I love my job, right?

Two afternoons ago I was diving on the 2pm boat with a middle aged woman and two young teenage girls. I haven't been diving alot in the last two weeks while Matt has been gone so this was about the 3rd dive in 5 days. The two teen girls didn't speak alot of English so one of the girl's mothers translated. I was expecting just another Ho-hum dive. Cold water, not alot to see, etc. The site was Pyramid so we had a very short boat ride from the marina. I had kind of forgotten about Fred(or Ted, whatever his name is) the grouper that we are trying to socialize like Bob(RIP). About two minutes into the dive he swam up next to me from behind and scared me. The girls all thought it was really cool to be able to touch a fish and Fred isn't a small grouper either. So we petted him for a few minutes and then swam along to see a turtle on it's way to the surface for some air and two reef sharks. The girls loved it! It was the first dive here at Columbus for all three and they all came up smiling. As I was kicking back to the boat I turned over on my back to check on the 3 divers as usual and I had a moment. Not a senior moment but one where I realized that I do love my job. Looking back on where I've been because of diving and dreaming and planning my future with diving makes me happy. My 9 months here at Columbus have had some ups and downs but when I think about it, it all comes down to exploring the undersea world with people that makes me happy. Sometimes you just need a littler perspective...

Mom and Dad came to visit!

So my parents came for a week here at Columbus Isle. They arrived on Saturday just after we had taken apart the dock. They got a room upgrade to a deluxe oceanview room(thanks Sylvie!) as well as a few gifts in their room, a candle from Flavia, and a nice bottle of wine from Filippo. Thanks to both of them. We enjoyed the afternoon and some drinks at the bar that evening. Sunday was my first day off while they were here so we went diving in the morning. We spent some time catching up and touring the village. That night we went to the BBQ for the night divers and they got to meet the whole scuba team. Monday and Tuesday mornings they went diving and we spent some time together around my work schedule. We toured the hyperbaric chamber with Vinny and practiced some "yoga"(see the pictures) Monday afternoon. We had a nice dinner in the theater on Monday night for white night and enjoyed the Clepoatra show. Wednesday we had a tour of the island with Capt Tony. He drove us around the island and showed us the sights with a few stops along the way to get out and walk around. We also toured Supashai's garden behind the maintanance building. Mom and I enjoyed the hammocks and laid on the beach for a while. The wind made it hard to enjoy the beach for a few days but it wasn't too bad. Thursday diving was cancelled so we spent the day relaxing around the village and played a tough game of Scuba-opoly with Amy in the afternoon. Friday was another cold morning of diving. The afternoon boat was cancelled due to lack of divers so Amy, Larissa and I started the preparations for Matt's birthday surprises. Friday night we had Dom join us at Watlings for dinner and then we went back to the village and watched the show. During the night club the scuba team with some helpers decorated Matt's office with LOTS of confetti, toilet paper, plastic wrap, inflated condoms, a pink feather boa, and our happy birthday sign. On Saturday morning I got up to see Matt's reaction to his newly decorated office and wish him a happy birthday then went to breakfast with "the rents" one last time. They finished packing, then we played on the internet and read until we had a fierce game of bocce ball before lunch. I went to the airport to wish them fairwell and met Chuck and John as they came off the plane. It was a great week and made some great memories. Thanks for coming Mom and Dad!! Miss you bunches!!

The pictures from the week... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2063057&l=06fb2&id=44801562

The pictures of Matt's birthday... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2063243&l=a6538&id=44801562

Good times with Great People!

So for the past several weeks we've had some great guests here that have really made my time here fun. I'm sorry if I forget your name but there's just so many great people that have visited.
We had...
Faye and Wayne- Congrats on your AOW certs!
"Aunt" Nancy and "Uncle" Bill- thanks for all the laughs and fun times
David- Congrats on 40 years and 5000+ dives!! and Sue Thanks for being such great shore support!
"Mom" Mei- Congrats on finally getting your Open Water!
The Liebersbach Family- Congrats to you all on your Rescue Certs!! The stories were hilarious!!
and Jim and Sue are leaving today. Congrats to you both on getting your Master Scuba Diver ratings!!
Page is coming in tomorrow, my parents arrive the 31st and last night Vinny told me Chuck and John will be here the 7th!
Also a farewell to Landon, who is headed home after 4 months here on the Rock and a big welcome to Dom arriving today!

The Adventures of Bahama Vinny

So one of my co-workers, Vinny, is from Oklahoma and he writes a blog about his adventures on his MySpace page. His most recent posting is about a dive that I was on as well. I was with my group just behind him and the Liebersbach family. He had a much more interesting experience with the sharks than I did as about the time they went into the tunnel I was already turning around and headed back to the boat. The sharks were very agitated as he wrote and it was a bit unnerving. check out his post here... http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=71682907&blogID=461724420

2009!

