First Scuba Diving Trip! (Bunaken Island)

About a month ago I took the PADI open water course and received my open water diving certification. It was a whirlwind busy 3 days filled with videos to build my knowledge, quizes, training in the pool and then 4 dives. Luckily I had an amazing instructor who really took the time to ensure I thoroughly understood all the knowledge and theory behind diving.

Since Ted already has his diving certification, I was super excited to have mine so we could plan a trip to go diving together. Before moving to Bali, diving had never been on my list of things to do. But after moving here, I began talking to people who dive and learned that this area has some of the most beautiful dive spots in the world. I felt like I had to capitalize on this wonderful opportunity.

Our trip to Bunaken Island....

Bunaken island is a small island that's about 8 square km and is part of the Bunaken National Marine Park. You may be thinking...where in the world is this island? I was wondering the same thing! It's located on the northern tip of the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. More than 4,000 people live on this island.

From Bali we took a 2 hr 15 min direct flight north to the small city of Manado which is located on the mainland. We arrived in the evening so we stayed overnight in Manado and then took a 45 minute boat ride out to Bunaken island the next morning.

Waiting to board the boat at the port in Manado

view of the city of Manado from our hotel

We stayed at the SeaBreeze Resort which provided us with our breakfast, lunch, and dinner each day. We had a cozy bungalow equipped with all the basics: a bed, mosquito net, fan, running water with a sink, toilet and shower.

view of our resort

Here's our Bungalow!

Our daily schedule: breakfast, diving, lunch, reading, napping, playing cribbage, dinner, sleeping! REPEAT for 5 days!

We typically ate breakfast around 7:30, grabbed our gear and boarded the boat by 8:30, did 2 dives and arrived back at the resort around 1:30, quick shower, ate lunch, read our books and passed out, read some more, played some cribbage, ate dinner around 7:30 and were in bed before 10! It was a much needed relaxing vacation!

Each day we ventured off to a new dive spot not far from the resort. I was incredibly nervous on the first day and only mildly nervous by the last day! I was so worried I would forget what I had learned in my course a few weeks earlier....equalize your ears, keep breathing, find your buoyancy with the weights, your BCD and your breathing, safety stop, etc....I'm a rule follower and wanted to make sure I did everything right. Luckily I had Ted as my buddy. He was so patient and calm with me even when he continuously kicked me with his fins because I was swimming SO close to him at times!

Here are some funny and breathtaking memories from the trip:

During my first dive on day 1, I rocketed down to 26 meters without even realizing it. I started swimming down to the other group and Ted had to come down to get me and bring me back up to 20 meters. Oops!

I was having some trouble figuring out my buoyancy....clearly the 4 kg weights on dive 1 were too much as I went plummeting down the first day, but 2.5 kg proved to be just a bit to light since I'm not that great at being proactive with staying neutrally buoyant yet. 3 kg weights proved to be the most successful and allowed me to have more stability and less dramatic changes in my buoyancy with changing depths.

On one dive we were in the shallows, I think around 5 meters to do our safety stop, but I could suddenly feel my body rising and I didn't react quick enough so... I ascended up to the surface. On the way up I glanced down at Ted and our instructor and just waved as I floated up and they continued to stay put. It was funny, but I quickly learned how I needed to adjust when I get to the shallows so I don't do that again!
On another dive, I looked around for Ted and noticed he was swimming above me. I remember thinking, "Why did he go up and not stay with me?" Well actually, he didn't go up. I went down but didn't realize it....next investment will be my own dive computer so I can always check my depth.
On yet another dive we went up to about 12 meters and I could feel myself rising again so I grabbed onto Ted who then made me grab onto a rock. The instructor quickly came over and pulled my butt down while dropping another weight into my belt! Quick thinking! After that dive I stuck to 3 kg and was much more aware of my depth and how much air I had in my BCD. By the end of the week I was able to control my buoyancy much better!

The visibility was sooo clear and there was so much life down there! I loved swimming through the schools of fish and staring at their faces as they got so close to me.
Since I haven't been diving much, I was excited by EVERYTHING that I saw! But some of the highlights were spotting the tiny nubi branches, scorpion fish (they camouflage so well into the rock and coral), lion fish, a giant barracuda, tons of turtles, a sea snake, an octopus that took our instructor's metal stick when he tried to poke it, a huge puffer fish, a moray eel hiding in the rock with just his head peaking out, and a Napoleon.
I really loved watching the turtles as they were nestled in the rock then watched them as they slowly swam out into the deep blue...
And of course I had to dance....I love the weightless feeling and sometimes caught myself just wanted to spin and twirl around! During our 3 minute safety Ted and I did some ballet moves. My favorite was when Ted was vertical in the water as he attempted to be in first position and a huge turtle swam behind him out in the blue. Wish I could have captured that on film! (oh yeah....so we brought the GoPro, but it fell off Ted's clip on dive 2 and is somewhere out at sea. sad day.)
As we relaxed on the boat between our final two dives on the last day, we were lucky enough to spot some dolphins near the boat swimming by. :)
I loved falling asleep listening to the rain pounding on the roof of our bungalow.

Diving is absolutely amazing. You get to see a world that is virtually hidden from us on the surface. The vast amounts of beautiful colored coral and animal life is absolutely breathtaking. Describing it in words does not even do it justice. And I love the feeling of being weightless under the water! I can't wait until our next adventure! :)

The views from our resort...