Training, running around, and making new friends... eight legged ones...

Yesterday found me coming in and being assigned to "Retail Cleaning" duties with Ria... fortunately, or maybe not so fortunately, Tom asked if i could help him with errands, and Steve asked me to clean off the anchor chain and then splice a line with a metal eye for the anchor to attach to the chain. So Tom and I ran errands in town, including going to the Moorings/Sunsail which is a sailing company that rents out boats to really rich or well endowed (or maybe just people that know how to save their pennies) and pawning off diving services and brochures to unknowing tourists. Lots of fun.... mmmmm. maybe. Anyways, after that, we picked up my roomate Claudia and then it was my turn to follow her around the store with the shopping cart while she threw food in it. In the end i ended up spending a bit of money on food myself, so it wasnt all pointless...

Then, it was back to basecamp where I was supposed to crew on the 46' while some of hte other staff were doing training... but there was no training. so i spliced line. and did a right good job of it too i might add, considering it was the first time i had to do it with the metal eye piece. And on the first try too... HAH! Take that! Then, much to my surprise, I got to go on boat training myself on the 26'! Weeeeee so much fun... tho i think the 26' needs to have 2 engines so we can go super fast and make super sharp turns and have lots and lots of speedy fun. But it was good anyways.

Today I had the morning free, so I had the opportunity to go "fun diving" Weeeeeeeeeee!! The thing about fun diving is that it is the only time you are allowed to take your camera... so take it I did... got some ok shots too, but spent too much time my first dive (Carvel Rock) looking for nudibranchs, and much to my chagrin, finding none. They are few and far between here apparently, and no one really sees much of them. They are a mystery..... ahh, one i intend to solve before i leave, muahaha. But the second dive (Ginger Steps) was much better in that i decided that if the nudi's wanted me to see them they would show me where they were, so i stopped looking so hard and had a rather enjoyable dive. I would like to do this one as a first dive and give me more bottom time as you can get pretty deep if you want to (at least for around here). where's waldo in the next one??

We drove back to the shop and dropped off the customer and two crew and Neil and I headed to Cooper to get lunch before we had to go out mapping... and guess who got to drive. Uh-huh thats right, yours truely. About 10 minutes into the drive over there, however, we got called back to the shop to pick up customers that showed up that wanted a ride out to cooper.... argh. so we had to turn back to go pick them up. but i must admit, i did a rather excellent job of parking that puppy (the boat...) at the docks when we came in. Out to Cooper we went and met up with Matko to eat. Conch fritters and fries.... mmmmmmmmm.... and a little piece of carrot cake. my kind of lunch.

Unfortunately for Neil, he got a splitting headache during lunch and so called the mapping dive. I walked along the dock as he rested with Matko looking to see if we could see anything cool and we spotted an octopus in about 3 feet of water! AH! So, of course, I grabbed my fins, mask, and snorkel and went to take pictures of this bad boy... and to catch him and play!!

To start: I must say that this octopus was very unlike those we find in Hawaii... first of all, it was in the sand. Squished down there just lying on the ground. And i could get really close and touch it and it wouldnt move, wouldnt take off, change color, nothing. Then with Matko watching from the dock, I decided to catch him. All of you O'ahu-ans that are divers know how much our Hawaiian octopus ink... well... this little guy just gave me a little squirt and that was it. No more. And he just sat contentedly in my hand and then attached himself to my rash guard. and just sat there... a very cute and very friendly little bloke. The other small little thing is that, again unlike O'ahu, octopi are not commonly seen (or caught, haha)

I was sorry to let him go, but I figured it was time so i sent him on his merry little way back into the sand and went on my merry little way and went snorkeling around the dock for a while looking for seahorses which apparently live around the mooring fields at Cooper. I didnt see any, but I managed to run into a barracuda while freediving down to take a closer look at the seagrass... evil looking guys them cudas, but what can you do...all fish cant all be pretty.