Day 2.

It’s bad that I’m on day two and I’m halfway through the trip, but anyway. The next morning I felt better, not too much, but I wasn’t throwing up anymore. I didn’t want to go SCUBA diving but I didn’t want to lose money when I’d paid for diving already or spend 4 days in Cairns doing nothing even less. Plus there was no way Hendrik was letting me out of this one. I ate one slice of raisin toast and took another one for lunch. Luckily we first had a classroom session during which we learned about calculating how long and how deep you’re allowed to stay under the water. The precautions have to be taken because of nitrogen build up in the body which is a bad thing because it can form air bubbles in the blood stream, which can kill you.
There are three charts that allow you to calculate how deep you can go if you have already dived that day and our instructor spent the time showing us again and again how to use them.
“Do you all understand?” No, I didn’t understand. The numbers and letters were all just gibberish, and I was feeling rather overwhelmed again and hoping I just wouldn’t get sick. Luckily, there are computers that calculate everything for divers better than any chart could, and we would be using them when diving, so I wasn’t too worried.
Then it was back to the pool, to practice the skills like filling the mask with water underwater and then emptying it by tilting the head upwards and blowing through the nose and practice going down again. I went down to the bottom of the pool very slowly, equalizing all the time, feeling as if I was squeezing air out of my ears, and I made it with hardly any pain at all. I felt much better by the afternoon and therefore, felt much better about the whole SCUBA thing altogether.

After the pool we had to take and pass a test to be able to continue being certified. It was multiple choice and most of the questions were easy except for the chart calculations. The instructor purposefully left the room during the test, because he didn’t want anyone to fail either. So I filled in the same circles Hendrik had filled in and passed the test.

Tomorrow we were supposed to head out on the boat and our instructor gave us his sales pitch about owning your own mask and how better SCUBA diving will be with your own. It was true that it is more comfortable with your own equipment and you have a better chance of it not leaking. Plus we wanted to buy snorkeling gear for our trip anyway and figured we might as well invest in something that’s quality and has a lifetime guarantee, as I was told I’ll never again have to buy a mask and snorkel even if it breaks no matter if I stomp on it on purpose.

Right away Cairns reminded me of Florida. An unnecessary amount of sprawl, two lanes for every road and brightly lit shops filled with tourist trinkets. Tourists in their khakis eat overpriced, not so great food, and fall into tourist traps. We were glad we had a five day scuba diving course ahead of us because we would not know what to do with ourselves in Cairns otherwise, but then again we wouldn’t be there for so long otherwise. I was super excited but also nervous about learning how to dive. We had to get up bright and early for the lessons so I decided to have a coffee in the morning, before going to the diving center. I thought the milk was sour because it tasted rancid, but I didn’t think too much of it since Hendrik had one too and he didn’t seem to think it was bad.

I soon forgot about the coffee as I began to sign my name over and over again on forms for the diving school. Then we were told all about the dangers of scuba and the possible injuries such as lung expansion, the bends, and suffocation. I felt quite woozy after that but decided I was just really nervous. Come lunchtime I ate my sandwich not out of hunger but because I thought I had to eat.

We started off in the pool, where we had to take a swimming test. I swam around the pool no problem but since I did not have goggles, the over chlorinated water irritated my eyes so much that I couldn’t see clearly or open them properly for the rest of the day which was really handy when I had to learn how all the equipment fits together and how to use it.

By the end of the lesson after we learned some skills in the shallow end we were finally allowed to go to the bottom of the four meter pool. Everyone disappeared under the water and I tried to do the same but my ear wouldn’t equalize no matter how hard I blew into my pinched nose. As I went deeper the pain increased and I had to go back up. I forced myself to back down and swam around a bit even though my ear was still in pain.

I was relieved when it was over and I could climb out of the water, and that’s when I felt all the weight. To add to an aluminum tank I had a weight belt around my waist too so I would sink. It was wonderful to take it off, but I was shaking, I couldn’t see, and my ear hurt. Luckily the instructor picked my equipment to dismantle as show so I didn’t have to bother putting anything away and just went to change.

I felt nauseous before I got into the van to go back to town, so I sat in the front. As we neared our destination I didn’t think I’d make it. Then the van came to a halt and the instructor began to tell us about tomorrow. I just got out closed the door and puked on the Cairn’s street. Right in front of the whole van so everyone in my class had a front row view.

I left ASAP and went straight to bed and spent the whole day sleeping as my body purged itself. I was embarrassed, miserable, and absolutely terrified of diving. I didn’t think I’d go diving again and tried to convince Hendrik to go without me.