Back in mid-September, Jake signed up for a scuba diving certification course. The class was supposed to last for 4 consecutive days, two of which would be classroom and pool exercises and the other two would be open water and shore dives. The first two days went by without a hitch. Jake knocked out all of the classroom work and passed all the tests with flying colors (100%). He was primed to hit the water on day 3, but the high winds and near-flood-level waters (pre-floodzilla) made for terrible conditions; more like Navy Seal Training. He was the only student who actually went down to the bottom before the school called off the dives.

Almost a month later, the weather has finally cleared! Jake’s last chance to finish up the course was this past weekend, before it closes for the season. Now or never.

We eagerly hopped in the van on Friday afternoon, got on the Minnesott Beach ferry, and headed over to Morehead City for our weekend getaway! An hour later we arrived at our hotel which is only 500 yards from the dive center and in the heart of the town. Absolutely perfect. Our room was so lovely too, almost like a swank studio apartment than a hotel. And for such a great deal also!

Friday night we celebrated our ‘freedom-from-boat’ at a local brewery that also featured some of the tastiest southern homestyle cookin’ this side of the Mason-Dixon Line. We were stuffed to the brim and so very happy to come back to the lap of luxury; something we rarely experience. It was such a nice treat.

Saturday morning came far too soon, especially for Jake. He had a full day of shore and open water dives ahead of him, while I relaxed in the room, caught up on work and vegged out on good bad TV.

Jake’s Scuba Adventures

After breakfast and lounging around the hotel, I (Jake) made the 2 minute walk over to the dive shop. The sun was shining but it was only in the mid-60’s. Good thing I have a wetsuit!

The first dive of the day was a shore dive. It was pretty easy even though visibility wasn’t great (only about 4 feet). My group (consisting of 3 people including myself) ran through a bunch of drills. We only went about 20-feet so we could still enjoy some of the sea life around us, but it was pretty much all business.

After about a half hour, we headed back to the shop and were given a 2 hour break. I walked back to the hotel to grab a hot shower and some lunch before heading back to the dive boat. We set off on the hour-long boat ride (About 20 miles) to an offshore wreck called the Indra, which was sunk by the state of North Carolina to form an artificial reef.

Once we were out here in the middle of the water, I was really nervous. All around us were 15-foot rope markers to hold on to while working our way deeper and deeper. Visibility improved to about 25-feet which made it much nicer, but it was still impossible to see the wreck from 20 feet down. We worked on some more “shallow-water” drills before going further and further down.

As we descended, I kept thinking “Geez this is scary, maybe diving isn’t my thing after all”.

I kept loosing my direction as we went. Up was down, left was right – actually it was like floating in space. Very disorienting under water. As I watched my dive instructor go deeper and deeper, I got complete tunnel vision. I was afraid of going too deep and building up too much ear-pressure. I would stop every few feet to equalize, which left me falling behind.

At last we made it down to the wreck and it was VERY cool. We didn’t explore too much, but focused on doing some more drills (under-water navigation, removing goggles and clearing them, sharing air with a buddy). I have to say that I was so happy as we made our way back up to the surface.

Our group climbed aboard the boat to switch air tanks and then jumped right back in for dive #2. I had no problem adjusting to my pressure the second time down. I actually made it down to 65-feet in just a few minutes. Now I was having fun. We essentially played “follow the leader” with the instructor. The Indra is 328-foot hull that has tons of doorways and passages and thousands of fish and reefs. We even saw a shark (which wasn’t scary at all believe it or not)! The second dive lasted about 30 minutes before we headed back up and on the boat.

The ride went by in a haze and I was glad to have my warm and dry clothes with me. It was dark by the time we got back to the shop and I was exhausted and starving. We went out to dinner with a fellow dive student, Mike, at the RedFish Grill. It was super tasty italian food. All of us were so tired (Jill from her long week of working and me and Mike from diving) that we called it an early night.

The next morning came way too soon. We did our best to enjoy the room before I headed back over to the dive shop and Jilly hung out in the hotel lobby.

It was about 10-degrees colder than yesterday, so we were all business. The final dive was just a shore dive to knock of the last of the drills on the list. And though it only took us about 25 minutes from start to end, it was miserable and cold. We swam out 100 yards, dropped to 20-feet, knocked out drills, and headed back to the beach. I think all three of us were experiencing the first-stage of hypothermia by the end.

And now I (Jake) am officially open-water certified down to 60-feet and can acquire all of my own dive gear and compressed air aboard s/v Bosco. If the anchor gets stuck at the bottom or we need to clean our hull, I can do it myself.