The Mermaid Within

He who would search for pearls must dive below.
John Dryden

 This is turning into the misadventures of Molly Mud - or some equally horrific account of my ridiculous attempts at - well, whatever.  Currently it is all about diving. 

I did not drown the beautiful girl in the "buddy breathing and ascent" drill today.  This is an improvement over the last attempt, and since this time we were in real water, about 20 feet down, it is definitely a bonus.  However, I brought her up so fast that if we had been deeper or down longer, we probably would have gotten bent.  She, of course saved me in the classic textbook way.  She started her descent at least once without putting her regulator (breathing doo hickey) into her mouth - oops, snorkels do not work underwater, which I proved when I tried to use my snorkel after giving her my regulator in the buddy breathing thing.  Seriously, if I am the responsible party, one of us will drown. (not really, Mom, we are getting it)

I did not cramp up.  Yay! I managed to control most of the painful parts of pressure equalization, but am still very stuffy and can barely hear out of one ear.  

The biggest problem I have is control of my body in the water.  I have always prided myself on my good balance.  Even flabby and out of shape, I have great core strength and excellent balance.  Except for some reason I have no control over my body in the water.  Everyone else comes down straight, feet toward the bottom, head toward the surface.  And they come up the same way.  Not me.  Sideways, sitting, twisted, flopping every which direction. I look like those movies of astronauts floating in space, except that I am more flailing than floating.  A fish out of water looks positively graceful compared to me.

Some really cool stuff.  We were diving at Weeki Wachee, and one of the Mermaids was training, right off the same platform we were learning on.  I got to swim with a mermaid!  Sort of - she was rather busy, and so were we.  Random question - do mermaids pee in their tails? the water is very chilly, just sayin.'                 There was a very pretty little fish that was quite fascinated by our instructor. Not annoying like a mosquito, but you could totally start slapping at it after awhile.  Best part?  Watching the girl child play with the bubbles.  She was trying to juggle them. I managed to catch one, and let it go, but she was passing them from hand to hand.  It made me laugh - which always loosens the seal on my mask and makes me practice clearing - you know, so I don't drown.  Guilty secret? Burping into your regulator is hilarious.

We still have our tanks - I'd like to borrow some pool time before we have to bring them back tomorrow.  Next adventure is on the 11th.  Then we will be official.  Go us!