Welcome to Horizon 3 Dive Boat

This post will be more about pictures than about text as it’s the fourth day on the dive boat and I already saw mantas, sharks, stingrays, turtles, big morrey eels, lobsters etc. and today we had a beach BBQ. However, I bet you are asking yourselves, how does a normal day on a dive safari look like?

Well, it’s pretty simple. You wake up and you dive. After the first dive you have breakfast, then you sleep. Second dive, you have lunch and you sleep. Third dive, then you have dinner and… nope, you sleep later. First you look at the pictures you took, chat to your fellow divers, have a beer and then you sleep. Next day, repet 😀

It’s my second dive safari, the first one was in Australia. When I’m comparing those two, have to say that the boat in Maldives is bigger and more comfortable. In Australia I was sharing the cabin with two other people, this time as there are more cabins than guest I’m lucky to have a twin cabin for myself. To be frank it’s quite nice, apart from the lack of hot water. Hey, who needs hot water in the tropics, right 😉 Everything else is very much similar, only this time I didn’t get seasick. Ohhh good, in Australia when unpacking my dive gear I got dizzy, which means after an hour on the boat I threw up overboard. The next two days I was literally lying down, getting up for diving and lying down again. Eating was a challenge. When I looked, bah even smelled food I got sick immediately… what a nightmare. Worse was that I was even unable to smoke… however when it came to jumping into the water, everything was OK. Jumped in, enjoyed diving but as soon as I stepped on the boat again my head and my gut was spinning again. Luckily it went away after two days… just in time for the special beach dinner. This time, no seasickness! I only felt a bit unwell during the first day but sleep it off… and wasn’t puking my guts out like last time.

This trip is special for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I broke my wrist four weeks ago and it’s still recovering. However diving with a not 100% fit right wrist is not a huge problem. Although I need to be very careful when holding on to the rope while taking off my fins after diving. Secondly, I’m breaking my air consumption records. Normally I finish the dive after 60 min with 50 bar left in my tank – starting with 200 bar, on an entry depth between 25-20 meters and then shallowing up. Here I finish with 90-100 bar after 60 min and entry depth 28-25 meters. WTF? Never had that before. Yes smokers don’t need that much air and generally do better with air consumption but that is my personal record. Not sure if it’s because of Nitrox or what. Thirdly, it’s the first time after nine years of diving that I use nitrox. For those of you who don’t know what nitrox is, it’s a special dive gas mix that is enriched with oxygen. In air you have 21% of oxygen, nitrox has around 30%. I heard stories that it’s better to dive with nitrox as you don’t feels as tired as after diving with air and that thinking doesn’t come so difficult after the whole diving day. You know what?! Bullshit, at least for me. I still feel tired after each dive – hence the sleeping and after the end of the diving day I can clear continuously say – blehhhhhhh brain no function, dahhhhhhh. Although diving with nitrox has its advantages. Your body doesn’t absorb that much nitrogen which means less danger of getting into deco.

Most of all however, the trip is special as it is a pure active holiday. You might think, what’s the pleasure of waking up at 6 am on your holiday to do stuff and feel tired as hell at the end of day? Well, diving is very special for me, regardless… lack of hot water in the shower on the boat or not, the amount of animals I get to see every day is worth every inconvenience… not to mention all the nice people I get to meet on the boat 😉

Anyhow, enough of my blabbering… diving this and diving that. Just enjoy the pictures 🙂