Well, I had a fantastic week in Vanuatu with a great bunch of people, mostly from Brisbane, and only my bosses and I from Cairns, and 3 from Brissy crew that I already knew.  Highly recommend joining trips with other randoms as you meet some great new people that way. Heres us (minus 1 missing) at the airport awaiting departure, Im tucked away hiding at the middle back.
(will post more about the trip and dives over the next few days as I go through the photos and load a trip report).
Anyhoo, I came home determined with new goals.
Absolutely loved exploring the Pres. Coolidge shipwreck – knew I would as I love wrecks, but the depths worried me a little – and by the end of the week we got to the engine room and about 45mtrs.
We also did the USS Tucker wreck and a lovely reef called Mal Mal E reef. But it is the wreck dives that excite me more.
Problem 1:Â most wrecks are quite deep, and as I have mentioned in a previous post I have put back on a lot of weight I lost pre-diving, so I am obese, pushing 50, not super fit, like a drink and pretty much tick off most of the risk factors for decompression illnesses!!
Problem 2:Â I am a recreational diver level (albeit an experienced one with 800 or so dives to date and an AOW instructor) so I am only certified to 40 mtrs depth, and while travelling if something happens deeper than that my insurance wont cover me unless I am that deeper depth with an instructor on a course.
Whats a gal gonna do? Set some goals to solve those problems and stick to them – im finally in the right headspace to do so, and aside from a pesky cold I picked up in Vanuatu (go figure!) Im almost back to health after months of cold & flu and then pneumonia.
So, here they are, thrown out in to the ether, to remind me what I have to stick to!
- Get back to my daily walk up the Red Arrow track here – great for cardio and training for climbing Walsh’s Pyramid which my boss and I have decided to do by August 2018. Its a beast and needs to be conquered – said I would do it before I left Cairns when I arrived 2 years ago, and my boss has been here 20yrs and hasnt done it yet.  Also need to do some strength/resistance training 3 x a week.
2. Reduce (not eliminate – Im too old to start stopping things I enjoy in life) my alcohol intake, and watch my food intake. Im not going on any ‘diet’, lifes too short for that shit, but I am going back to recording my food intake on my app which always makes me conscious of calories in vs calories out. My motto here, and when I successfully lost weight previously was “if I can track it, I can eat/drink it” and as long as calories out over the week exceeded the calories in, with a good mix of macro-nutrients generally, then that is good enough.
3. Go up to Lake Eacham more often and practice deep dives, where I max out my deco times, and have to practice those extra deco stops. Also do some extended range courses and sidemount training before this time next year as I am looking at a trip to Truk Lagoon in 2019.
4. Schedule my time better, ensuring I get at least 3 billable hours of work done a day, exercise time, scuba study time, and relaxation time, plus a good 7 hrs sleep.
Things will hopefully then start falling in to place to get me diving deeper, more safely and confidently.
Id say ‘wish me luck’ but it is determination, right choices and willpower that will achieve these, not luck.