Underwater information overload!

Today was my first day of diving and wow - it is I-N-C-R-E-D-I-B-L-E!!!!!  I'm not even sure I can remember all the cool stuff I saw and I just got out of the water a couple of hours ago.  The visibility was excellent in my book at about 90-100 feet but I was told that it was about a 5 on a scale of 10 so I have better viz to look forward to.  I just downloaded my dives from my dive computer so I'll profile each one:

Dive One
Site:  Nudi Rock
Dive Buddy:  Josh Beitz
Other divers:  Doug Beitz, Anna and Jess (Jess is Josh's girlfriend and Anna is her mom) - all from Australia - great people
Duration:  52 minutes
Max Depth:  65ft
Visibility:  90 ft
Outside temp:  86.5 degrees F
Water temp: range from 82.4 - 86 degrees F

This of course was my first dive so I was still dialing in my weight and buoyancy but there was still a TON of things to appreciate while I got more comfortable.  First of all - the coral is plentiful and amazing!  HUGE, huge pieces that dwarf me easily.  Anna is doing a resort dive course so her depth was limited to 30 feet but it really didn't matter where you were - it was great everywhere so I hung with them for a while and she spotted a lion fish out in the open.  First of all - these are rare to see anywhere in the world and to see one out in the open is even more rare so I was glad she spotted it!  I saw a gorgeous turquoise blue and black nudibranch.  Josh and I played with a black flat worm just danced along.  See pic below

I saw an octopus hiding out in a crevice but he didn't do much so I left him alone.  Towards the end of the dive we saw a sea turtle swimming out in front of us and then in to the big blue pacific ocean.  Lot's of  nemo fish guarding their host anenome and eggs.  We all saw something different because there was soooo much to see.

We brought Anna and Jess back to the marina during our surface interval as they only wanted to do one dive so Josh, Doug, Salek (sp?) and I b.s.'d and off-gased the nitrogen stored in our bodies.  Salek is a local Kosraen and will be either boat captain or diving with me/us the next several days.  On to dive two.........

Dive Two

Site:  Shark Island

Buddy:  Doug Beitz

Other divers:  Salek

Duration:  64 minutes

Max Depth:  50ft
Visibility:  100ft

Outside temp:  86.0 degrees

Water temp: range from 82.4 - 85.3 degrees

How can we top the first dive?!  Well, we dive a second time!  Ran into a puffer fish fully blown up which was much larger than I had ever seen on previous sightings in other geographical locations.  Doug had tried to get my attention earlier so I only saw him hiding in beneath a coral head - sorry Hannah.  We came upon an octopus who was mobile until he settled down on a large hard coral head.  I missed him until that point but hung out with him for about 3 minutes waiting for more movement which never came.  I was still working on my comfort level in the water so think I was too close for him to feel comfortable to let loose.  Oh well - there's always tomorrow. :-)  The highlight of the dive was when a school of large barracuda came upon  us along the reef.  Doug immediately shot video while Salek and I took it in from reef side.  Then Doug followed them out into the big blue until we couldn't see him any more.  Salek and I chilled by the reef for a minute or two shrugging our shoulders as we couldn't see Doug.  Then he came slowly swimming back to the reef.  Check out the video he shot here - it was an amazing sight...... http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1994313823922&oid=101299289627&comments 

After dive two we ate some amazing fish sandwiches and made our way back to the resort where I lazed around for the afternoon.