The real day one was the next morning when we arrived at Cod Hole. The day started at 6:50 am and then 7 am breakfast followed by dive briefing. By 8 am, we were on our first dive at the Cod Hole. The visibility there was absolutely incredible. This was the first time I saw a potato cod fish which was pretty big, about 4 feet long and that one of the small ones. It was a good first dive. It was also my dippest dive yet. We dove up to 30 meters (roughly 100 feet deep). That was one of the 5 required dives in order to get certified as an advanced diver. Deep Dive, Naturalist, Navigation, Night Dive and Peak Performance Bouyancy. It was one down and four more to go before getting certified as an advanced diver.
Our second dive was shortly after lunch. The second dive was an exciting dive because we were going to do a "Cod Feed". Basically, our trip director fed the potato cod fish small fishes under water. Again the visibility was incredible and the cod feed attracted a some big potato cod fishes that were about 5 feet long. On our second dive, we also had to do the peak performance bouyancy test. This required that we swim through a hula-hoop, under water ofcourse, couple of times without touching it. Everyone in our group did it successfully. It was a unique dive because I've never dove with so many fishes and feeding the potato cod fish was extremely exciting.
Next dive was at Pixie's Pinnacle. This dive we saw Flame File Shell which looked as if it was conducting electricity. It was one of the most fascinting things I've ever seen under water. Ofcourse the swimming along other schools of fishes was really exciting. Looking at Angel Fish, Butter Fly fish, Clown Fish, Damsel Fish, Puffer Fish, Lion Fish, and loads of other fishes that I don't know and don't recognize. It was just awesome to be able to swim along all these different types of fishes.
Our last dive of day one was a night dive at the Challenger Bay. Again, this was one of the required dives to get certified. I was nervous and excited at the same time. I was nervous because I was imagining the feeling of walking in a pitch dark room and not knowing what I'd bump into let alone doing this under water. Luckily, it wasn't bad at all. After the dive briefing, we all were given an under water, water proof, flash light. We were also given instructions on how to communicate because communicating underwater during day time is completely different than communicating night time under water. I felt a lot more at ease after the dive briefing. Gin was my dive buddy, so I felt very comfortable getting in the water. Ofcourse, she was nervous as well, but before we jumped in the water, we made sure we were very clear about the signs and signals. The thing I was worried about the most was that Gin & I use the most air under water and always come out of the water before everyone else because we run out of air. This meant that we had to be extremely careful not to run out of air because getting someone's attention during a night dive and calling for help requires more time than usual. Well, I've gotta say that Gin & I were very disappointed after the night dive because of the following reasons. One big reason was that our instructor, Troy, who was suppose to check everyone's air did not do that at all for the entire dive. He was also swimming much faster than anyone else. Because of that when I was running very low on air, I had to swim very fast and all the to the front to get his attention by grabbing his fin and telling him that I was very low on air. Since I had to swim fast and get all the in front of the group to get Troy's attention, I lost track of where Ginnie was. This freaked both of us out. Eventually we found each other. Ginnie was running very low on air as well. Our trip director Trent told us before the dive that you see some really cool things at night that you don't see during day time, but unfortunately, we didn't see anything at all. Maybe it was because of what I mentioned earlier, but Gin & I both felt that the amount of stress and worry we went through it wasn't worth that dive at all. Some other folks in other groups saw a turtle sleeping inside a cave. That might have been worth all the headache, but we didn't see the turtle. Ginnie was sure that she wasn't going to do the next night dive, which was the following night, and I wasn't sure if I was going to do it either.
At the end of the first day of diving, the trip photographer/videographer, Chriso, showed us the pictures he had taken of day one and also showed us the video he had made so far about our trip. It was really cool to see ourselves in the video even though it was only for a few seconds. After dinner we were exhaused and ready for bed. It is very tiring doing 4 dives a day. Trent used to say, "all you have to do is eat, sleep & dive." Now I know what he meant by that because you have to conserve your energy and after 4 dives all you want to do is eat and go to sleep. Anyways, it was a fun first day and diving out in the great barrier reef was just an amazing feeling.
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