Rickety Boats and Learning New Things

Every dive becomes a bit easier.  It's really fun to learn the new challenges of something, a whole new set of variables I'd never thought possible to experience in my brain and body.  The weight of water and how that affects the ears, the disorientation of the water, the ability to breathe underwater (!) and to actually swim with fishes that aren't afraid in the same way as land animals.  And to deal with gravity and pressure in a new way, learning to use my breathe to swim at a certain level, not float too high or hit the bottom.  It's a full body steering system that is completely new to me.  There are some frustrating and amusing complications, like always get stuck at the surface and having Andy translate his colorful personality into hand gestures at me for not following his instructions.  It's one thing to learn it, and then it's another to actually learn.  After playing the cello for over 20 years, I appreciate relearning how to learn things at a beginner stage.  All the humility it brings, reminders of self-patience and patience with one's teachers.  Are these things different?

On the way back from our dive, we loaded all our bags into a small wood boat that we use to get to the dive boat.  It's old, looks somewhat rickety, and has a single motor attached to a long pole which one of the Thai assistants controls, hand-rolled cigarette hanging between his lips.  Apart from watching this graceful feat, our journey is generally only marked by the beauty of the ocean and rocky cliffs.  But today we experienced a little more chop, and our heavily-laden boat fell within the large waves.  Water tossed onboard, and then more, and it was hard to tell if we were getting lower or the waves getting higher around us.  Our little Thai friend was yelling something at one of the experienced divers who was engaging in the sysiphean task of ladling water overboard, and then one of the instructors came over and managed to get a small pump working.  The water was over our ankles and the beach was within sight.  But would we make it?

Of course.  Because that's the way stories end.  Of course everyone could swim, so there was a general amusement at the possibility that the boat could actually sink.  And if the diving bags and boat fell to the bottom, it would make an excellent treasure for some adventurous divers to quickly recover.  

Tomorrow is the last day of the training.  Hopefully I'll get more comfortable with the descents and take more and more pleasure at meeting the little friends that have been waiting for me below the surface for so long.