Dive day #7

By Scuba Bill

One of the problems with Dive vacations is how do I find time to dive, eat, edit photos videos, post in FB, upload pictures and post a daily blog.  Inevitably something(s) get neglected.  Usually it is this blog, so apologies.  When returning to the keyboard after being away for a while, there are so many rich topics to write about - the things we saw, the experiences we had... today I was thinking I would right about my 300th dive or maybe about the lionfish hunting we did today.  Or perhaps about the search (ultimately failed) for the dolphins we heard yesterday echo locating near us.  Instead I'll write about getting sick on your dive vacation.  It happens to all of us at some point, a much anticipated retreat but then you fall ill.  For most vacations, you can usually still try to enjoy yourself.  But, when you are a scuba diver, at a scuba diving resort, and all there really is to do is to eat, sleep and dive (oh year, and write blogs, edit photos and videos, rinse your gear, talk about diving with other divers...), getting sick, well it sucks maybe a bit more than some other recreational vacations.  At first I tried to deny it, chalked it up to some bad water maybe I drank or other unlikely causes but eventually I had to admit that I had developed a sinus infection.  So, for two days, I did what everyone tells you you shouldn't do, and in fact, what I always advise others not to do ... but most of  us divers do it anyway, I take a lot of sudafed, echinacea, hot compresses, afrin, drink a lot of warm soup (extra hot!) and assorted potions, ear tonics, nose and sinus tonics and various assorted pills that everyone swears will make me able to dive without bursting my ear drum or creating a reverse squeeze that makes me dizzy and causes other unwanted underwater issues.  Hey, I'm a professional diver after all ... so I do what I would advise others never to do and I get in the water.  I've now made this sport which is always a bit dangerous, a little bit more, both for me and for those diving with me.  And, for two days I get lucky.  I descend really slowly, the other divers understand and don't mind me hovering above them until I can get down ... but finally I give in.  I skip the afternoon dive and the night dive.  I stop taking all the cover-up drugs and find out that I am still sick.  I'm hoping that an afternoon off and a good nights sleep will find me recovered in the morning so that I can dive on Thanksgiving.  Which was my 2019 plan...