Does my bum look big in this?

Well, two weeks back in Blighty and my thoughts are turning to when we can next dive.... which means the inevitable cold quarry! Not many manta rays in there I wouldn't have thought.

Anyway, in December my brother and sister-in-law ruthlessly and successfully bid for a Northern Diver drysuit and accessories on eBay that looked like a pretty good fit for my build and height.... and it is, if a little on the 'snug' side!

So, with a date in February in the diary to test it out at Stoney Cove, I've decided to embark on a new diet... not Atkins, not GI, not celebrity fad, but the 'dry suit diet', which likely entails keeping my sticky mitts out of the cookie jar at home and swapping pints of cider for a vodka and slimline in the pub!! LOL

I'll let you know how it goes, and if it works, there may follow a DVD and diet plan..... "Loose the snork to scuba"...... "From dumpy to diver".... or some other forgettable catchphrase...

Costa Rica final day: Catalina Islands

Well, what can I saw about the final day's diving for me? We went out with Bobby Jo, the owner of Diving Safaris in Playa Hermosa, and re-dived The Point and The Wall. There were no exciting incidents this time, apart from me having a little trouble getting my weight right in the school BCD and with a weight belt, and the visibility was very poor with very, very strong surge and currents. Two half hour dives that were cut quite short due to the conditions, and left me feeling a bit sad that that was the end of my diving for the holiday, later, and we headed back to Playa Hermosa on the boat, packing up our kit as we went.....

.... and then I had the most amazing experience of my life. Literally hundreds and hundreds of devil rays (mobula rays, a relation of the eagle ray) that look just like mini-manta rays and breach, or jump, out of the water, twisting onto their backs and landing with a satisfying "splash" in the ocean. They were feeding on the plancton that had caused such poor visibility, circling round and round by the boat, their wing tips sticking out of the water as if hundreds of teeny sharks were circling prey....

Bobby Jo was the first to throw on her snorkel and fins, followed by us when we were assured it was safe to snorkel, and it was just like being in the midst of a 'brought to life' National Geographic picture!

As we floated about at the surface marveling at these amazing creatures, another pair of humpback whales breached on the other side of the boat. Our screams of delight must have been heard in Nicaragua!!

An unbelievable end to an unbelievable first ocean dive experience.......

Costa Rica day five: Palmares and Virador

My fifth day diving in Costa Rica sees us head out to one new and one familiar dive site: Palmares Island and Virador, just off the coast of Playa del Coco.

Unfortunately, the first dive to Palmares was cut short to around 27 minutes because my octopus was free flowing in its holder on descent and I didn't notice until I was down to 150 bar in five minutes. I had a new buddy, a Canadian diver - who was a very nice chap but who was so intent on taking photographs with his very expensive camera kit that he steadied himself on my regulator hose to take a photo (cheers), kicked me in the head with his fins (ouch), and generally caused my heart rate to speed up as he disappeared into the low vis gloom in a different direction to us once too often.... I felt some responsibility in sticking near him as his buddy, but the current was pretty strong in areas and at the point he drifted past me and shoved me out of the way to take a photo of some creature or other (yet again) I pretty much gave up and left his welfare to the DM.

I got back to the boat feeling pretty down - having discovered it's no fun diving with a total stranger who apparently cares only about their own dive experience - only to see the magic of a mother humpback whale and her baby from the boat, surfacing for air. We'd hoped we would see whales while we were there, but none of us could contain ourselves when we spotted the pair and we spent a happy half hour just taking in this amazing pair.

The second dive saw us back at Virador - and me diving with my SIL again, having handed the Canadian over to my brother under the guise of him helping with the camera - and the visibility dramitacally improved on the other side of the reef.We drifted out over a ledge onto a sandbank at one point and saw two sleeping stingrays, lazily dwelling on the bottom; one flicking a casual eye up at us as we hovered above him to take photographs.

Costa Rica day four: Catalina Islands

We all wake up really excited today to be taking the smaller, faster boat out to Catalina Islands, where word has it that the last divers out here the day before saw huge manta rays and humpback whales.

Again, it's just the three of us and the divemaster Rafa, with Louis captaining the boat and helping to set up the gear (hopefully this time securing the tanks a little better and checking the o-rings before he puts the regulator first stage on!).

This is what I've been nervous about, a deeper dive with an unreferenced ascent at The Point, but I'm fine. The visibility is much clearer today, although the strong currents and surge make swimming quite difficult. And suddenly there it is! Everyone is rattling anything they can to get everyone's attention.... manta rays. Not just one but three or four of them. Amazing. Despite this I can't help but get over excited at a little school of Moorish Idols..... well he is Nemo's best buddy!!

The second dive takes us to The Wall, where we descend quickly to 10 metres and get caught in fairly strong surge, another diving first for me!

Visibility is good and we are delighted to see between five and six massive manta rays, smaller stingrays and a pod of devil rays above us, swimming in formation just like birds in the sky!

Of course, my diving experiences are becoming nothing if not eventful, and I surface after this dive to discover that the rubber inflator hose to my BCD has split wide open and I can't get any air into my BCD! Not that this would be an issue, but Mi Reina Grace, the dive boat, can just be seen disappearing around the back of the islands, clearly assuming the currents would bring us up on the other side.... oh bugger!

Treading water with my regulator in, as the surface is too choppy for my snorkel, works for about five minutes and then I admit to feeling ever so slightly panicky. My brother suddenly suggests losing some weight (now's not the time to tell me I'm fat I think indignantly... LOL) but Rafa happily takes my weight pockets. Still no boat.

