Little Corn Island 3 - SCUBA

The island won us over immediately but we came here with a goal beyond relaxation and exploration, SCUBA diving. For the past 2ish years we talked about getting SCUBA certified. We considered starting the course in a pool, I talked to a friend who started in a pool and never finished, it discouraged me. We considered doing it while on vacation a few times but it always seemed like it would take over the vacation. So this time, we made it the point of our vacation. We signed up at Dive Little Corn when we booked our lodge and even got a small discount for extra motivation. Our plan was arrive and start the course the following day. This is what really happened.

A week before the trip, I got a sinus infection and cough. The cough lingered, I postponed our diving to the second half of our trip. Checked in at the dive shop and picked up our books so we could get some of the classroom work out of the way and avoid sitting in a classroom. We packed our books and grabbed a new friend and hiked across the island for a day of reading on the north beach.

I am sure my dissertation would have been way less stressful if I worked on it here.

Taking a study break to enjoy the view. 

We swam, read, did most of our chapters and then got on with our day. 

We were having fun waiting for our course and calculating how many dives we could fit in before flying home. It was nice to start our vacation without a schedule. We showed up for our first day in the dive shop to watch videos. Sadly, there was no way to do it outside so we plopped down in some plastic charis by the fan and watched the material. We learned that the PADI organization  has an odd, extremely cheesy sense of humor. We also learned that divers have more fun than regular people. After days of videos and exams it was time to get in the water for confined dives. Now this is the part that you do in a pool or still water. Unfortunately the water was not being still, even close to shore where they typically have pool like conditions. Soon, we were out of the water without having checked off any of our confines. We left for the day.

It was hard to get turned away but we could see the wind was not dying down. We hoped for better conditions the following day.

The wind kept up, dives were canceled for 2 days. Not just ours, both dive shops on the island were stuck on land. We kept ourselves occupied. 

We found the harse.

We enjoyed the waves even though they were the enemy.

Then Sunday came and we realized our return flight was looming. We looked at the situation logically and discussed options. There was a real chance we would not make it to certification if we couldn't get back in the water soon. We took the theoretical exam then sat outside the dive shop and watched the Cargo ship unload while waiting for the results. We both passed. Then it became time to face the fact that we may need to finish our dives elsewhere. I did not like that plan at all. I wanted ocean dives, spent time preparing myself for ocean dives and did not want to return to my land locked home without seeing a clawless Caribbean lobster in its natural habitat.