Jon

My first (and second) Puget Sound dives today, my first dives in cold water, and my first dives in three and a half years (not counting the pool session last night to review skills). More importantly, my first dive with ironheadjane as my dive buddy.

It's definitely frustrating to be stuck again on the technical bits -- weight, buoyancy, equipment familiarity, and so on. But I'm still comfortable with most of the core skills, and the rest seem to be coming back already. Part of the challenge was new equipment -- 7 millimeter wetsuit with hood, gloves, new boots, new fins, new mask. (Same snorkel, regulator, computer, and BCD.) Part of the challenge was the cold water -- it took me a long time to warm up again, though it didn't feel too cold in the water itself, even if it was 46 degrees at the bottom and only fifty or so out of the water. Really, most of the challenge was too long out of the water.

Cindy, our very awesome dive instructor, noted that it was rather sterile out there today, due perhaps to large classes out on the beach today, and dive activities yesterday. We did see a number of fish, tons of starfish, a bunch of pretty large crabs. (And one tiny, translucent crab scuttling along the bottom that I first mistook for just a small piece of debris someone had stirred up.) Saw what I think were lingcod eggs, a starfish with egg sacs, and a beautiful sea cucumber.

Dives #29 and 30 overall, with 19 hours and 51 minutes of total bottom time. It's great to be back in the water -- I look forward to our Advanced Open Water classes in two weeks, by which time I'll have a new, warmer, wetsuit of my own, and Laura will have her own gear. I'm looking forward to the night dive, which will be only my second night dive. New lights, new dive knives, rash guards, and more, and more. Laura's serious about this: we're buying weights, wetsuits both for here and Hawaii. We're thinking about tanks -- it'll be pretty much the only gear we lack. All we'll need are air fills, and we'll be able to dive together all year long. I'm very much looking forward to that.