Well the new year has begun and we started it with a bang! On New Years Eve we planned a midnight dive to watch the fireworks from underwater and have some champagne as well. Due to concerns about rain the fireworks were sent off about 20 minutes before midnight so we were still assembling gear when the display started. The show was nice and we quickly finished assembling our gear and were underwater by 11:57. At midnight we used our underwater noise makers and popped open the champagne. Some of you may wonder how to drink champagne underwater... It's quite the project especially when the cork doesn't want to come out like it did for us. So once it's opened, the opening of the bottle is covered with ones thumb and then the bottle is shaken and the pressure shoots the champagne into ones mouth and it's enjoyed. It's best if you get the bottle early in the round to reduce the amount of salt water you ingest along with the champagne.
After the dive we had a great water fight with the hoses. A great time was had by all.
On January 1st the group of us on the morning boat saw humpbacks swimming along side the boat for about 5 minutes which was quite majestic. A great way to start the new year!!

Holy Whale!

Today on the dive boat between the two morning dives we were sitting on the bow as we're cruising along and off the port side of the boat we see something break the water. It was a very calm day with the water like glass so we were able to spot it quickly. There were two pilot whales swimming along! We slowed the boat in time to take a few pictures...

Then I was lucky enough to see possibly the same ones on the afternoon snorkeling trip. These were a bit further away from the boat so the pictures didn't come out well, but there were whales!!

My Visit to the Port St. Lucie Medcial Center

So while I was in Port St. Lucie, FL as part of a voluntary evacuation from the Bahamas I had a brief 2 day stay in the hospital. I hadn't had lunch or dinner and at about 5 pm on Sunday I went on the trapeze at the Club Med in Port St Lucie where we were staying and on the first swing I let go and fell onto the net. After about a half hour I went to the nurse to get my minor skin abrasions cleaned and while in the infirmary I blacked out and hit my head on 2 oxygen tanks and the ground and then blacked out again once horizontal on the table. So on the way to the hospital in the ambulance my heart rate dropped to 40 bpm and then 30 bpm. So I had a CT scan, 12-lead EKG, ultrasound of my heart and nothing was found to be wrong. So now I am back in the Bahamas and feeling fine. The scuba doctor has examined me and nothing appears to be wrong so I will go back to diving in a few days.
Thank you to everyone for their concern and best wishes.
For pictures from my time at Club Med Sandpiper and my visit to the hospital click on the link below...
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2054065&l=7301e&id=44801562

Update from Columbus Isle

Last night we had our storm update meeting at 6 and it was decided to cancel the evening "show" and to just do dinner and send everyone to their rooms. So by 11pm everyone was to be in their rooms and to not come out until further notice. So we had our bag breakfasts(that I helped to make- about 450 of them to be exact) delivered at 8 pm as well as flashlights and water. I spent the night with 3 other people in 2 adjoining rooms and we had a relaxing evening. There was alot of wind and some rain but no major damage to the village. I slept most of the day as there wasn't much else to do so it was an unofficial day off after my official day off. :-) I finally ventured out to see how things were around 7 and things were fine. Some palm leaves down and the like but nothing major. I took a shower and just at dinner at the main restaurant. We have another meeting momentarily to update us on the storm and what's next. It looks like 4:15 am tomorrow we will be collecting bags for the 200 or so people leaving on the flight to Paris.
So in summary all is well here and I'll post as I know more.

More on Hanna

Well, currently Hanna is a tropical storm and will pass us soon and fairly closely. As of now we are watching and will get another update in about an hour and a half. My guess is that we will be in lock down after our early dinner(6:30-9) until some time tomorrow. I will be staying in a room with a few other people to ride out the storm. We'll probably be watching movies and playing games.
I'm not sure about internet access or phone so it will probably be a day or two before I let you know how I did.
Check out some pictures of our preparations for the storm. All water sports were shut down Sunday afternoon and we have since taken apart the dock as well as taken all the tanks of the dive boats and secured them and all out other gear.
The pictures can be found at....
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2053586&l=e84c0&id=44801562

Tropical Storm Hanna

So we are watching Tropical Storm Hanna closely here at Columbus Isle as she twists through the Atlantic. The storm looks as though it won't gain enough strength to become a hurricane. It does how ever still look like it will impact our weather. There has been a noticeable increase in the wind and wave action here, but nothing that has kept us out of the water yet. We are having a meeting in about a half hour to discuss what may or may not happen depending on where the storm goes. So as of now we are still operating as normal.
Check out Wunderground.com's WunderMap of the storm and if you are curious as to where I am just type in "San Salvador, Bahamas" into the select a location address box.

The New Divers Just Keep Coming!