We use our whistles and I wave at a distant boat, and soon enough another dive boat is plucking me and my SIL out of the water... where we come face to face with six people who'd been on our plane and are in our hotel! How embarrassing. As soon as they see what's happened to my BCD and that we aren't in any real trouble it's all laughs and encouragement, and one of the guys even offers to send me a new one when I get home. Nice one.

Costa rica day three: Argentina point

Back to Tortuga on the fifth dive so far; starfish, trumpet fish, popeye fish and stingray. Just gorgeous and the photographs speak for themselves.

The second dive of the day takes in Argentina point, where a choppy surface swim takes us over to another boat's anchor line for a desecnt down to about 1o metres, where we explore the reef. Visibility is much improved here - it changes hour to hour and site to site - and here we are rewarded with three stingrays in a group and a large spotted eagle ray.

There's only the three of us today so I buddied the Costa Rican divemaster Rafa; the whole dive became a master class in buoyancy skills as I attempt to keep up with him as he swims over the reef peering into all the nooks and crannies for moray eels, octopus and scorpion fish. But I've only got eyes for the eagle rays today. Absolutely beautiful.

Costa Rica day two: Monkey's Head and Virador

Monkey's Head is a really picturesque volcanic rock, that when approached side on looks like a gorilla's face. It's rated as an 'easy' dive site, and it's fairly shallow with our deepest depth getting to just 15 metres. This shallow and there is plenty of life to see; pacific box fish, freckled porcupine fish, huge schools of golden jacks; moray eels and another octopus.

Currents are reasonably strong and now not expecting a dive to go without incident, I get my first jellyfish sting! Bit like brushing against nettles.

This is the first time I've ascended and descended though open water, and attempted a safety stop without any reference point or line, and I'm desperate to get it right, as my going to the more advanced site of Catalina Islands, where all the big stuff hangs out, likely depends on my performance here. My new Suunto Zoop computer makes a huge difference and I manage it fine... yeay!!

The second dive is at Virador, a low-lying volcanic island that again is home to an abundance of reef life. There's a shark cave at about 10 metres... gulp.... although our guide assures us it's only white tip reef sharks that hang out here. You have to go way out to Bats Island to run into the native bull sharks!

The first ascent was aborted as my brother's tank started free flowing at around 5 metres - who's putting the equipment together, and am I just a dive jonah? LOL - and as the currents were quite strong, we surfaced miles away from where we had descended just 3 minutes ago! The boat had to pick us up, change the tank and quickly drop us off at the entry point again to try another time.

This dive was awesome - I technically did my first drift dive I guess and averaged about 20 metres. Saw loads of stingrays gracefully flying past and 38 minutes seemed like 38 seconds.

Costa Rica day one: Surprise and Tortuga

Well, it's finally arrived and after a fantastic Christmas and early birthday that saw me frantically repacking to fit all the new gear I'd received off my gorgeous hubby and lovely family (sparkling new regulators and carry case, a Suunto Zoop computer and a Seaquest Diva BCD) we set off to Gatwick airport on 28th December for a 12 hour flight to Costa Rica....

After a day by the pool to get over the jet lag we are collected from the hotel at some ungodly hour in the morning by the lovely Nico from Diving Safaris and driven to Playa Hermosa to the shop... not so eager are the four other divers we are supposed to collect on the way, who apparently decide to stay in bed with a hangover!

At the shop I'm feeling pretty scared - although I wouldn't admit it to my brother and sister-in-law - but also pretty excited. It's going to be a day of 'firsts' - first dive without an instuctor there to hold my hand; first dive with my own kit; first dive off a boat; first dive in the ocean; first dive with my inspirational 'divemaster in training' brother (that's him up top there)....

A few forms later and we get onto the boat. We're diving today at a site called 'Surprise' with one of Diving Safari's instructors, Canadian Tracy (easy to remember) and one of her Open Water students who just certified. Trying to at least look confident I get kitted up and launch myself off the boat into the water with a backwards roll I'm hoping looks slightly more classy than the one my sister-in-law has just done.... Oooops! I always find it works better when you put air in your BCD!! How could I forget that?!

I eventually surface to a slightly worried looking buddy - my SIL - who roars with laughter when I explain what took me! At least it washes my nerves away. The dive goes in a flash and I'm delighted to find that I do OK, I love it down there, my buoyancy control is fine and that when I remember to take in what I'm seeing (although the visibility is pretty poor) I'm gobsmacked with wonder at the beautiful reef life down there; moray eels, puffa fish and an octopus.

I'm a bit cold in my 5mm when we swim through the thermoclines, and I run a little low on air, surfacing when I get to 50bar, giving me enough for a safety stop.

Back on the boat for the surface interval I have another 'embarrassing incident' when I discover that I am in fact sea sick, as the pineapple I've just scoffed reappeared almost as quickly as it went down, to shouts of "FISH FOOD" from the captain and a knowing look from my sister-in-law, who, it turns out, takes quells to stop the very same happening but didn't think to offer me one before we set out! LOL

The second dive of the day takes us to Tortuga where we descend down the anchor line to do a little wreck diving. This time we see a stingray, despite visibility being almost an arm stretch in areas! I'm buddying my SIL and am mortified to see that her tank has come completely loose and has slipped out of its holding in her BCD! Not good, but with a bit of rearrangement we get it back in place and off we go. Nothing like some little 'incidents' to liven up a dive eh?!