The water temperature is slowly creeping up, and that means... summer is coming soon! Although summer is a little hot down here, it is great for diving and JP, Chris and I are really excited. Not only do the warm water temperatures mean that we don't have to wear wetsuits, but generally, the diving is really fantastic.
Summer means great visibility, like this morning where the visibility at our local sites must have been over 100 feet! Summer means calm seas, so that the bay is like a pond! Summer also means little to no wind (so hotter on land, but great when out diving and snorkeling). Plus... summer is a time when we get a lot of great customers. Not that our winter divers aren't great, but in the summer we seem to get people who come to Saint Martin specifically for the diving! Hotels are cheaper, flights are cheaper, so the people who come in the summer are those thrifty divers who want to save all that money on accomodation and flights and spend it on... you guessed... diving!
Chris, JP and I have been busy this week training potential summer divers. Yesterday we certified Peter from Quebec, as an Open Water Diver. He came out here in December and did a discover scuba dive with us, loved it so much that he came back to do a full open water certification course! He was a realy natural in the water. We also certified Matt this morning, from Chicago, IL. It is interesting that we are getting a lot of students coming on cruise ships. They do a part of their course in every port. The last place being the center that certifies them. This is possible because all PADI courses are taught the same way. Although the instructors may be different, we all follow the same rules, so it is possible to complete separate parts of your certification course at different centers. We have been seeing a lot of this in cruise shippers, and it seems to work really well. So, if you are on a cruise ship and you are interested in getting certified, it is possible to do it this way. Just contact me and I will tell you more.
What else has been happening lately? Well... we are all very excited to have the new compressor in. Chris already told you all about the specifics, but basically it is new, shiny and clean! So I love it. Of course, it is totally more reliable, fills the tanks faster, and adds another filter, so if you come and dive with us, you are getting air that has been filtered 4 times!
Oh... also, we got the new t-shirts in. They are super cool. The t-shirts seem to be more popular than the ladies tanks, although personally I prefer the tanks. My parents are coming in June to visit (yeah!) so I am going to see if they will take some shirts over and then mail them to customers. I know that Greg wants a couple, so I will have them send them. If you are interested then let me know and I will set something up on the website so that people can pay via PayPal. We are asking for $25, but I will have to add a little extra for shipping (I don't think my parents would want to fit the bill for the shipping!).
Chris wants me to post some photos of the new compressor. So here they are!
You can see here, The compressor arriving with a very happy Chris, the installing of the compressor late one night (JP is drinking a beer to help) and then the final photo of the compressor all shiny and new!
Alright, I'm off now. Tomorrow I will blog again! I promise! (this blog was written by sally :))
2 comments:
I had always used Presidente when watching someone install a compressor. Do those little Heinekens work pretty well, too?
Apparently they do, as installation only took 2 hours and the compressor is running great!
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