After I arrived, I had a day of fun diving. It was a really nice day with 3 spectacular dives: 2 Bargibanti Pygmee’s on the first, 5 (yes five) frogfish on the second and a pygmee squid, which I had never seen before. And than the night dive at Jahir: in the first ten minutes we were so lucky to see: a stargazer, a reptilian snake eel and a bobbit worm (also a first for me J). And even though that was amazing it didn’t stop. We also saw 4 coconut octopuses, 2 ambon scorpionfish, 2 frogfish, another stargazer and many more critters. What a great welcome back!
As this is my third trip to Two Fish Lembeh, I already knew that everything is very well organised. As a guest that is a very nice thing. As a DMT, however, it took me quite some time to figure out what I could do to help out. It took me about this whole first week to get into the rhythm of helping out with tanks, spare equipment, first aid, etc. But now I have and it’s nice to be able to be more than just an observing guest.
Theresia (our very experienced DM, who finished her course the day before I arrived) and Caroline (our yoga teacher) showed me the progress that was going on at the artificial house reef and we took a concrete block down there to secure the pyramid that Lewis put there.
As a DMT I’ve been able to assist in Gerry’s (one of the guides) rescue course, which was a lot of fun. Also I’ve done a fair bit of skills practice; figuring out where to put my weights so I can stay nicely at the bottom and face up in the water whilst trying to demonstrate skills with a professional smile, was a challenge and a lot of fun (hanging upside down during weight belt and scuba unit removal and replacement under water is not necessarily the right way to demonstrate). And I got to be “divemaster on the boat”. I did a boat briefing, which was very fun. Apart from one, all of the guests had already 
been diving with the Lukisan, so they already knew everything. But still everybody listened carefully and even applauded afterward (which -I must say- made me feel a little bit awkward). Also, after this briefing all guests were so nice to tell me their tank pressure going in and coming out and their max. depth, without my asking. The weather happened to be very nice and sunny, so I had a nice time on the roof sunbathing and trying to follow bubbles, while the guests were diving.
More to come later as I progress through the course……
