Third week has just flown by here on beautiful Bunaken and the weather (and visibility – yeah!) has improved significantly. Now it is as beautiful as I remember it three and a half years ago.

I’ve passed some of the major milestones in the program, i.e. skills assessment and the first part of the theoretical exam, and I have been assisting the instructors in some of the courses conducted. Under Yadis, Amos and Hiros supervision I’ve also been introduced to how a compressor works and managed to compress tanks without fatalities.

As far as wildlife spotting goes, this has been a good week for some massive turtles and for sharks. I was fortunate enough to be able to tag along on one of my fellow DMT Zara’s shark dives in which we saw several black tip reef sharks. Dion claimed to have spotted seven while I only saw five and suspect that I may have counted one of them twice. But that was impressive enough!

For next week I fear it is time for the dreaded swim tests. I haven’t swam 400 meters since high school and I’ve never swam 800 meters with a snorkel before. Quite sure I’ll  be able to perform the tests but high grades are  unlikely. 🙂