Lewie Discovers The Wonder of Turtles!

I took Lewie out for his first two Open Water dives Sunday afternoon. He had been certified with NAUI years ago, but hadn't done any diving since. Because I will be putting him all the way through Divemaster, I figured it would be a good idea to just have him go ahead and take the Open Water course over again to reacquainte him with all the skills and get him comfortable underwater again. I took him to Lau Lau for his first two Open Water dives because I think there's something absolutely magical about seeing turtles on dives. Lewie got to spend some quality time with a couple green sea turtles and just watch them eating the growth on the rocks. After being slightly nervous at the beginning of the dive, you could just watch him visibly relax and start to really enjoy himself underwater.
Yup, you really can get this close to the turtles and just observe them, they don't seem to mind at all as long as you don't try to touch them or make any fast or threatening moves. Even after thousands and thousands of dives, and spending thousands of hours with turtles, I still get excited every time I see one and get to spend some time with it.
Kelli has been using my first underwater camera as she hones her underwater photography skills, and I'd say she's doing an awesome job! Especially considering that the camera no longer has its flash diffuser, and that it doesn't always work the way it's supposed to. I can't wait to see the kind of shots she comes up with when she gets her new camera this week. And of course I'm very excited to be getting a new camera myself this week, so there should be some great pictures coming very soon.

I was looking under a few rocks on the way back in and I discovered this live Textile Cone mostly buried in the dirt. This is the 3rd most deadly cone shell in the world. It's very beautiful but very deadly, which is why I'm carefully holding it by the base end, and have the point end pointing away from me. I put him back after Kelli took a picture of it, and after she was giving me one of those looks asking what the heck I think I'm doing. We had a great weekend of diving, managing to get in 5 dives for the weekend, which puts me just shy of 300 for the year, not a bad year at all! I think Lewie is totally hooked on diving now, and I keep getting new students lined up every day. I may have to clone myself before too long.

Here is the video I was taking when the one spotted eagle ray decided to tickle my neck with his tail.

Christmas - Saipan Style!

This was the sight that greeted me Christmas morning as I rounded the far corner on the Ice Cream coral formation just outside of Saipan's lagoon. We went on a Christmas morning boat dive with Brad & Kathy, Brad & Jeong-ah and Angelo. That may seem like a pretty strange way to celebrate Christmas morning to some people, but to all of us, it was a magical way to celebrate it! When you're far away from family and home as most of us were, it's great to be able to hang out with some good friends and share some amazing experiences and memories. We took the Sunrider boat out to Ice Cream for our first dive. And by the way, just in case you're wondering, no my new camera didn't get here that fast, these were taken by Kelli with my first underwater camera. She is doing an amazing job with it, and I'm sure her pictures will be even more spectacular with her new camera that is on the way. But back to the dive, as soon as I rounded the backside of the Ice Cream formation, I saw this wall of white moving toward me. The wall of spotted eagle rays was higher in the water than I was, so I was looking up at their white bellies. I was just completely dumbfounded by the sheer number of these graceful and huge creatures. I had never seen so many in one place before. I started counting and got up to 45 before they started circling back on themselves. I know there were far more than 45 in that initial bunch of them, but that gives you a good idea of just how many of them there were in the water. These are not just some small fish, their wing span from tip to tip will be anywhere from 3-6' across, and I'm guessing their weight to be anwhere from 100-200 pounds. I tried to get everyones attention so they could see the same spectacle I was experiencing. Kelli saw them fairly quickly and started snapping away with her camera. You couldn't take your eyes off them, they were just so majestic! We all picked a spot to just hang out on the coral formation and let them swim back and forth over the top of us. They put on an amazing show for quite a while.
And just in case you think we only got to see them at a distance, they came in pretty close to check us out as well. No zoom was used in any of these pictures, that's just how close they were getting to us. They were so close you could see the detail of their eyes and watch as their gill slits rippled as they opened and closed. But believe it or not, they even got a little closer.