On Tuesday I finished certifying Christian as an Open Water Diver. His girlfriend is an Advanced Open Water Diver and encouraged him to get certified. So, he did the eLearning course and finished up with me here at Columbus Isle. Congrats Christian!

Another New Diver!!

So today I finished the certification for another PADI Open Water Scuba Diver!! Congrats to Jonathan!! We did the class in 2 1/2 days and he was awesome. We saw a black tip reef shark on his second dive and about a dozen sting rays.
Congrats again!

Fish I.D.

So last night I was asked to do the english portion of the scuba team's weekly presentation of our local fish. Gen usually does it by herself, but she saw my interest in fish ID and asked about 15 minutes before she was to do the presentation. I accepted and the presentation went well. About the usual length of time and people seemed to enjoy the added comments that I provided. Gen is about a foot shorter than I and so she stood on the stage(with heels on) and I stood next to her on the main floor(in flats) and we were the same height. We didn't get a picture, but I'm sure we'll do it again and have a picture or two taken. Check back.

Tropical Storm Fay

Well, we started to feel some effects of Tropical Storm Fay within the last few days. We have had a fair amount of rain in the past week as well as some winds and rougher seas. There are some waves crashing on the reef that I hadn't seen in my 2 1/2 months here which was the first real sign of what's to come. We had to change dive sites yesterday morning for the first dive because of the approx 6 foot waves that the capt. didn't want to tie the boat up in. The site was around the southern tip of the island and isn't protected, so we just came back around the end where there was significantly less wave action. From all the reports Fay is staying well to our west and won't have much impact. I see that the Florida Keys are preparing for Fay's arrival and in a way I'm glad I'm not working in the Keys this summer.

New pictures...

So today is my day off for the week and it has been spent sleeping, eating, and swimming with brief periods of laying on the beach. Oh, laundry and a shower in there too. I've put up some more pictures on facebook which can be found at.... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051033&l=ab021&id=44801562

Also, a group of people that are all friends recently left and we collectively called them the Reef Police. Hats with the title were distributed to the scuba staff. The original couple that started it all have a website which they just updated with pictures from their trip. I made one of them. Check them out at http://www.reefpolice.com
Thanks to the Reef Police for the great times!! See you again soon!!

Flying Gurnard Sighting!

So, one of the divers that I was leading spotted a fish that he didn't know what it was and pointed it out to me. It was the first time I had ever seen it and found out that it is a flying gurnard. The pictures below are in the wings in position and wings out position which we saw. They have a set of sort of modified pelvic fins that they appear to "walk" on. They eat crustaceans and other small invertebrates.

My First Advanced Open Water Students...

So yesterday I finished teaching my first Advanced Open Water class for a father and son from San Francisco. We had a great night dive watching an octopus on Sunday night, Monday was our deep and fish id dives during which we went to 125 ft and saw both lion and scorpion fish. Tuesday was our drift dive which was beautiful and we saw 2 turtles and then our navigation dive which was easy and quick. Congrats to my first Advanced Open Water divers!!

Week 3.5

Well it's been three and a half weeks since I've arrived here in the Bahamas and I've been having fun ever since. I've met so many neat people and made many great memories. I've learned most of the crazy signs but they keep adding in new ones every few days which throws me off. We got another new instructor, Jerome, from France who has previously worked at Turquoise.
I met a total of three other people with the same birthday and we all celebrated on the beach Sunday night. My co-workers had "Happy Birthday Megan" put up on the huge projection screen as well as about 8 renditions of "Happy Birthday" through out the day. I have one piece of chocolate cake left in the mini fridge in my room. :-)
Thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes!!

22 on the 22nd

Well, today is my 22nd birthday and I've been celebrating since last night. I've been busy working and diving without much time to spend on the internet. Donna, a G.M. that arrived here in Columbus Isle on Friday shares birthdays with me. We were sang to last night at the disco and I was sang to about 4 more times so far today. The diving is great and the people are even better. For some pictures check out my facebook album at... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2049245&l=5c4d7&id=44801562
I'll be adding more in the next few days along with some more about the past 3 weeks.
Salut!

Bonjour from Columbus Isle

Salut!
I have made it safely to my new "home" here in the Bahamas. I arrived on Saturday afternoon and have been settling in to my new job. I have gone on 4 open water dives and saw my first hammerhead shark on my first dive here!! I've been busy and the scuba team is glad to have me because they have been understaffed and my being here helps some but they still need more to keep up with the demand. (So any instructors out there, apply at clubmedjobs.com!!)
I have set up skype and if you want to talk to me some time my user id is gonediving99. If you want my mailing address just send me an email and I'll let you know.
I took a few pictures and hope to include more soon.






for more pictures check out my facebook album at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2048355&l=31eff&id=44801562