Early morning! Alarm at 7 for breakfast, final preparations, and then off to Crystal Diving Center. It was me, Victor, Stefan, Daniel and Kasper. After filling out some forms, our diving instructors Tina and Dav had a short theoretical introduction and then off to get the gear. Swimsuits, fins, masks, and then the vest with a tank. Gear up and into the pool for some practical training. Some were more uncomfortable than others but we all got through it.
Lunch at a local restaurant and then off to the boat! It was parked at a pier, outside two other boats that we had to enter and walkthrough. Why build a bigger port…
Took about an hour to get to the diving site, Mango Bay, on the north side of the island. It was quite windy on the west side so it was good to go around the corner.
Swimsuit and gear on, then just jump in the water. We went three at the time. Me, Victor, and Stefan went first. Slowly descend along a rope and equalize the ears until we hit the bottom at 10 meters. Some small technical exercises to get our bearings and then off to explore some. Still very supervised and on a “short leash” but a fantastic feeling to just float around in the water, breathing and watching fish and corals. Stefan had a tendency to swim away from the group so Tina renamed him McSwimmy, Stamp, could you do us a favor on CCO, please? 
After 29 minutes we ascended again, got onboard the boat, and let the second group (Tintin, Kasper, and a British guy named Leo) jump in.
Leo had some issues with his ears so after two tries he gave up and Tintin and Kasper went down on their own with the instructors. After their dive was done the boat continued to another dive site, the lighthouse. This time the whole group got down together but once again Leo had troubles with his ears and had to abort. We swam on and explored the bottom, a bit more rock and less sand equals better visibility, and it’s wildlife.
This time we could move around a bit more freely and just follow the general direction of the instructor. Again around 30 minutes in the water and then back to port. When we rounded the “corner” of the island the wind hit us rather hard and the boat tossed around in pretty big moves. The captain had to take a detour to enter the harbor safely.
Back at the diving center we cleaned up the equipment, paid the rest of the fees, and then looked for something to eat. The others came into town but only Magnus joined us at the place we had chosen for dinner. After the whole day, all of the divers were pretty worn and tired so we shopped some candy and then took a taxi back to the resort. The rest stayed behind and continued the evening.
Now I’m sitting on the balcony in the wind, listening to music and writing this post. I couldn’t bring a camera to the diving but there was a photographer that dived with us, I’ll get more pictures in a couple of days, hence the very few so far. Overall a fantastic day!