I was watching this one come right up to Kelli, but she was focusing on some others that were on the other side of her. As she turned around there it was right next to her face, so she snapped a few pictures. At one point she offered me the camera to take a few shots with. I decided to try capturing some video. I was shooting about 8 of them that were coming closer and closer. I finally locked in on one that seemed to be coming in for a collision course with me. He came right up to my face before veering away at the very last second. But as he swam away directly in front of me, his big whip tail came right for me and brushed against my throat as he swam away. I know firsthand just how much damage they can do with their whip tails. When I was a young boy I had a stingray use his tail like a sword and slash the backside of my swimsuit wide open, and that was after driving the barb on his tail all the way through my hand. We won't talk about how that happened right now, but I do believe it's in my book, so you'll have to read that if you want to hear the rest of the story. So as I felt his tail brushing against the skin of my throat, I realized that if I spooked him at all, and he gave his tail a flick, he could easily slit my throat from ear to ear. I was hoping that everybody else realized it too and just sat still and watched them. I just kept the video rolling, what else can you do? I'm sure there were scenes of the Crocodile Hunter's final moments with that stingray going through Kelli's head. She was right next to me watching. I'm not really sure how I always wind up in those situations, but somehow I seem to attract them. Here is a picture of Brad, Kathy and I at the shipwreck. You might notice that none of us have regulators in our mouths. We have evolved and learned to just suck the oxygen out of the water and therefore only carry the tanks as a back up plan, (don't we all wish!). I think everybody had an awesome time and were quite happy that they decided to spend their Christmas morning that way. Here I am just hanging out on the shipwreck on Christmas morning! If you want to hang with me, you'd better bring your gear and get ready for some serious bottom time. It really was a spectacular way to spend Christmas morning, and we all have Kathy to thank for it. It was all her idea to give a boat dive to Brad for his Christmas gift and she wanted to do it on Christmas morning. She didn't have to invite me twice to convince me, and I didn't really have to work very hard to convince Kelli either. Since both of our kids have abandoned us for Christmas this year, we just wanted to have a totally different Christmas, and we succeeded. After our dive we invited Angelo and Edz to join us for a Christmas brunch at the Hyatt, a great way to completely over indulge and spoil yourself rotten. Angelo said that they were going to be the new Josh & Sarah since our kids had abandoned us. I don't know if Angelo realizes that might be problematic considering I don't think he really considers Edz as a sister. Oh well, I'll let him figure that out. He has said he has dibs on Sarah's room now though, so I think he might be serious.

After brunch, we decided to go see a movie and watched Adam Sandler in Bedtime Stories. Certainly not a traditional Christmas by any stretch, but certainly a memorable one. I hope yours was as good!

Disappointed with Sealife Cameras!

There are those who have expressed their disappointment to me that I really haven't been blogging much ever since my camera was stolen. I admit, it did take all the joy and fun out of it for me, and I didn't really feel like just telling the diving stories without the pictures to go along with them. Up to this point, I have been saving up for my Instructor's course and all the specialty ratings that I need, so the money has all been earmarked. However it is Christmas bonus time, so I just got done ordering 2 new Canon SD 950 IS's for Kelli and I for Christmas. I got her the Canon housing, which is small and compact, and I ordered the Ikelite housing for me with the Ikelite AF35 strobe to go along with it. This is the same setup I had that was stolen, and it's an upgrade for Kelli.

I was going to order a couple Sealife DC-800's with an external strobe, one for each of us. Sealife was offering a special deal on two of them to PADI instructors, so I thought that would be a great way to go, and Sealife was trying to get their cameras in the hands of dive instructors who would be using them to teach their students. Unfortunately Sealife showed me that they really didn't care about selling cameras or taking care of customer service. It took me several weeks and about 6 e-mails before I got anyone to respond to me at all from Sealife. Then when I finally got someone to respond, she didn't go out of her way to be helpful at all and gave just the minimum information she could get away with. Sealife was also totally inflexible when it came to shipping options, and insisted it had to be shipped by Fed Ex. Fed Ex is usually a very expensive option to have something shipped to Saipan, so I asked them for a shipping quote before ordering the cameras. The lady couldn't bother to find out the information for me, and just gave me the Fed Ex website and told me to get a quote myself. I tried, but Fed Ex not only would not let me register, but would not give me a price quote. I wrote back to the lady at Sealife, but she never responded, I guess she didn't care that I couldn't get a price quote or that it would mean I wouldn't make the buy through them. I am just always blown away by examples of horrible customer service like this, and can't believe that a company can stay in business treating their potential customers that way. So no, I did not order Sealife cameras, nor will I ever order anything from them ever again after this experience. And I would warn anyone who is considering buying from Sealife that their customer service totally SUCKS!

