unculturedswine

Finally! After a month of getting Scuba certified it was time to go diving in the ocean. My dad had made arrangements with Wall to Wall Diving to be our guides. This was another tendered port and the first tender was at 8:30. After a quick breakfast Kurt, Dad, Tyson and I jumped ship to go diving.

It was a short walk to the dive shop, but being a little behind we actually got picked up by Giles as we walked over. A simple disclaimer form later we were on our boat and headed out to “the wall”. It was finally time.

I don’t remember who jumped in first, but here’s what I do know: it didn’t go as planned for me. The initial water shock got my heart-rate up and made me short breathe (like most people do when you just jump on in). Once in the water we were instructed to go right down and start for the bottom.

While still breathing heavy I put in my regulator (the giver of air nozzle), emptied my BCD of air (like an inflatable life vest, straps to the tank, when empty allows you to sink, when full of air allows you to float), and started to descend. Only I wasn’t, at least not fast enough. I kept bobbing at the surface and each time my head went under I’d suck in a lot of air and panic. I just couldn’t calm my breathing down, and I wasn’t going under. When I was under a few feet I started to swim forward, but there was a little water in my mask that was dipping into my nostrils and therefore caused more panic breathing. I was a mess.

After blowing through 1000psi of air WAY too fast Dan, the guide who stayed on the ship just had me come out and get on the boat. Dive 1: Fail. We had some friendly chit chat, calmed down and waited.

First up was Dad, he used up his tank pretty quick but still got a solid 30-40 minutes down under. Next came Tyson and last came Kurt. They all had a blast, getting down to about 80 feet. Pretty impressive for your first dive. They talked about spotting some turtles, and how amazing it was to go to the edge of the reef to the Wall and see the ocean floor just drop straight down into darkness. That would have been pretty cool to see.

Once everyone was up and the gear strapped down we headed off to Spot 2. Our guided told us this was a shallower dive to about 40 feet, but there was a pretty cool finger of Coral Reef we could dive along. I spent the ride over debating on whether or not I’d even try and making new plans for Cozumel as diving wasn’t working out for me.

Thankfully, no one else on the boat took no for an answer, and after our needed out-of-water break for nitrogen Kurt and I geared up to go. He jumped in first, I took a more focused effort into this and prepared myself for the water shock.

I stepped in, sank down a few feet and then bobbed back up. After a minute I had my breathing calm and emptied out my BCD. I sank this time, 5 feet, 10 feet, worked on equalizing my ears and breathing normal. Go down a little further, keep breathing. I was doing it!!

After a few minutes everyone was in, I signaled okay to our under-water guide and we went on our way. Before I knew it we were about 50 feet down and just flying along, weightless. It’s an incredible feeling to just float there, in total control of going up or down, left or right. It’s amazing.

I burned through it first 1000psi pretty quick, then I began to just focus on slower breathing and small movements. I was down and I wanted to enjoy every minute of it, the less air I used the longer I could stay down. I also couldn’t wait to do it again, and I was only starting this one!

Hovering over coral, watching colorful fish and just being amazed at a whole new world is incredible. We came upon a little sea turtle just swimming along, maybe 18″ long. He headed straight at Tyson and went right between his legs, just a few feet in front of me. Amazing! The water was beautifully clear, plenty of visibility. I can’t say enough of how amazing it was.

Keeping my ears equalized and happy wasn’t too hard to do, and I worked out my own system to keep water off my nose. I got myself pretty comfortable. I tried not to think about the 50 feet of water over my head. If you think about things like that, you’ll panic yourself out of clear thinking and air quick – a bad combination. The tank had plenty of air, my regulator was flawless at giving air to me, my mask was clear with minimal water inside. I was fine, trust the equipment.

A fast 40 minutes later I was back up, working my way on the boat and out if the gear. I did it! My first real dive. It was just incredible. I’m so excited to go back under in Cozumel tomorrow.

The rest of the day was pretty easy, after a lunch at the Windjammer buffet I took a nap until dinner. Ordered some fantastic peach soup (cold) Asian fried tofu and a medium rare beef loin that was oh so pink and delicious. The food on this ship is just fantastic.

Today Calli, Tyson, Clint and Katie entered the ships Amazing Race and brought another set of Gold Medals to the family. We just own the competition here. Mua ha ha! Sadly I missed the rock climbing part of the game where Clint monkey jumped his way to the top in 28 seconds. The climbing crew had told them that the previous team did the climb in 21 seconds. After Clint finished in 28 they jaw dropped and said it was actually 5 minutes for the last team, they were just joking. One said he had to redo his personal best of 31 now. Go Clint!

