...they're going to get married...but first I must SCUBA

The day was here! The sun was out, the breeze was off shore, and at 5:11pm Mandy and Charlie were going to be married.

As they spent the day getting ready the rest of us were on the beach. Jayson, Julie, Sarah Stephanie & myself decided to sign up for SCUBA lessons and a Resort Dive. SCUBA was something I had always wanted to try but my asthma was so bad when I was younger that I was afraid to try it. So I wasn't sure if I was going to actually dive and after the first 7 minutes of the training video I'm was almost 100% sure I wasn't going to dive. because for the first 7 minutes they tell you all the ways you can die or severely hurt yourself.

I made it to the end of the training video, but I was playing along with the idea of diving. Then it was time to get suited up and see the air tanks up close. The trainer was showing everyone how the air comes out of the tank, how much air you have in the tank, blah blah blah. Which would have been all good and very helpful to see, but I was more afraid because he was showing everyone one with my tank, my air! I'm an only child I don't share and I certainly don't share my air! He said I had more than enough for the dive, but really couldn't he have shown us while using one of those British people's tanks!

Jayson decided not to dive before we put on the wet suits. The rest of us got in the water to test out the equipment. I was pretty sure I was going to be out of air or suck in an entire lung full of salt water. After trying and passing our 30 second safety test, Julie and Sarah decided not to do the full dive. That left Stephanie and I. Stephanie really wanted to go, so I decided to not let her down and I agreed to dive with only 1/2 a tank of air.

I'm so glad I did the SCUBA dive, it was only $17, $10 for the suit and $7 for the entrance into the underwater nature reserve. We went down to about 40ft and saw a number of fish sponges and sea cucumbers. I was hoping to see sea turtles, but no luck. We were down for about 20 minutes which was good because I was sure I only have 2o minutes of air total. (It sounds like I'm being over dramatic about this lack of air fear, but I swear after every 4 breaths I was checking the O2 meter on my tank.) Speaking of fears, my other fear from when I was a kid, is to be hit by a boat motor. So while SCUBA diving, we were down about 20 some feet, when a boat docked at the pier started their engine and drove over the top of us. I kept telling myself that the prop was only in the water a foot or two, but still, it's crazy to watch a boat drive over the top of you.

All in all the dive was cool. I wish Jayson would have done it, but I didn't want to pressure him. He said maybe next time he'll try the dive thing again. I was thinking the next time we do a big cruise ship, we'll have to get the certification.