Something Special, our first dive yesterday morning. I looked at my gauge console and saw that I had 1350 PSI remaining in my tank. We were at 45 feet, thirty-one minutes into the dive. Perfect.
A nice easy turn, an accent to twenty-five feet, and a smooth ride on the current would get us back to the takeout location almost perfectly. Worked every time.
For the last sixteen trips to Bonaire, this has been pretty much our “standard" dive profile. I knew if I had 1350 PSI remaining, that Leslie would have somewhere between 1300 and 1400. Always.
I hung motionless in the water looking Leslie’s direction. Her head swiveled my way during her regular, systematic scan. Although it may look as though we are practicing the “same ocean, same day" buddy system, we are thoroughly conscience of each other’s location, distance, and state at all times.
When our eyes met, I tapped my gauge console, signaling that I wanted to know her air situation. She looked at her console, then flashed me her index finger, followed by nine fingers, then a fist, fist.
All I could do was shake my head. “1900 PSI," I thought to myself. As I had done on all the dives this week, I looked at my console a second time in the hopes that I had botched the reading.
Nope. I had read it right. Once more -- for about the thirteenth time in a row -- I had been “served."
This had been going on all week. She was killing me on air consumption. My air “performance" on this trip has been predictable and very typical, but for some reason, she has shown marked improvement. Not just on this dive, but for the whole week.
And it’s not because of hot fills. Believe me, starting on Monday, that was the first thing I checked. All of our tanks have been filled extremely close to the same PSI.
One explanation could be the bike riding we’ve been doing. We started biking this spring, doing rides of 25-30 miles on Saturday and Sundays, and anywhere from 11-15 miles a couple of times during the week after work.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m ecstatic for her. She says she feels great and is enjoying the dives more than she ever has. I hope she continues to improve, but am afraid that if she gets any more fit, she may start looking for a new dive partner...
Remember the old cartoon “A Year Without A Santa Clause?" The guy that controlled the temperature for the south was called Heat Miser. He had hair made out of flames that stuck straight up, making him look kind of crazy and demented. Well, sometimes -- and I mean only sometimes -- Leslie’s hair looks like that in the morning. On those instances, I sometimes call her Heat Miser.
With her new found expert use of air, for the rest of this trip, I’m proud to say she will be known as “Air Miser."
Dives for the last two days have been Something Special, WannaDive, Tori’s Reef, Pink Beach, and Windsock. We have seen squid, spotted eagle rays, turtles, and some tarpon. A slight current on one dive, but overall, very calm waters. Temperature and clarity are still about the same.
This morning we had the opportunity to go on a dive with Scott and Patti Chandler. They are associated somehow with the REEF organization and were holding seminars and fish identification clinics the last two weeks at Sanddollar/BDA. Since Leslie has their interactive fish ID software, we thought it would be interesting to do a guided dive with them. Plus, Nadine teaches Marine Biology at Wheaton College outside of Chicago. With the Chandlers, Nadine, and Leslie all in the water at the same time, I’m surprised Bari Reef didn’t boil over with pure aquatic knowledge.
Surprisingly, I learned a few things on the dive. Not that there isn’t a ton of stuff I need to learn, but I’ve never been much of a fish identification type of guy. I know the big stuff, but when it comes to most creatures of the ocean, I’m pretty much just a “yeah, that’s a pretty red one" or “wow, that one sure is fast" type of observer. But with all these “educators” around me, something was bound to sink in. I’m glad it did. It was a great dive and a wonderful opportunity.
Since Doug and Nadine had never been to Richards, we decided to go there last night for dinner. Again, they both had some kind of fish, while Les and I had steaks. Everything was great and the service was actually pretty good, probably a mark or two above island standard.
Richard was his typical self, spinning yarns of all kinds and having a quick comeback for anything said. When Ruth’s husband, Jan, showed up for a quick bite and to have some laughs with us, the Polars flowed almost as fast as the one-liners.
We closed the place up and I could tell this morning that I had exceeded the allowable bottom time for Bright consumption. That’s why Les and I ordered a pizza from Pasa Bon and stayed in this evening. I needed the “surface interval.”
There was a short fireworks display at the SandDollar dock tonight. Not sure why, but it was nice. Maybe they knew it was Smack’s birthday and wanted to celebrate.
Happy Birthday, John.
And if Boat Chick, aka Cynde Lee, aka “Bonaire KFC employee" is reading this, be sure to watch for some upcoming pictures.
Just because every dive for the rest of this trip may see me getting served by the Air Miser, doesn’t mean I don’t know how to do some serving myself.
Dive on Friends.
Dave & Leslie.
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By Dave Goodwin * (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #660) on Thursday, August 12, 2010 - 10:43 pm: 