I ordered my Canon cameras from Adorama at http://www.adorama.com/ and have always had great luck with them and exceptional service. They make sure I always get my order in under a week, and that's saying something when it goes half way around the world. I highly endorse Canon cameras as I've had 5 of them now and absolutely love them. Buy Sealife only if you want massive hassles and to be ignored. Maybe they need a few lessons in customer service!

So with the new cameras on the way, I will start taking pictures on dives regularly and posting them here again, as well as pictures of all my new dive students. Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays, unless you're Sealife cameras, and then Bah Humbug to you!

Ready For Students

After going through the IDC and the IE in Guam, I got the certifications I needed to be able to teach scuba diving, everything up through Divemaster. Then when I got back I signed up for Liability insurance, both for me and my equipment that I may use, that set me back another $690, and that was after spending well over $3,000 for the classes, books and PADI fees on Guam. It is not an inexpensive proposition to become a dive instructor, and it's not so easy a caveman can do it. But I think it was worth it, and I am thrilled to finally be able to certify divers and have them get a certification card at the end of it.

One thing that has definitely changed is my thinking on the need for further instruction and courses beyond the Open Water course. Back when I got certified, the course was taught by a former Navy Seal, and lasted over 3 months long. You learned pretty much everything he could think to cram in your head and prepare you for whatever you might want to do diving. But that was back in the mid 70's, things have changed a bit since then. Now the purpose of the Open Water course is to get divers in the water as soon as possible, and to give them just enough information and skills to be able to safely dive in a fairly shallow, safe environment. That's great, but it's not enough for most people who plan on taking their diving seriously. If you only plan on diving once or twice a year on vacation, and you have a Divemaster or Instructor with you, then maybe an Open Water course is all you will ever need. However, if you plan on diving regularly, and going out without any diving professionals in the group, then you are going to want more training to make you a safer and more self reliant diver. The Advanced course is really just a matter of reading a few short chapters, doing the knowledge reviews and then doing 5 different dives. It gives you experience in different types of diving, like night diving, deep diving, navigation diving and your choice of a list of other specialties. Definitely something that most people are going to want to do. And quite honestly, if you live somewhere that you can dive every day like we do and you plan on doing it often, you really should consider taking the Rescue Diver course as well. It will give you the skills and knowledge to not only be able to take care of yourself more efficiently, but it will also equip you to be able to help others who may need your help as well. There is nothing worse than seeing someone in trouble, but not knowing what you can do to help them out, or being afraid to help them out because you just aren't sure of yourself. It is a very small investment in your life and your friends lives, money well spent in my opinion.

I'll be honest, Divemaster definitely isn't for everybody. But if you're one of those that likes to understand the theory behind everything, and be able to actually work in the industry if you feel like it, then the Divemaster course is a great experience.

I've already got about 10 people lined up for various courses and will be fairly busy for a while, but there is always room for more. I have also agreed to be a merit badge counselor for scuba for the Boy Scouts, and I'm sure that will generate a fair amount of business as well.

And for those who have always wondered about scuba and wanted to try it without having to take the whole course, I'm ready to accomodate you too. There is a Discover Scuba program that gets you in the water learning about the equipment the first day. We could even do a dive down to 40' to let you experience the wonder of scuba diving and see how you handle it. If you wonder what is so amazing underwater that I have spent 650 hours down there in the last 2 1/2 years, give me a call or send me a message and let me introduce you to my world!

Open Water Scuba Instructor

After 9 straight days of the Instructor Development Course, 2 days of the Instructor Exam, and another 2 days to become an Emergency First Responder Instructor and an O2, Oxygen Provider Instructor on Guam, I am now officially a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor.

I had spent the 2 months previous to the course reading all the books, and cramming studying, so I really felt like I was prepared for the course, even though I have to admit I was more than just a little nervous. The first thing they had us do in the IDC when we arrived was to take an exam that would be similar to the written exam we would have at the end. It was to let the Instructor know what our strengths and weaknesses were. I was a bit surprised when he told us it was a closed book test, since we had been told previously the tests would be open book. But as I started through it, I realized that I was ready for it, the answers were all right there. I missed 3 questions out of about 200, not too bad. You had to score 75% or better on each of the different exams to pass, so I had easily passed. Brad, who went over to take the course with me also passed the test, and Kat, a student who was taking the test as part of her Assistant Instructor course, and would be joining us later for the Open Water Instructor portion also passed, but the other 4 students who took it didn't do quite as well. Fortunately this test was just for evaluation, so it didn't count against them, it just showed what they needed work in.

