Today, I celebrated my 100th dive and the 3rd week of my divemaster training. Yeepee! Waking up at 5am to go to a dawn dive! That’s when you know you are really a diver. It was well worth it. The sunrise was bathing the sky in a soft pink color while the remnant of last night’s full moon was fading over the palm tree tops.mean, seriously, what more can you ask for your 100th dive? (apart for a shark and an eagle ray)

In fact, the whole last 24 hours here have been so serendipitously satisfying:

• I carried TWO (2) scuba tanks at the same time! Victory…finally! OK, it did require a break every 3 steps, but we are getting there…
• I assisted on a double AOW course…and was actually helpful. It becomes easier and more natural to assist courses and accompany students
• The score is 3 in my favor for playing tricks on instructor Markus, although he really did play a good one on me when he used the opportunity of a cute turtle to rip my mask off….
• I convinced a guest to do 2 additional fun dives, including the landmark 100th dive at dawn today and a night dive yesterday that…drumroll…I led on my own, despite my original discomfort with night dives before starting the DMT.
• Last night, before jumping into the water, we saw the most amazing moon rise, with an intense orange color. Did I mention it was also full moon?

The night dive was a difficult one. First it was a wall, not a sandy slope, so when you look down and over your shoulder, you are looking at dark nothingness. There was a ton of current, it felt being on a conveyor belt, except you are trying to avoid being thrown into fire coral that sting really bad but that you can’t see very well in the dark… It ended being a great dive where we spotted tons of different crabs, including a huge sponge crab trying to hide behind a piece of sponge coral a quarter of its size. This was definitely a win for team DMT Tram.

However, today was bittersweet, as it was also my last day in Bunaken before transferring Lembongan for my last week of divemaster training. It was a bit of a heartache to say goodbye after 16 days of forming meaningful connections.

Allergy eyes were threatening as the speedboat pulled away… but some comic relief was provided when I screeched “wait, turn around, I forgot my shoes”… that’s what happens when you’ve been roaming around barefoot for 16 days…

Tram
IG @tchoo_tchoo
#100daysproject