I break for SHARKS!

Ok - so I know I should be studying - after all, I only have 2 more weeks to go until finals. But if I can't actually be diving, I'll settle for blogging about it.

So - it was my first actual boat dive - Maui, HI in June. I was on the dive boat, and our dive master was explaining the hand signals for the various aquatic life, safety basics - the usual. Anyway, he explains that Molokini is home to different species of sharks and puts his hand sideways against his forehead (dive sign language for shark). He says if he gives us that sign, don't panic. He tells us that divers almost never get bitten because to sharks, we don't look like food with all that gear on. Besides, the reef is teeming with other things that keep sharks quite happily fed. Still, I was concerned. Until that day, my only encounter with sharks had been watching "Jaws."

As soon as I descended, our guide gave us the shark sign - on my FIRST dive! Sure enough, there was a white tip reef shark close enough to touch (it seemed). They are beautiful, magnificent creatures, and I wasn't scared at all - because it was only a baby! I was a little concerned about running into the mother, but no such luck. Suffice to say, seeing a shark on my first ever SCUBA dive and I was....bitten (by the SCUBA bug, not the baby shark).

For those of you out there who have never been on a dive boat, I'm throwing in a picture of what one looks like. I'm told this is a pretty good dive boat, all things considered. I've never been on a live aboard trip, or had the pleasure of being a guest on someone's fabulous yacht, but I had imagined dive boats being more.... luxurious? I imagined there would be somewhere to stretch out in the sun, somewhere to make snacks, relax... no such luck. Most boats are pretty bare bones in my experience. In fact, I've actually been on worse dive boats than this. At least this one had an upper storage! I'm the girl sitting down, listening intently to the dive master. I don't know who the other two people are. It looks like I'm wearing some kind of weird eye gear, but it's the vest in the background. But the thing is, once you're on a dive boat, all you can think about is getting in the water. There's no time for shuffle board on the Lido Deck!

So my first ever boat dive was a complete success. In fact, I was one of the last ones to ascend, and I still had about 500 PSI. Ha! See ya - Jenny Mo