Erik and Izzy dressed up for a dive near Ilet de Pigeon
We were tired this morning, but it was hard to force yourself to stay long in bed because the vacation is nearing its end. We got up around 7 o'clock. It was a nice morning. Picked up some bread from the van. Ordered some extra Roche de Coco for tomorrow so that we can bring some home. Bumped into Jean-Jacques who struggled with the garbage that was tipped over again by the stray dogs. When he was done he mentioned that they now had problems with high seas in the northern parts of the Caribbean. There were no signs that the bad weather would spread down to us.
This morning we had to rush a little bit because we had promised that Erik would get a chance to dive in the morning. That meant we needed extra time to pick out equipment for him at the dive shop. Barry came with us in our car today as well. We left the bungalows just before 9 and were down there at 9:30. The weather was a bit mixed today, which did not matter too much for a diving day. Isabella got to dive with a new diver master: Didier. He spoke a bit of English so he handled to preparation talk with Isabella by himself. We actually got on the morning boat earlier than usual and had a bit more time to prepare our things for diving. Erik was all excited about being allowed to dive.
Erik and Izzy dressed up for a dive near Ilet de
Pigeon
This morning would be our last dive as part of the official PADI/SSI training. We got to dive with another Christophe, a smaller guy than the Christophe we used yesterday. He setup the dive such that we would lead the dive and he would shadow us. During the diving he took us through a few exercises, such as mask removal and out of air. We also worked a bit more on neutral buoyancy at depth. He hung extra weights on us, at depth, and made us adjust our BCD for it. This was a rather fun dive because we now felt a little bit more confident than before.
After the dive Lilly bumped into Thierry Carpentier from Valbonne! Had had been on the same dive boat as us. His face looked familiar to me, too, but what are the chances of meeting someone you have not seen in such a long time on the same boat? Lilly recognized his voice, though, and we got together for a small chat and a laugh on the boat. We invited them to come to dinner with us in the evening. We talked to Isabella who had had a fun time during her dive. We talked things over with Laëtitia afterwards and she started to prepare our diving forms for the certificates. The nice thing is that it appears as if we're going to get both PADI and SSI cards. We checked with her regarding Isabella and the fact that Isabella would not have completed her 5 dives. However, Isabella's dive master felt comfortable with Isabella's skills and that was all that Laëtitia needed to hear to sign off on the papers. One of the curious things about dive masters here is that they look very athletic but many of them smoke cigarettes once they get up. I guess we only notice because we're living in the US, where smoking is generally seen as something quite bad.
We ate lunch by the dive shop; Barry walked down to the beach to get some food. The weather was on and off and rain forced us up to their office area and the table they had up there instead of their table by the cliff without a roof. We had brought with us our cooler with sandwiches, etc. It was very nice. The kids worked a bit on their diaries. Isabella caught a few lizards that she later took out on the boat in a baguette bag!
For the afternoon dive Isabella would come with us in a single dive group. The boat was not as full as in the morning. Same dive master as we had in the morning. The weather was still not stable and we had on and off showers. We could see the rain clouds pouring rain onto Basse Terre. It was fun to dive with Isabella. We were asked by the dive master to keep a little bit of distance and just cruise around while he took Isabella through assorted exercises. After about 1/2 hour Isabella saw a Barracuda. We all looked in amazement. It was probably 1m (3 ft) long. But Isabella also got ear pains, perhaps by forgetting to equalize properly when she moved closer to the Barracuda. She wanted to go to the surface. The dive master tried to help her but in the end they decided to abort the dive. Here we started having some communication problems with the dive master. He signalled to us that he was going up, we thought. What he really meant was that we were all supposed to come up. I did not quite understand so I came up with the dive master and Isabella. Barry and Lilly stayed back down. The dive master then asked me to go down and get them. I thought that meant to force the others to slowly cruise along and ascend towards the boat. What he really meant was to come up to the surface immediately. He later explained that as Level 1 divers, at least here in France, we are not allowed to be down without a dive master. Oh, well. Either way, it was a good dive.
We packed up our gear and headed back a bit earlier than before. But we still did not get back to the bungalows until about 6:15. Only Susan's car was there. And she was alone, too. She said it had rained a lot during the day and she had tried to get down to Point-a-Pitre but she got stuck in 2 hour traffic behind an accident. And the same thing happened on the way back up so she decided to just hang around the bungalows and just relax.
This guy can drink with TWO straws and a closed
mouth
Tonight we had dinner planned with Jean-Jacques, Pepita and their two kids at a local restaurant he recommended: La Belle Chaudiere. It is located near the hot thermal springs, about 15 minutes north of the bungalows. All of us 14 came and so did Canadian friends of Jean-Jacques from the bungalow next door.
Jean-Jacques with his friend from Montreal
Jean-Jacques led the way with his 4x4. We hoped that Thierry Carpentier would come, but they did not. The meal was excellent, including the beverages. We tasted some old Rum too!
Thierry and Per enjoying some wine at dinner
Brigitte and Lilly at La Belle Chaudiere