The thing PADI is looking for in their Instructors is the ability to follow their guidelines and methods and incorporate everything they want. I caught on to that very quickly and tailored my presentations following their formula exactly. I have to admit, many of the endless class lectures did get to me after a while, since it was all information I had already read and gone over. I'm the type who prefers self study to sitting and listening to lectures. So there were some days I was ready to beat myself unconscious with my Instructor's Manual. It didn't help matters any that after about 3 days of the course I came down with a horrible head and chest cold, I felt terrible, and couldn't stop coughing and sneezing. I knew I was going to be in for trouble because I couldn't clear my right ear because of all the congestion in my sinuses. We only had one more open water dive session as part of the class though, and the instructor said we didn't have to go down past 15', so hopefully I should be ok even if I couldn't get my ear to clear. It wasn't fun, but I did manage to make it through that session. I was just praying that it would all clear up before the Instructor's Exams though, a bad head and chest cold was the last thing I needed for that.

Finally we got to the end of the 9 day IDC and we had a couple days off before the Instructor's Exams. Brad and I went to have lunch at the Food Court at the Outlet Mall, and I decided to try seeing if my ear would clear or not yet. Much to my surprise it actually cleared, so I told Brad we could head out and go do a dive for fun. He was all for it, so we went back to the dive shop, got tanks and headed for a beach in Agat that I knew we could dive. My right ear wasn't crazy about going diving, but it did eventually cooperate and we had a good dive. The next day we decided to do a shallower dive and went to the Piti bomb pits and Fisheye Marine Park. It was fun watching the tourists in the snuba helmets and seeing the people look at us from the observation deck underwater.

Wednesday morning it was time to show what we had learned though, the Instructor's Exams took place at the Marriot hotel. As was usually the case, Brad and I were the first ones to show up, not because Brad likes being so punctual, but mainly because he was riding with me. We chatted with Michael, the Examiner out of the PADI home office in California, who had arrived at 2 am that morning. The first part of the test was the written exam and Brad and I were both a bit shocked when we were told it was to be a closed book test, since someone else had told us previously it would be open book. It didn't bother me too much though as I really felt prepared for this test. There was a time limit for the tests, but it seemed to be far more than what was actually needed. I finished all 6 tests fairly quickly and turned them back in. Michael, the Examiner asked if I was sure I was ready to turn them in, that I had plenty of time to look them over. I said no, I was ready and just wanted them graded. He motioned me back up a couple minutes later and congratulated me on getting a perfect 100% on each of the tests. I have to admit, that really felt good!

Next we started preparing for our classroom presentation and our confined water presentations, and then broke for lunch. I guess since I was the first one to turn in my written exams, I was tagged to go first for everything from that point forward. So while others got to watch how I did things and learn from it, I was happy to get it over with and just be able to concentrate on the next test. I sailed through the classroom presentation, the demonstration of water skills and the confined water teaching skills, and that was the end of day #1.

We met at Fisheye park for our Rescue demonstrations and our open water skills tests. I missed getting two perfect scores on the water skills tests by a hair, all because my Divemaster let the two divers she was supervising descend away from the rope. Oh well, I'll take a 5.0 and a 4.8 any day, with 5 being a perfect score. I also passed the Rescue demonstration on the first try and that was it, I was now officially a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor. They had a little ceremony right at the parking lot of Fisheye Park, and gave us all new PADI Instructor hats, although I had already bought myself one several days earlier. Brad said that it would have jinxed him, I figured it was just showing that I had conficence that I would be passing.

Then the next couple days we had to take the First Aid Responder Instructor course and the Oxygen Provider Instructor course as well. You need to be able to teach those courses in order to put someone through Rescue Diver, so it was another necessary time and financial investment, but we got those two taken care of as well.

So now I am a certified, insured PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor and am quite eager to get back in the water and start showing people why I love the underwater world so much, and equipping them to be able to explore it as well. If you've been thinking about getting certified, let me know, I'd be happy to teach you how to dive!

Me, Nervous?

