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FIFTY SEVEN January 20 - A few months ago I promised Joe that if he pulled up his grades I would get him certified as an Open Water Scuba Diver. He did and this weekend I kept my promise. To say he was excited is an understatement. Up until now, we have been doing a little diving using the Dive Sled but this is the real deal. However, while a great kid Joe is a little shy and lacks some confidence which I know will get stronger with his certification and in general with new fun challenges that require him coming out of his shell. My Scuba Instructor friend Gary is doing the teaching and is great at working with young people.
Joe
and Gary
He will be teaching Joe for two weekends at a resort called Thattata in the town of Zambogita about 20 km south of Dumaguete. This will culminate next weekend with two open water dives at Apo Island noted as one of the top 100 dive spots in the World. I am really excied for Joe. While we at the resort today I noticed some Pump "Outrigger" Boats. This is the kind of boat I want to have built for the purpose of doing Dive and Fishing Safaris with friends around the country and even to Indonesia (Bow and Stern mounted machine guns are a pre-requisite for trips like that LOL). The one I want to build is about 75' feet and will have Sleeping Cabins, Kitchen, Gear Storage, Engine Room and Crew Quarters. The ones below are about 40 feet. The week after next I plan on going on a two day trip to Sipilay to look at the boats Easy Diving is building. One is 81 feet and the other 30 meters which is aproximately 91 feet. WOW!!! Christians (Easy Diving owner) cost for the 90 footer will be about 2 million or $50,000 for a completely finished boat.
In addition to the Pump boat project, I may commission Nigel to build me a center console boat similar to the one I had in Miami. It will cost about $6.000 and then I can put on a 75 horsepower engine. It will probably do about 30 miles an hour if I want to even with a full load of divers and tanks. That will be more practical around Davao in getting to the dive sites quicker. I can also bring it up to Siargao as well. Another thing we saw while at the Thattata resort was a group of Filipinos netting schools of fish. Sounds exciting but the reality is there are ardly any fish anymore near shore but they still put in a big effor to surround an area with nets and then pull them in as a large group.
I can't remember if I spoke about this before but, one of the common occurrences in the Philippines and especially in Dumaguete is the use of motor sccoters by locals to get themselves around. The shocking thing for me and probably most westerners is seeing not only how many fit on these scooters but just who the passengers are. Believe it or not many times it is an infant or young child. Here is just one very common example. Can you imagine trying something like this in the states. Can you say life imprisonment.
2005
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