Week 2

Day 8: Sick but Still Kicking

Woke up today still feeling under the weather, cough, fever, the works. Luckily, some of the other interns had gone to the village yesterday and brought back meds for me (bless them). Despite the fever fog, I still did one shore dive on the house reef. It was supposed to be a shark/ray/turtle survey, but it quickly turned into a nudibranch spotting bonanza. Also found some juvenile sweetlips and pufferfish, honestly, a pretty wholesome dive.

Later on, I had my shark, ray, and turtle species ID test, and I passed! Woo! One down, three to go.

In the afternoon, we had a fish measuring workshop/test, which was kind of chaotic but fun. We got two minutes of explanation, then they dropped 11 sticks of different lengths into the water, and we had to estimate their sizes… using only our bodies. Sounds weird, I know. But this is how we learn to size fish in surveys, by using things like forearm length or hand spans. The tricky part? Everything looks 33% bigger underwater thanks to light refraction.

Despite being feverish and confused, I somehow got all of them right, within the 5 cm margin. Not bad for a sick day.

Day 9, 10 & 11: First Wobbegong, DM Chaos Dives & Listening to My Body

After taking Day 9 off to rest and recover, I felt well enough to get back in the water on Day 10. It was a boat dive day, meaning two dives focused on citizen science: spotting rays, turtles, and sharks. On the boat ride, we were lucky to spot multiple pods of dolphins

The first dive was incredible, the coral was stunning, and there were so many fish. I saw my first Napoleon wrasse, plus white-tip and black-tip reef sharks.

The second dive was even more exciting. It was a “hell dive” for a divemaster trainee, which meant we had to simulate all kinds of problems, losing fins or masks, pretending we couldn’t swim, even faking ear issues. Pure chaos, but pretty fun. During the dive, I spotted my first tasseled wobbegong, and it was huge, around 2 meters long! I also tried my hand at identifying groupers, and I’m starting to get the hang of it. Another team saw bumphead parrotfish, which I haven’t seen yet here, but fingers crossed.

In the afternoon, we joined a beach cleanup and collected 27 kg of plastic from just a 100-meter stretch of coastline. It was both satisfying and sad, so much plastic in such a small area.

Unfortunately, Day 11 hit me hard again. My sinuses were totally blocked, and I had to sit out diving. Disappointing, but it felt like my body was telling me, “not yet.” Better to rest now than push too hard and regret it later.

Day 12, 13 & 14: Dogtooth Tunas, Strong Currents & Doctor’s Orders

Unfortunately, this week didn’t go exactly as planned. I only managed to dive on one of the three days, and then had to take a break, my cold got worse and I really needed a proper reset.

That one dive day though? Totally worth it. On the first dive, we were surrounded by a massive school of bigeye trevally, and I spotted two dogtooth tunas for the first time. The current, however, was no joke. It was chaotic, and I honestly started to panic a little, everything felt completely out of control.

Luckily, the second dive was calmer, and I could actually enjoy the reef again without being thrown around. 

After that, my body clearly said “nope”, so I took Days 13 and 14 completely off to rest, hydrate, and recover. Hoping that next week I’ll be back in the water and feeling more like myself again.