0.003 Leagues Under the Sea

Now that classes are over I (Jade) can finally sit down and write a blog post. This will also officially be my first ever blog post.

This weekend I successfully completed the PADI Open Water SCUBA certification course. I can now freely dive to a depth of 130ft or 40m (for my international friends). I learned all about the effects of crazy amounts of pressure and nitrogen on the human body and how to cope with these effects whilst under the water. I am feeling pretty accomplished right now... some of the skills I had to learn and demonstrate were: to prove I’m physically fit enough (no easy task) by swimming  ¼ of a mile (a long way for me) and treading water for 10 minutes, taking off my mask under water and putting it back on, swimming with my mask off, and simulating out of air emergency situations. I feel a bit like the opposite of an astronaut. While astronauts and divers both have specialized equipment designed to allow a human to survive, astronauts work in a zero pressure environment while divers work in high pressure setting. I feel like I should be able to put extra letters or something after my name now. Jade F. King, Diver, BS. How does that sound? I feel like my undergraduate degree is constantly calling any other achievements into question, but such is life.

By now you are reading this hoping that I’m not just going to talk about going diving and all the cool things that I saw and that there will be pictures associated with this post. Patience, there will be pictures.

Getting certified for open water is a three day event consisting of five pool dives, emphasizing skills that I will have to master in the ocean, and four ocean dives where I will demonstrate those skills in a real setting. For each ocean dive we took about ten minutes to do skills and about forty minutes exploring the reef. Grenada has an extensive and beautiful reef that took some major damage during hurricane Ivan in 2004. After the hurricane, a very beautiful and unique area of the reef close to shore was destroyed in the area known as Dragon Bay. In order to not lose a good snorkel and dive spot and to encourage regrowth of the reef, a group of artists designed the first underwater sculpture park in the world. The sculptures found within the park are porous and are designed to encourage the coral to grow on them. So, all in all, pretty neat stuff.

Now on to the dives! For the first dive we went to Flamingo Bay and went to a depth of 40ft/12m. While down we saw lots of amazing fish and swam with a green sea turtle for a little while. We saw several scorpionfish, an eel, a peacock flounder, pufferfish, Spanish mackerel, and parrotfish.  On my second dive I saw a barracuda approximately 2-3 feet long and got to see the wrecked ship, Bassel. For the third dive we went to the underwater sculpture park and went to my maximum depth of 60ft.  The fourth dive was just off the coast not too far from where the cruise ships dock in St. George's. There was a nice reef there and the highlight was the largest red snapper that my instructor had ever seen. He estimated it to weigh between 150-200 lbs or up to around 90kgs for those more comfortable with metric. You know who you are...

Now on to the photos!  Many of the photos from the underwater sculpture park are rather ominous and eerie looking. 

                           Like I said, ominous....

This is "Christ of the Deep" and was created to for the 50th anniversary of  the wreck Bianca C

    You know, just a huge caribbean lobster...

This little guy had so much character. Funny little fish.

This one is called "Un-still Life" There was a tube fan in the bowl.

If you look hard you can see the sculpture of people holding hands. "Vicissitudes" Did I say ominous?

Another view of "Vicissitudes"

You know...just hanging out on a park bench

A man working busily at his desk

Just a nice shot of the reef

One of the many eels I saw

Lambie or Conch still in the shell. It was so hard to spot from above.

One of the most beautiful fish I have seen.

Well this concludes our journey through the seas, please remember to hold all hand rails as you exit the vehicle. Please, no pushing or shoving as you leave. If you enjoyed your trip you may tip the captain. 

10 Things I've Learned Whilst in Grenada

In honor of our first term living on the island coming to an end, I’ve compiled a list of some of my observances.  Not to be confused with a top ten list, this is a list of ten things I have learned while residing in Grenada.  In no particular order, here they are:

10.  Never assume something is safe to eat just because it resembles something edible that is familiar to you.  Never.  Read here if you want a more detailed explanation. 

9.  Sunscreen and water are your best friends.

Proper usage is also required.

 

8.  Car honking is the other official language of Grenada.  People honk to say hello, they honk when you’re driving too slow, they honk to warn pedestrians, they honk when another driver has done something stupid, they honk when driving around a blind corner, they honk at other vehicles if they want to stop and talk…

7.  Keep as many food items in the refrigerator as possible or the ants WILL find it. 

6.  You can’t predict the weather (unless of course you hang laundry on the line; you will absolutely guarantee rain at that point). 

5.  Lime is both a noun and a verb.  We all know what a lime is, but to lime is to relax, take it easy and do not much of anything.  Liming is best done on a beach with a drink in your hand.

4.  The mosquitoes have special ninja skills.  Case in point.

3.  The drinks are more potent in Grenada.

2.  There exist more varieties of bananas than I would have ever imagined.

1.  Given enough free time it is entirely possible to perfectly memorize the intro song of The Big Bang Theory.