Sunday, August 20, 2006
well i know i haven't written anything about borneo yet. i'm still getting my head around it. crappy pictures and stupid stories soon. i promise.
it was a bit of a shock this weekend though. i wanted to get out of working on the boat this weekend as my soccer team had made it through to the semi finals. but typically, things didn't work out quite as expected.
the powers that be decided that our game (4th against 3rd) should be played on a sunday. we had seven players out due to work committments, injury and travel. i should do this last as i found out about it last, but i'll do it first. pretend i'm that tarantino dude, jumping around from scene to scene.
on my way home i saw a couple of cars outside the pub, belonging to a couple of players from my team. so i dropped in to see how we'd gone. one of our guys, who is also in the navy, had returned from 10 weeks at sea and a few weeks in united-states-of-american ports, had just returned for his first game in ages. this guy is very fit, he's faster than me (which isn't particularly hard) and can run all day. he told us about his trip, playing navy war games, and the result of the game, we lost 3-0. but it wasn't a negative thing i thought. despite having so many players out they played hard and defended well. a couple of our guys (who talk themselves up) didn't react well to losing, but you always have a few people who just don't get it. anyway, it sounded to me like the guys really dug in, played hard, and shit happened. i won't be there next week (working again) but they will and the following week we'll be there cheering for our favourite other team.
anyway, back to the fun stuff.friday night one of our favourite groups got on board. we stayed up late, had a few relaxing ales, and then turned in early (about 2am) for a big day saturday.
saturday came and it was grand. one of the reasons i had to be on and couldn't get out of it, was because we had a new deckie who needed to be trained. but as we didn't have that many customers, i was able to take advantage of having another deckie, and get a few extra dives. i managed an unprecendented 3 dives this weekend. the first dive i managed was at the local seal colony. kinda reminded me of the last time i went diving in the tropics. when we came back from diving in 28 degree waters, we went to narooma to dive with the seals in 13 degree waters. this time was the same. diving in 28-30 degree waters, hell, when we hit a 24 degree thermocline we felt quite cold. so i come home and a week or so later i'm in the water with the seals, in 14 degree waters.
fortunately the seals were even cooler than the ones at narooma. there were a few other boats anchored, so as the boat motored past we jumped in and swam over. the easiest way to swim on the surface is backwards, i nearly ran over someone from another boat though, so i gave up and went down.
not much action for a while, lots of life though. the fishies were a little skittish though. must be the seals hehehe
then the seals started coming in. twisting, turning, buzzing around. then they'd disappear and reappear. next thing there was a big group of them on the surface above us. one would come down and buzz from diver to diver, bubble trail to bubble trail, then off in the distance, then back again. then a couple came through biting and fighting each other. i think they were jealous of the others getting all the bubbles. one of the customers said one was sitting behind me for ages but he couldn't get a photo.
eventually i was getting cold and went up. a wonderful start to the day
it was a bit of a shock this weekend though. i wanted to get out of working on the boat this weekend as my soccer team had made it through to the semi finals. but typically, things didn't work out quite as expected.
the powers that be decided that our game (4th against 3rd) should be played on a sunday. we had seven players out due to work committments, injury and travel. i should do this last as i found out about it last, but i'll do it first. pretend i'm that tarantino dude, jumping around from scene to scene.
on my way home i saw a couple of cars outside the pub, belonging to a couple of players from my team. so i dropped in to see how we'd gone. one of our guys, who is also in the navy, had returned from 10 weeks at sea and a few weeks in united-states-of-american ports, had just returned for his first game in ages. this guy is very fit, he's faster than me (which isn't particularly hard) and can run all day. he told us about his trip, playing navy war games, and the result of the game, we lost 3-0. but it wasn't a negative thing i thought. despite having so many players out they played hard and defended well. a couple of our guys (who talk themselves up) didn't react well to losing, but you always have a few people who just don't get it. anyway, it sounded to me like the guys really dug in, played hard, and shit happened. i won't be there next week (working again) but they will and the following week we'll be there cheering for our favourite other team.
anyway, back to the fun stuff.friday night one of our favourite groups got on board. we stayed up late, had a few relaxing ales, and then turned in early (about 2am) for a big day saturday.
saturday came and it was grand. one of the reasons i had to be on and couldn't get out of it, was because we had a new deckie who needed to be trained. but as we didn't have that many customers, i was able to take advantage of having another deckie, and get a few extra dives. i managed an unprecendented 3 dives this weekend. the first dive i managed was at the local seal colony. kinda reminded me of the last time i went diving in the tropics. when we came back from diving in 28 degree waters, we went to narooma to dive with the seals in 13 degree waters. this time was the same. diving in 28-30 degree waters, hell, when we hit a 24 degree thermocline we felt quite cold. so i come home and a week or so later i'm in the water with the seals, in 14 degree waters.
fortunately the seals were even cooler than the ones at narooma. there were a few other boats anchored, so as the boat motored past we jumped in and swam over. the easiest way to swim on the surface is backwards, i nearly ran over someone from another boat though, so i gave up and went down.
not much action for a while, lots of life though. the fishies were a little skittish though. must be the seals hehehe
then the seals started coming in. twisting, turning, buzzing around. then they'd disappear and reappear. next thing there was a big group of them on the surface above us. one would come down and buzz from diver to diver, bubble trail to bubble trail, then off in the distance, then back again. then a couple came through biting and fighting each other. i think they were jealous of the others getting all the bubbles. one of the customers said one was sitting behind me for ages but he couldn't get a photo.
eventually i was getting cold and went up. a wonderful start to the day
