Well! I?m pleased to announce that the first BIG ADVENTURE SCUBA TRIP was a great success!!!!
Five women ventured off to Maui for a week of SCUBA indulgence! Four of the women were plus sized, and one was a slender ally. Two of the women had never dived before; but in just a few short (well... okay... loooong) days they were certified open water divers! The other three women were certified divers with a variety of experience while the two ?newbies? were learning their skills, the certified divers explored a number of different shore dives ? checking out green sea turtles, reef sharks, all kinds of butterfly fish, wrasses, nudibranchs, sea stars, eels, lots of coral, and some small caves. We also did some night diving, and saw some awesome slipper lobsters, Spanish Dancers, and two pleurobranchs and played with some great squid. We were regularly serenaded by the song of the humpback whales.
Once the ?newbies? were certified, we took a group trip by boat to Molokini ? a marine and bird preserve. On one of their first dives after certification, the new divers ventured down to 80 feet and saw a colony of garden eels. At the next dive off the boat, we did a drift dive ? we saw turtles (of course!), a gold lace nudibranch, Spanish Dancer eggs, and a Titan Scorpion fish. Everyone had the practice of being followed and picked up by the boat ? much better than swimming against the current!
The following day we took another boat trip to the island of Lanai. Unfortunately, Mother Nature was not cooperating and visibility was poor. We did get to explore a couple of caves and saw some unusual fish... a viper eel, a banded angel fish, a scrambled egg nudibranch. We also swam through a number of different coral arches. The boat trip was long and a bit grueling, but the high point of the day was stopping the boat for lunch, and watching whales breech and splash all around us. The group returned tired, and a bit sun-burned ? but in time for a dinner of Pizza before venturing out for another night dive. The following day, we split up ? one of the new divers went on a guided naturalist dive, one of the experienced divers went on some guided photo dives, two divers did a shore dives together, and the fifth person couldn?t dive because she would be flying later in the day, so she went off for a massage and a bit of shopping.
As the week wound down, five satisfied, and a bit tired women, were making plans to return home. Two women had been introduced to SCUBA diving, and were now thinking about how they might do more of it. Two women who had been certified, added a significant number of dives to their log book, as well as accomplishing a number of ?firsts? ? first night dive, first tropical dives, first boat dive (for one). All had improved their navigational skills and had dramatically increased their confidence in their own skill levels. I was pleased to log my one hundred and twelfth dive on this trip.
There was discussion about another trip ? and the tentative dates for BIG ADVENTURE SCUBA TRIP #2 are the last week of June 2002 ? firm dates should be published in another week or so.