I realize that to anyone who knows me very well, they would probably be shocked to learn that I'm a bit nervous about heading off to the PADI Instructor's course in Guam tomorrow. After all, I've been diving since 1970, I got certified through the YMCA in 1974, and I've logged in over 2,000 dives in the 12 1/2 years that I've been on Saipan. So most people would think I wouldn't even have to think twice about any of this, but the problem is, I'm a self admitted diving dinosaur. Soooooooooooooooooooo much has changed since I started diving. I've been learning all the new information and techniques and hopefully am up to speed on all of them. But I have always struggled with memorizing formulas and random figures, like the weight of one pound of water, or the various figures you need to remember to do the calculations to figure water displacement or pressure. I've been pounding them all into my head every single day for two months now, and yet I still break into a cold sweat when I think about taking the Instructor's Exam.

For most people who are just doing this as an enrichment sort of thing, I don't suppose they would be feeling as much pressure. But for me this is the beginning of a huge life change and career change. Everything is riding on this, and I really don't want to stumble right out of the gate. Part of the problem is probably that I'm extremely perfectionistic in some things, and yes, this would definitely be one of them. I've had many people ask if I'm excited to be heading over to Guam for the course, and the answer is no. I'll be excited when it's all over and I've got my PADI Instructor's card. Anyway, just over one day and I'll be heading over there. If you're the praying sort, I would certainly appreciate your prayers as I head over there that I don't freeze up and forget everything when it's time for the exam. I feel like I'm back in high school with a huge exam the next day, I didn't like that feeling back then, and I still don't! But then again, this too shall pass....

Just Another Dive?

This is the latest group of victims of Axe Murderer Tours. I was contacted a couple weeks ago by e-mail asking if I would be willing to take some of the visiting White House dignitaries out diving while they were here. Of course the answer is always yes! Axe Murderer Tours is almost always available and always eager to please. I told them I would accomodate whatever would fit into their schedule, to just let me know when they were free. It was soon established that Tuesday morning, October 21st would work out best for them. I went to the meeting they attended at the Fiesta Resort the night before and met a couple of them and arranged to meet them at the dive shop at 8 am, as soon as I got done with the talk show. In the picture from left to right are: Sean Morton - Director of Coastal Policy for the Council on Environmental Quality, Tim Keeney - Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Department of Commerce/Oceans & Coast, Yours Truly - the old Axe Murderer himself, Allen Tom - Regional Director for Marine Protected Areas & Sanctuaries for the Pacific from the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, Jim Connaughton - Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and Lyle Laverty - Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Interior/Fish & Wildlife. Yes, I was obviously way out of my league with these distinguished gentlemen, but they didn't act any different than anyone else I know. They were all down to earth, friendly and genuine, and truly seemed to enjoy the chance to go diving.

3 of them wanted to go scuba diving and the other 2 were going to snorkel. I had been watching the conditions on the reef line and thought it looked like a perfect opportunity to sneak in another Wing Beach dive, even though the season should have been over months ago. I told them not only was it my favorite dive, but it would also be the best place for the snorkelers to see some spectacular coral.

We had a plainclothes police escort along with us just to make sure there were no problems. I really appreciated having someone at Wing Beach to watch my truck as we were on the dive. When we went down to the beach to check the conditions, they were absolutely perfect, so the dive was on! I gave them a pre-dive briefing, telling them what we would be doing and what to expect, and then we walked out to the cut. The water felt awesome and refreshing after the walk out wearing the heavy equipment in the hot sun. It was a bright sunny day, so the coral was all lit up looking like a Christmas tree. Tim had a fin strap buckle break as he was putting on his fins, so I gave him mine and I used the ones with the broken buckle, just jamming it onto my foot. I led them all out to the crevasse, and we dropped down to check out two huge lionfish resting on the bottom. They all seemed very relaxed and like they were very experienced divers. The current was pushing us back as we worked our way along the wall, making for a very easy swim back. Jim Connaughton was taking pictures, and I hope he got a good sampling of our underwater beauty.

