Getting back into the ocean

A cardinal rule at home from when we were tiny was that if you got hurt, and especially if you got hurt in a scary way, you had to do that same thing straight away. So, I find myself clambering on to the dive boat, wondering what the next dive would be like. I could…

Five minutes of madness

Day three, and I’d started to feel confident in the water. My nerves and anxieties had calmed for the most part and I was looking forward to our third dive of the day. We’d be diving down and hooking into the corner of a channel to watch the sharks swim past in the deeper ocean.…

Reef hooks and rituals

Yesterday, I used a reef hook for the first time. What is a reef hook, I hear you ask… well, it’s pretty simple; it’s a strong metal hook attached to about a metre of nylon yarn. And when there is a strong current, and you want to stick in one place for a bit, you…

The manta ray I missed…

This morning’s dive was magnificent – we swam a good long way against the current before coming to a cleaning station teeming with fish. Big, small, every size, so many colours, just incredible. We hooked ourselves in so we didn’t have to worry about drifting and just watched for half an hour as the ocean…

Diving diaries: You can’t have it all, so now want

FOMO – an all too familiar feeling… whether for the trivial things (when to leave that dinner party) or the larger (balancing family and work or picking one). But I realised something funny whilst diving today. I was on my third dive of four for the day, and craning my neck left and right, up…