked" is a kind of high you can get from going down super deep, although depending on the person they can get narked at 40 feet or whatever. It is kind of fun, a trippy feeling like, whoah duuude, although some people make irrational choices when they are too narked, making it a bit dangerous. See the PADI dive manual for further explanations (it is a real thing!).
Anyway, we made it down to 135 feet to see the lady, and sure enough she was there riding her white horse. Our dive guide had told us on the surface that it is good luck to "kiss the horse's ass" (literally). Of course the last thing I wanted to do at that depth was take my regulator out of my mouth (a big PADI no-no), but I could use all the luck I can get, so I managed to give the ass a quick peck.
We had about 3 minutes down at 135 feet before we had to start ascending, which I was happy to do. On the way up our guide took us through a few more rooms on the ship, showing us old medical supplies and other random stuff. It was a super cool and technical dive - being that deep and in an enclosed area - but I didn't feel the need to do it again. And while I feel like I am pretty bad ass, in reality the dives get way deeper and gnarlier the farther you go in the ship. I'll leave that to the experts. After all, I only have my open water certification.
Enough about diving. Today is our last day in Luganville, our last day in Vanuatu and our last day in the South Pacific isles... at least for a while (I am not sure if Chesterfield is considered s.pac or not). I can't help but reflect and reminisce about the amazing experiences I've had out here but will refrain from rambling about them today. Perhaps I'll save that for entertainment while we are on passage, assuming we have smooth seas.
Gud bey Vanuatu! Mi likem yu tumas!
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