La plongée, la première

4.8

Highlight of the day: Tuna (but not on toast)

My whole body is tense and my heart is beating excitedly in my chest.

'three - two - one - GO!'

A jolt runs through the inflatable boat as we fall backwards.

The cold water surrounds me, reflexively I catch my breath and close my eyes briefly. At the same time, I kick my fins to move away from the boat, the current is moderately strong but the suction still pulls on me. I quickly break through the surface of the water again, the sun blinds me but the boat stands out clearly as a shadow in front of it. I make an OK sign to the skipper, everything is fine, I'm ok. The whole thing takes less than a second and my heart is still beating faster than usual, this is it, the tiny little surge of adrenaline before the unknown.

I look around for the others, a quick glance, a sign of the hand, and we start descending directly to avoid drifting away from the current.

I slowly let myself sink, my eyes adjust to the greenish light and I command myself to breathe slowly and controlled. In - out, in - out. Two breaths, that's all my body needs to fall back into the diving routine. A look at my dive computer tells me that I am descending slowly and evenly. Another look at the pressure gauge to check the pressure in the tank, 210 bar and the needle is stable. I listen to my heart. Du-dum .... du-dum .... du-dum .... it beats slowly and evenly again. Very good, I am completely relaxed again and put myself in a properly straight-horizontal diving position.

Only now do I look around for the others. In these first few seconds everyone is busy with themselves, but now we exchange glances and hand signals again. Everyone is ok and we're heading towards the rock where a distinctive underwater relief spreads out. I allow myself to drift to the end of the group where my buddy Tina is already floating. We spot Corne, our third companion, and wave him over to us. We wave to each other again, exchange hand signals, and smile at each other. (more with our eyes than with our mouths, thanks to the regulator, but that's much nicer anyway.)

Then I look to the right into the distance where the light quickly fades and makes way for a deep blue to black. Who knows what will show itself to me from there today. But now there doesn't seem to be anything going on out there, or nothing seems to want to swim into my field of vision. Maybe later, and I turn to the rock to my left where our presence has long been noticed. All kinds of small and medium-sized fish are frolicking here. Some hide between stones and sponges, while others do not bother us and continue to happily go about their daily worries and troubles.

I am fascinated by a fireworm that is about 10 cm long. A hairy millipede-like creature with bright red-brown back and yellow-orange stripes on the sides, it struggles quickly against the current along the rock. Somehow it looks a little alien-like but still beautiful to look at. As always underwater, the rule applies here too: do not touch. Fireworms are venomous. Their bristles burn painfully and can cause severe allergic reactions. While I watch the worm, I notice a small octopus that is trying very hard to look like a piece of the rock. When he realizes that he has not succeeded in deceiving me, he squeezes himself into the narrow crevice until only a tiny piece of his head is sticking out and looks at me with golden-glistening eyes. Octopuses are incredibly intelligent, beautiful animals, and it's always incredibly fun to watch them. So I signal to the others and we watch him for a while. However, he seems firmly determined not to leave his hiding place, so we leave him alone in his little crack.

We continue diving into an underwater canyon. I generally love diving in canyons because it's a very special feeling when the walls tower up on your left and right and you dive slowly and carefully through them. But this one is particularly beautiful. The walls are covered with small, soft bright yellow sunflower corals and cream-colored hard corals stand here and there on the wall. These cream-white cold-water corals only exist here, at exactly this spot in the whole world. Right now, at this very second, a piece of it is in the laboratory for genetic analysis. It is suspected that it is a mutation that happened to drift by here by chance, found perfect conditions and has been growing and thriving here since then.

Then the canyon ends and the open ocean opens up in front of us again. We turn to the right to round a rocky point that towers above us like a tower. I am the second to last and glance back to see if Tina is still there when I see her.

Tuna! Huge ones shoot past us like torpedoes back into the blue. I have never seen ones this big, not even in Australia. They must have been 1 meter long for sure! Amazing! I don't know enough about tuna to determine the exact species in the tiny second I see them, but with their silvery shiny bodies and spiky fins, they are unmistakably tuna! Wow! These beautiful and fascinating fish are incredibly fast swimmers and good hunters, but they are fished to extinction by humans and their infinite greed. (By the way, tuna, like any predator fish, contains a lot of mercury and is therefore anything but healthy). Meeting them in the sea is rare and very special because of the heavily overfished stocks. So I am just incredibly excited and thrilled.

Tina notices my excitement and makes a questioning gesture.

'Tuna, over there in the blue! Sooooo big!' I show with gestures, do a little underwater dance of joy, and roll around my own axis. Yuppie! So cool!

We continue diving and catch up with our group with three fin kicks, which has moved away a bit in the meantime. This wall is also covered with life and I find countless nudibranchs. These are sea slugs of the family Nudibranchia. I love these sea slugs, which come in the craziest colors. Here I discover four different species. Large black ones with bright yellow spots, small white ones with neon pink stripes, small yellow ones with white stripes, and small black ones with white-green stripes. Apparently it's mating season because I also find some egg masses, which are also very beautiful in nudibranchs. They lay their eggs in long strings, which they stick to rocks and similar in a rosette shape. Very, very pretty.

Then the dive is already over and we ascend to 5 meters for the safety stop, where I once again practice blowing rings. Unfortunately, mine are still very misshaped, but I will have time to practice again now. :)

Back on the boat, we exchange our impressions and chat excitedly with each other while stowing away the equipment.

'Did you see the tunas?'

'Yes, wow, they were soooo big!'

'Really! And so fast! Whoosh, and they were gone!'

'That was cool!'

'Wow, and the corals were beautiful!'

'What are those brightly yellow ones called?'

'Sunflowers.'

'Such a fitting name!'

And off we go again in a flash back to the shore. The wind is whipping around our ears and makes conversations impossible, so I start observing the sea again. Who knows, maybe a few dolphins will show up?

But no, and 20 minutes later we're back at the dive center and wash the equipment. The first dive wasn't that exciting, but the second one was really amazing, and I'm already looking forward to the next time. But now it's time for a deco beer and something to eat. So Tina, Corne (my dive buddies), and I decide to sit in a café on the promenade after Corne suggests taking me to my Airbnb afterwards, as my last bus leaves at 4:30 p.m., in 20 minutes.

Tina is my age, a dental technician from Germany, and a divemaster like me. I estimate Corne to be about the same age as my parents, he is a chemistry professor at the university in the Netherlands and has already been diving for several years. So we spend a nice evening with plenty of beer, food, and diving-related discussions.

Since we get along well and all three of us are traveling alone, we agree to go on an island tour together tomorrow.

Back at the accommodation, I set an alarm clock and then fall asleep, satisfied but absolutely exhausted from the day. It was a super nice day, and tomorrow promises to be another one.

(small explanatory excursion:

If you don't have special training for solo diving, you never dive alone but always in a buddy team. Buddies watch out for each other and help each other while diving. This increases safety while diving, and usually also the fun factor. If you are traveling alone, you are assigned one, or if it doesn't work out otherwise, sometimes two, of the other guests at the dive center.)