In the morning, we get ready to go diving. Everybody puts on wetsuits because it’s still cold in the water in the Bahamas in April. It’s hard to put a wetsuit on. I have to pull the legs up first, then pull the body up while jumping up and down to stuff myself in. Bodin needs dad’s help. It’s kinda funny to watch him squeezing in to his shorty suit.
On the way to the reef, I got dragged behind the dinghy on the hydroplaner board that James gave us. I used the speed of the dinghy to point it down and dive and then point it back up to go that way. It didn’t really go side to side, but it was lots of fun when I got used to it.
Dad threw the anchor out and everybody jumped off the dinghy. We snorkeled for a bit. I saw some little fish and a black angel fish. Then James and Shawn got the hookah set up with the air tanks, regulators and the hose.
Me and Shawn were first to try the hookah. It felt so relaxing, calm and peaceful to be breathing underwater. It was totally quiet. I could only hear my breath. I concentrated on slow breathing. I let air come into my lungs and pictured a cup of water filling, then imagined the cup of water emptying. That’s what James told me to do. He said not to breath too quickly, because it would waste the air. Dad also reminded me to never come up to the surface faster than my bubbles.
We down to the bottom. It was tough to get down there because we didn’t have weight, so Shawn pulled me down. I knew what he was doing, so I was okay with it. We held on to a rock for a few minutes. Then we both went back up to grab weight belts. When I put the weight belt on, I sunk until I hit the bottom. My first reaction was “whoa, I’m on the bottom and I’m breathing.” I was able to sit there. I even laid down. When I looked up I saw the top of the water, the sun and the clouds. They looked like they were floating and waving above me.
I tried swimming along the bottom like a stingray with my hands cutting through the sand. It was fun. It feels like you’re free… away from parents. I came back up after a while to let Bodin try. He couldn’t come down because his ears hurt too bad.
