Boats
Today was a day of boats. Our day began with preparing for our dive trip, bagels and homemade flavored cream cheese, and drive to the dive shop through one of the most amazing collection of Richie Rich-eque boats I have I ever seen. I always marvel when I go through that section of town. I'd love to live on a boat (maybe a houseboat (like McGyver!) but more likely a cabin cruiser.) And boy did we see some nice ones.
At the dive shop we checked in, bought some sundries (dry bag, gloves, etc.), and lugged our gear to the dock. The boat was a simple two-level dive boat. It was well-set up for a dive operation. There were about a dozen other divers plus two three dive master/guides and the Cap'n. There was a terrible rush to get ready to dive (when they say they'll give you a 10 minute warning to get your gear on, they should give you more than 3 minutes warning.) In the rush to get the rental gear figured out I actually fell to the floor of the dive boat. It really hurt my tail section, but moreso my pride. However, Susan caught the worst of it as my tank came down on her foot. Either her fin protected her some or she has feet of steel, because she managed to walk/swim it off. We did finally get in the water. Our first dive was a drift dive along a reef. I had some trouble with weights. I jumped in and realized 1) In the rush I had forgotten to put air in my BCD, 2) I was somehow still floating and unable to descend. So I had to swim back to boat and get more weight (maybe the dive guide should have believed me when I told him I needed more weight in the first place.) After having a four pound iron wieght unceremoniously thrown down the front of my wetsuit, I was ready to go. After the usual trouble equalizing, I made it depth and got a close look at the reef. I saw a few fish and some interesting coral. Nothing spectacular, but it was a nice dive. I burned through my air very quickly and cut the dive short for the entire group. Even though it was partly, if not mostly, the dive guides fault (I used up a lot of air in the wieght debacle) I still felt bad about it. I decided to sit out the second dive. I was just too beat after the first one (diving with a head cold can be murder on the sinuses. I felt like someone had tried to clean mine out with a powerdrill. I got a nice almost-nap while Susan and Jason did dive #2. They had a good second dive, and from the sound of it they got to see a lot more flora and fauna, too.
After we got back to shore, we headed home to clean up the gear. On the way home, we picked up some game hens for a feast that I'll be cooking later this weekend. Once we got home, Susan and Jason rinsed the gear and I took care of our dog, Bleys a.k.a. PW. He needed to go out and to burn off some of his excess energy that he saved up all morning for our return.) Then the three of us (not PW, of course), went to a little Thai & sushi place that Susan and I really like. We ordered an appetizer platter, which was loaded with fried goodies like jasmine rolls, spring rolls, wontons, and rangoons. Jason got green tea to double his access to liquid. That turned out to be a good idea, as the one downside to the dinner was the water-refilling-service was slow. Anyway, we knew that we were in the market for sushi, and wow, were there a lot of offerings. To solve our ordering dilemma, we opted for the a little of everything choice: The Boat for Three. The Boat for Three is apparently a literal wooden boat. It's about three feet long and a foot wide. It was covered in all manner of nigirizushi, makizushi, and sashimi. The Boat was a piece of art. It was covered in ice and brightly colored pieces of fish and various rolls. The various rolls were largely futomaki (large rolls), although Susan would have prefered much smaller rolls (hosomaki). The various seafoods involved included, white and red tuna, shrimp, mackerel, wahoo, conch, octopus, crab, and unagi. There was also a tempura battered roll that was slightly warm and very good. There was the usual wasabi and soy sauce, but there were also several dipping sauces including a soy/sesami/honey mixture and an excellent kimchee sauce (hot but flavorful.) This was another fine dinner out and a fun bit of event dining.
Postscript: Susan and Jason again came home and geeked out over their dive computers and gear. (Admittedly, they are now working on salvaging a failing hard drive on our desktop.) So I again am blogging our exploits first. I do hope they add their own stories of what happened.
At the dive shop we checked in, bought some sundries (dry bag, gloves, etc.), and lugged our gear to the dock. The boat was a simple two-level dive boat. It was well-set up for a dive operation. There were about a dozen other divers plus two three dive master/guides and the Cap'n. There was a terrible rush to get ready to dive (when they say they'll give you a 10 minute warning to get your gear on, they should give you more than 3 minutes warning.) In the rush to get the rental gear figured out I actually fell to the floor of the dive boat. It really hurt my tail section, but moreso my pride. However, Susan caught the worst of it as my tank came down on her foot. Either her fin protected her some or she has feet of steel, because she managed to walk/swim it off. We did finally get in the water. Our first dive was a drift dive along a reef. I had some trouble with weights. I jumped in and realized 1) In the rush I had forgotten to put air in my BCD, 2) I was somehow still floating and unable to descend. So I had to swim back to boat and get more weight (maybe the dive guide should have believed me when I told him I needed more weight in the first place.) After having a four pound iron wieght unceremoniously thrown down the front of my wetsuit, I was ready to go. After the usual trouble equalizing, I made it depth and got a close look at the reef. I saw a few fish and some interesting coral. Nothing spectacular, but it was a nice dive. I burned through my air very quickly and cut the dive short for the entire group. Even though it was partly, if not mostly, the dive guides fault (I used up a lot of air in the wieght debacle) I still felt bad about it. I decided to sit out the second dive. I was just too beat after the first one (diving with a head cold can be murder on the sinuses. I felt like someone had tried to clean mine out with a powerdrill. I got a nice almost-nap while Susan and Jason did dive #2. They had a good second dive, and from the sound of it they got to see a lot more flora and fauna, too.
After we got back to shore, we headed home to clean up the gear. On the way home, we picked up some game hens for a feast that I'll be cooking later this weekend. Once we got home, Susan and Jason rinsed the gear and I took care of our dog, Bleys a.k.a. PW. He needed to go out and to burn off some of his excess energy that he saved up all morning for our return.) Then the three of us (not PW, of course), went to a little Thai & sushi place that Susan and I really like. We ordered an appetizer platter, which was loaded with fried goodies like jasmine rolls, spring rolls, wontons, and rangoons. Jason got green tea to double his access to liquid. That turned out to be a good idea, as the one downside to the dinner was the water-refilling-service was slow. Anyway, we knew that we were in the market for sushi, and wow, were there a lot of offerings. To solve our ordering dilemma, we opted for the a little of everything choice: The Boat for Three. The Boat for Three is apparently a literal wooden boat. It's about three feet long and a foot wide. It was covered in all manner of nigirizushi, makizushi, and sashimi. The Boat was a piece of art. It was covered in ice and brightly colored pieces of fish and various rolls. The various rolls were largely futomaki (large rolls), although Susan would have prefered much smaller rolls (hosomaki). The various seafoods involved included, white and red tuna, shrimp, mackerel, wahoo, conch, octopus, crab, and unagi. There was also a tempura battered roll that was slightly warm and very good. There was the usual wasabi and soy sauce, but there were also several dipping sauces including a soy/sesami/honey mixture and an excellent kimchee sauce (hot but flavorful.) This was another fine dinner out and a fun bit of event dining.
Postscript: Susan and Jason again came home and geeked out over their dive computers and gear. (Admittedly, they are now working on salvaging a failing hard drive on our desktop.) So I again am blogging our exploits first. I do hope they add their own stories of what happened.
posted by Roland St. Jude at 9:37 PM
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