October 30, 2023 at 6:02 pm
· Filed under pottery 陶
Ya, we’re glazing, finally! With so many colors (Amaco), the fun part begins.
It’s the week 5 of our six weeks session. The teacher suggests the app Clay Lab to keep truck of our pieces.
Glazing in pottery, I feel is a part of science and part of art: two shades mixing up will turn into totally different colors, when you apply differently – like this one: the top is obsidian under white, and the bottom under grey. The result is so drastic.
I glazed three pieces: my flower and mini sauce dish. My turtle is missing a leg and pumpkin was broken into pieces. This pumpkin is made by a classmate who’s not coming back – I’m practicing on it.
I saw this ad for a small cruise going to Galapagos, when the diver only has a snorkeler.
“It’s a free dive,” the master said. Then he looked closer, and said, “I would fail her: wearing snorkeler is fine but it shouldn’t be in the mouth …”
Ha, one of the misleading advertisements.
Galápagos Islands is part of Ecuador, population 33,000 (2020), in the eastern Pacific Ocean, around the equator. It’s about 5 hour fly from Miami. The normal cruises that offer diving, is during the port time, using the land diving operators.
Diving from the boat, is liveaboard that offered overnight stay, can get in 5 dives a day (of course you can do less …)
After Open Water Diver, comes SSI’s continuing education: Advanced Adventurer. They call it specialty course. The reading material for this bundle is 160 pages. It has 12 sections, with overview and quiz but no exam, at the end.
Section 5 Navigation, done in two hours, review and practice of how to use compass. We went outside to practice, counting out steps. A little silly tho… who’d count their kicks in the water?
The shop sells writing pad too – the slates. One of the slates is Saekodive, made by a Taiwan company. Wondering is it as good as Sherwood and Genesis brands?
Not sure how useful a slate can be. I’ve no desire to buy one at the moment.
There was another lesson going on prior to ours. It has only one student. On the table, are many gadgets and the tv screen says Communication
Underwater communication devices Surface communication devices
Please be advised locks must be removed daily or they will be removed if left on.
Thank you.
A common practice at the health clubs as well, that you can not lock a locker overnight / to yourself. (Some health clubs do rent them out, monthly or annually, when and where you can keep a locker to yourself.) But a week later, someone wrote FU … I take it means fuck you?
… actually I didn’t get it at first glance bec I’ve two mates on my tennis team with Fu as their last name … one’s primary school teacher.
It’s a dive social, coincides with the halloween party. Some mates baked a cake and cookies, pizza ordered, I brought two bottles red wine – no one touched it except me lol. … no one drinks wine in a dive bar … ha ha ha.
Meeting other divers from previous classes is great – you need a buddy to dive after all. If you’ve no one to dive with, you’ll have to hire a dive master. Unless you’re on a private boat.
As door prizes, I won the very good looking t shirt for wearing my face mask.
October 23, 2023 at 2:36 pm
· Filed under Sail & kayak
Went to lunch with my tennis buddies at Hooks. Afterward, one of them offered to take us fishing.
It’s a beautiful day, with calm water under a clear blue skies. Hook’s doesn’t have a deck hand, and the water is several feet below the normal waterline on the shore. The buddy said, it’s the global warming … which makes in and out of the sailing boat a little difficult.
The shipwrecks … are usually sit at the bottom of the water. But these two have been there for a while. The owner(s) really should have towed them away.
The two buddies went out on Sunday and caught many fish … So they took us to the same spot again. Although I saw many fish jumping out of the water, however, I’ve no luck to lure one onto my hook. One of them comfort me, by saying, “… that’s why it’s called fishing, not catching.” ha ha ha
Under ‘no camera’ rule, & 1st time use the dive phone case.
The cave is tiny.
Now is the off season and I found it to be crowded at time. The dive master said during the season, it was much more crowded.
The iconic photo is all there is – which I saw long before the diving. So when I knew our checkout dive would be there, I was excited.
Through two sections of stairs (one is very narrow), that leads you down to the cave, you see the iconic photo.
The cave is privately owned. It was formed by a karst window. The human and animal bones found in the cave were of about the same age, 13,000 years ago. The spring water is 72° year around. On a cold day, the white moist rises through the opening on the ground, hence the name.
The place is popular as a training site for divers. The snorkelers are mostly tourists for photo ops – the language I heard were distinctively foreign.
The diving experience: The terrain is rocky which makes it interesting but with too many divers, it feels uncomfortable. I bruised my legs from the rockers. What I’m looking for in open water diving is wide opened space, leisurely pace, and colorful creatures. Hopefully I’ll accomplish them on my own dive.
We met up at the shop at 7:30am, arrived at Devil’s Den at 10am. The next 50 minutes is spent on paperworks, signatures, orientation, waiting for the last mate to arrive … There are a lot of papers to be signed – so do leave enough time … “why not done this online?” They replied, online could not do all …
Before the dive, we spent considerable time in the pool – because we didn’t get the last pool time on Thursday.
One of our mates is bit of timid who always needed extra TLC. Didn’t get out of the pool till 2:15. A little snack break, then heading to the Den at 3:10. Done two dives by 5 and went to the first meal of the day at 5:40. It’s a long day.
The final of the owd was administered after reviewing Section 6 by Ralph. Ed was taking notes on Ralph and grading him: I like how Ed runs his business, and SSI, so far.
On test: little old Irene failed because she should have reviewed but didn’t, and scored only 78% out of 50 questions, and SSI requires 80%. I get it. It’s your life on the line, dive or die -:)
We then went over the test. Should have practiced in the pool afterward, but it was too late, we left early and will practice at the pool at Devil’s Den on Sunday.
P.S. So, the old little Irene studied overnight and went back to take it again the following day – it’s Test B – and passed with 92% – should be 96% because two questions she didn’t read closely … oh well … I embezzled the green pen. Ed went over the 4 mistakes I made – really appreciated it.
… I might have passed the first time, IF I didn’t point out that the grader left one mistake unaccounted, which made it 80%. Oh well … it’s me, old habit is hard to change.
Ya, we’re glazing, finally! With so many colors (Amaco), the fun part begins.