After dinner I took 2nd in a family card game we played up on Deck 14. It’s just a little room with some board games in there and about 6 square tables. There is actually a bar up there and a few rooms, we were just in one. It fascinates me though that on a ship of 3000+ passengers, we can have a big game room to ourselves at 8:00 at night. It’s pretty east to escape the crowds – they’re all where the alcohol is.

What a fantastic vacation. It’s time for bed. Tomorrow finds us in Cozumel, Mexico!

Well, we finally reached our first port of call today: Labadee, Haiti. Royal Caribbean Cruises actually bought this piece of the island a few years ago to develop for themselves. A pretty darn cool boost to the local economy.

Kurt and I started off with a quick buffet breakfast before heading down to deck 1 to catch a Tender (basically a people ferry when there isn’t a dock for the ship). Our main adventure for the day was to be the Dragons Breath Zip Line later in the morning, so we basically just laid in some beach chairs and relaxed the morning away.

At 11:15 we met up with the rest of the family for a zipline. After a quick harness fitting and short zip trial run we climbed into the back of the Rovers to head up the mountain to the base station. What a view! It was gorgeous – two bays of gorgeous water, green trees and yellow beaches dotted with people, the hills of Haiti riding up from the shore, all complimented by the huge cruise ship sitting in the middle. And it is gigantic. Up until then we’d never had a clear exterior view of the thing. Seriously amazing.

Then the bad news arrived. The wind down at the landing platform and along the beach had picked up, so anyone over 200lbs wasn’t allowed to go. Despite my best HCG efforts I had gotten down (pre-cruise) to 208.5. I couldn’t go; nor could my brother Scott and family friend Dennis. We were pretty darn bummed. We did stay and watch the rest family take off. It looked like a lot of fun! I guess I won’t know – until next time .

Afterwards, those who did go said it was a pretty hard landing. You’d think the first sloped half would be your speed zone, but as they leveled off over the beach the wind pushed them faster and the final braking was pretty intense. It probably saved my camera from a tragic demise as I was set on taking it down with me.

After a lunch on the beach we laid out on the beach again until we caught a Tender back to the ship. A short nap later it was dinner time.

Dinner is incredible. Order up and stuff your face. The entrée’s aren’t huge so it’s pretty easy to have a few appetizers and desserts and things.

Okay. We’re pigs. Gluttonous pigs. And I’m loving it!

After dinner we caught the show in the theater. Tonights entertainment was the Original Drifters, a very popular quarter from the 1950′s and 60′s. It was fun and entertaining. To finish the night off I took Tyson around the ship for some night photo lessons. Be sure to check the photoblog!

I forgot to write last night, I was so exhausted and filled with (too much) food that I just went to bed around 9:30 ship time, which is 7:30 Utah time. How lame is that?

It was a Sea Day yesterday, so no stops just full diesel ahead (this isn’t a steam ship! Sheesh!) I got some great pictures of some of us doing the Flowrider and rock climbing. We also ate a lot. Shoot. What else did we do? Oh yeah! Tyson participated in the belly flop contest, he didn’t win a medal though. Kurt made sure we all had a team for the Dodgeball Tournament. That was a lot of fun.

We put together a sibling-only team of 5, calling ourselves the Wolverines (think Red Dawn). Tyson and Clint had to buddy up to another team.

The first game was pathetic. We played on a sport court, so it a short basketball sized playing field. At the start we lined up against the back wall until the game began. Calli strikes first with a pathetic lob from the wall. She obviously missed. Kurt got nicked quick and wthin a minute all of us but Calli were out. She didn’t last long. Our first game was pathetic. We didn’t get a single kill.

The in-laws and their team faired much better, claiming a victory. They too got knocked down to one player (1 on 2), at which point the loner has free roam of the field. He strategized well and in one fatal charge took out both remaining enemies to claim an awesome victory.

It was then our turn again and we did much better. Another 1 in 2 matchup this time only Scott was our sole survivor and he took us into the next round.

The in-laws went undefeated and gained entry into the finals, but we were part of a 3-way tie. To determine the other opponent we were put into a 3-way battle with one player from each team fighting it out. Once again Scott showed up and sent us into the best of 3 final.

So, he we are – family vs family, husband vs wife. It was a best of 3 setup. The in-laws took game one, we took game 2 (it might gave been vice versa), we were suddenly finding ourselves in the final game. We were all pretty tired at this point, but it was still a great match and in the end the Wolverines took out Cruise Control for the Gold Metal victory. Heck yes!!

The day slowed down after that. I was wiped out from the sun and wind (it was quite windy outside) so I ended up laying down and taking a nap until dinner. I knew it was dinnertime when I woke up cause my stomach was only 94% full of food.

After a lovely dinner of Filet of Beef and Strawberry Cheesecake I went back to my stateroom and crashed, falling asleep to Leatherheads on the TV.

This morning was our first port stop in Labadee, Haiti, but that’s in my next post!