3 Dives+2 Tasty Meals +1 Beer= Great Sleep!
Two full days of great diving, great food, great people & I'm plum tuckered out...
Our first and second days of diving have been nothing short of awesome. In fact, I had all intentions of blogging about it yesterday but after three dives, two huge meals and one beer, I was ready to call it a night...
Yesterday, Father's Day, was jam packed. For me, the first day of diving turns out to be a day to refamiliarize myself with all of my equipment, the area, my bouyancy, etc. By dive number three it was as if I had been in the water all year. We have four boats assigned exclusively to the Dive Pirates, my dad and I are on Little Sister. Little Sister has about 15 divers and two dive masters assigned to her; four of which are adaptive divers- Alex, a leg amputee, Albert, an arm amputee as well as Jake and Stan who are both parapalegics. So, if you haven't yet figured it out, adaptive divers live with a disability, whether it be an amputated limb, a parapalegic, a quadrapalegic, etc. And just to clarify, the Dive Pirates is a non-profit organization founded to expose and teach people with disabilities to scuba dive. Every year the Dive Pirates teach a number of persons with disabilities along with their buddies to scuba dive, provides each of them with the required dive gear and takes them on a once in a lifetime all expense paid trip to Cayman Brac; which rounds out to about $4000/per person. This year, 25 adaptive divers and buddies were sponsored by Dive Pirates.
The dives both yesterday and today we great. The first dive started of with a little bit of trouble. I went to turn my dads dive computer on and it was a no go. BJ, our boat's dive master, figured it was just a dead battery (which should not have happened because all of our equipment was serviced specifically for this trip. The dive shop that completely dropped the ball shall remain nameless... for now. Anyway, Stacy (The Little Sister Team Leader) and some others got it all squared away for us. THANKS STACY M.! So... we got to see lots of pretty coral, sea slugs, sea turtles (my favorite), huge huge lobsters & crabs (yummy), sting & eagle rays, and of course a million types of fish (most of which I have no idea what I'm looking at, I just like pretty colors and fun shapes).
*Main page photo by Carolyn VandeWiele
Cheryl posted at 11:07 pm on June 22nd, 2009
I’ve got to say that I’m disappointed that you all didn’t band together and bring up the lobster and crab for a boiling party! Stan and I would have gladly supplied the drawn truffle butter and scallions! Seriously, though…we’re having a blast, and already making plans to come back next year! You and your dad are a big part of why we’re in a great mood when we step on the boat every morning. Here’s to three more days of fantastic and save dives, a Friday full of snorkeling, and a Saturday @ the Turtle Farm!!
Nettie posted at 11:07 pm on July 13th, 2009
Bob and I were assigned to “Ocean Sister” with Capt Cary and 1st mate, Robert. What a great team. We had 3 wheelchairs on out team: quadrapalegics Traci & Juana and parapalegic, Domonic. These 3 were all smiles all the time. Dom & his dive instuctor, Rodney, were our buddies for the week. Dom was excellent in the water (and on the boat!). It’s always amazing to see how well the adaptive people do in the water. Dom can swim faster than I can,,, with his hands ! They’re safe in the water and have such enthusiasm about all the sea life to explore. Hope to have the chance to be with the same members again, perhaps on an alumni trip? Great job PIRATES ! ! AND,,,,, Rodney & Joe did blast the beejesus out of Little Sister with the mighty pistols and the help of some well placed water ballons. TAKE THAT YOU SCURVEY DOGS ! !