We got everyone back safe and sound without any incidents, and they all seemed to think it was just an awesome dive. When we got back to the dive shop, Jim presented me with a blue box with the Presidential seal on it. Inside was an official Presidential Seal pin, with the President's signature personally engraved on it. He told me it was from President Bush with his thanks. I was absolutely speechless. I've received some very cool momentos in the past, but this one would forever be the most impressive.
I don't care what your political affiliations are, you have to be absolutely humbled by something like that. Now I guess Axe Murderer Tours can claim to have had a connection with the President of the United States.
It just happened that the group from the White House was also going to Rotary for lunch that day, so I went to my office, threw on some dry clothes after the dive, and met them all at the Hyatt for Rotary. Sean Morton sat at my table with me and we talked quite a bit. He asked what my future plans were and I told him about getting my PADI Instructor's card and then moving to either south Florida or the Carribean early next year. He got this shocked look on his face and asked if I was serious. Then he told me that he might wind up in Florida next year as well. He told me to look him up as soon as I got down there and see what was available. Isn't it amazing how things work out sometimes? I don't know if anything like a job would ever come of it, but I do know that I've made a friend hopefully for life who I'll most likely be connecting with quite often for the next couple of years. All because I want to share my love of the ocean with everyone I can, and do it under the guise of a make believe dive company called Axe Murderer Tours. This is definitely a story for my book!

An Update To The Plan

If you've been following my blogs at all over the last several months, you know that our lives are about to take a drastic change and head an all new direction. After over 26 years in radio, I've decided to hang up my microphone and pursue my passion. I'm going to Guam in about 3 weeks to attend the IDC to get my PADI Instructor's card, then I plan on becoming a full time, professional dive instructor. Where we'll wind up is still up in the air, I guess it all depends where we can find a spot that we can dive all year long and earn enough money to feed the two of us. There is the possibility that I'll have to be a full time Wal-Mart greeter, and a part time dive instructor to survive, but let's just say that's the back-up plan.

As I was finishing up my Dive Master course a couple weeks ago it suddenly dawned on me that if I put Kelli through the Rescue Diver and Dive Master courses, then we could bill ourselves as a team to resorts that we might like to work at. A Dive Instructor with his own built-in Dive Master would have to make each of more valuable. That way, they could house you both in the same housing, and cut down on their expenses, plus that would be one less position they would have to worry about filling. I talked it over with Kelli, and at first she said she didn't think there was any way she could do it. I assured her that I thought she could, we would just spend as much time going over the various skills and bookwork as she needed. I explained how I thought it would give us a real competitive edge for many positions though. So after much discussion, she agreed that if I was willing to teach her and put her through the courses, that she would be willing to do it. So that is the plan, as soon as I get back from the Instructor's course, we will begin putting Kelli through Rescue Diver and Dive Master, so that we're both ready to go once we move. And if you thought my 200 dives for the year was a milestone, Kelli has gotten 50 dives in for the year now. And if you know Kelli and know how hesitant she was to dive before this year, you will know what a monumental accomplishment that truly is. I'm really proud of her and know she is going to be an awesome Dive Master. That's her in the picture above posing with the friendly green sea turtle from this past weekend.

200 Dives For The Year!

My goal this year was to hit 200 dives for the year once again. Now I know that to most dive industry professionals, that's no big thing, many of them will hit 400, 500 or 600 dives a year. But I'm not a dive industry professional, well not yet anyway. I managed to get all those dives in by October 5th as just another weekend diver with a normal day job. Now you may not think that 200 dives in a year is a big deal, but when you realize how many dives that adds up to every weekend, it shows that you pretty much lived under water on the weekends. My new goal is to hit 250 for the year now, it will be the first time I've ever accomplished that, and I think the goal is fairly achievable. I had to get in 7 dives this last weekend, in order for #200 to be with my great friend Hozumi and her last dive on Saipan.

The picture above was of a green sea turtle we saw at Lau Lau Sunday morning. He was having breakfast and just didn't seem to care if we were there or not. He let us take all the pictures we wanted and posed graciously. After posing for that picture, I decided to borrow the camera from Kelli for a second and take a couple pictures of the turtle myself.

I always love gazing into a turtles eyes, they are just so soft and full of personality. This guy was very accommodating about having me that close to him, didn't seem to mind at all. So I snapped a few pictures and then let him get back to his breakfast. This was definitely one of the coolest turtle encounters I've had in a very long time though.Yup, these couple pictures convinced me that I really need to start saving up to replace my underwater camera though. I miss capturing these moments on the camera and then being able to share them. Kelli took a picture of Hozumi and I together on this my 200th dive of the year and her last dive on Saipan. It was a great dive, and Hozumi really seemed to enjoy herself and just soak everything in one last time. I will really miss taking her out diving occasionally and watching her face light up when she sees a turtle, or watching her recoil in horror as I hold a sea cucumber out to her. Thanks for sharing that dive with me Hozumi, you will be greatly missed!