stubsadventures

Bonaire is an island slightly north of Venezuela and is known for being a divers paradise. I once read that Bonaire was one of Jacques Cousteau’s favorite places to dive. That was all I needed to hear. I worked with a dive adventure company, Caradonna Dive Adventures and they hooked the whole thing up.  The Netherland Antilles are made up of three islands (the ABC Islands), Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. Of the three Bonaire is the quietest.

My first four days were spent diving. While I was there, I got my advanced certification so that in itself required a bunch of dives. I had an awesome dive master and was really glad I had opted for a private guide. The diving was unlike anything I had ever done. They all shuttered to hear that it was the first time I had ever dove in warm water. Until that time, all my diving had either been in the Atlantic off Nova Scotia or lakes. I can see how people get used to diving in the warm water, it felt like a treat to skin dive compared to wearing the full stiff wetsuits you do in the cold water. In the four days of diving, I never spoke to another Canadian. I was the only one skin diving and they all thought I was nuts.

My mission in Bonaire was to lay eyes on a seahorse but I was surprised how many other things I found that were big highlights, seeing the wreck the Hilma Hooker and her huge anchor resting on the bottom, the octopus and squid and just massive schools of fish. On my deep dive, I hit my deepest dive to that date, 119ft.  I was pumped.

As much as I love diving I love all kinds of outdoor adventures, so I arranged a guide for two days to show me the back roads of Bonaire. Hans couldn’t have been more perfect. We went caving in two different systems, on dry, and one wet that we snorkelled through. In the wet cave, we stopped and sat on a ledge, turned our lights off and tiny see through shrimps nibble on your legs.

We toured one of the most interesting national parks I have ever seen. While in the park, we hiked to the highest point on the island, which was a fantastic hike. Hans was pumped because he says very few people actually went all the way to the top and he was excited that I was up for the challenge. The view was totally worth the climb. After that, we went kayaking through some mangroves on another part of the island. The tiny channels were fun to navigate and filled with thousands of baby fish. At one point, we got out and snorkelled up a few of them and it was hard to keep the smile off my face.

An unexpected surprise about my time there was that it was during Carnival! Even though after the days of diving I was pretty tired, you can never turn down partying to amazing live music. There were two parades, one during the day and then the same parade at night at the end of the festival, but all the costumes have lights on them! I was really pumped that I was there for all of it, I met some amazing people from all over the world and shared more than a few Polar (the main beer there).

Stubs.

Watching me complete multiple tasks is generally entertaining. With my short attention span, I find it hard to start a task, fully complete it, then move on. So, what I do is start something, finish it about 95%, then lose interest so I start something else. I’ll finish that about 95%, you get the idea. Once I have about five things on the go, I’ll go back to the first one to finish that. I won’t completely finish it though because I’m still kind of bored with it from doing so much the first go around that I may get to 98%, then again move on. In the past, this has been with little tasks like cleaning, some wall papering, yard work that kind of stuff. I have never before had big ticket items like painting the whole main area.

My goal this week off was to tidy all the loose ends that I had floating out there because once the painting is finished, the next project is larger, so I don’t want to loose focus. I finally finished the mud room and the main hallway, which is a big relief. Kitchen is mostly done and baseboards are all done in the main area. Check check. One room I had also started was the laundry room. I bought these awesome knobs at a place in town and I love them every time I see them. I have some in the living rom and some in the laundry and the best one of all is the seahorse. I have been fascinated with them for a while know and in 2009, was lucky to see two in Bonaire. I had already done probably 7 dives looking for them and had given up when I got invited to go on one more charter. I will always have a clear memory of just floating there in the water with my face about 6 inches away from it. They don’t look like they’re from this world and I like that. After finally seeing some in Bonaire, I got a wicked seahorse tattoo on my ankle.

It is snowing regularly now. The snow here is perfect snowman snow and heavy to shovel. The other night, I went out with the ladies in Calgary and when I got home, I was running back to the house in high heels, a dress, the dog and my bags in about 6 inches of snow.  It might be time to put the hells away for the winter.

Stubs.

As all my great adventures have, this one came from a suggestion. Actually, it started with a dive site in Scotland… but that’s a different story. The Chuuk Lagoon (one of it’s names) is a haven for wreck divers. Over 70 wrecks, in this one lagoon, in the middle of absolutely no where. It will take three days to get there, with an over night in Hawaii and on a tiny island (tiny being 5kms by 5kms) called Chuuk, before I board a live aboard for six days of constant diving. There will be 16 other divers on the boat but there are so many wrecks that you each virtually get your own wreck to explore.

February 17, 1944, the Americans launched an attack on the Japanese who were staged at the lagoon. In that attack, the Americans sank 60 ships and 275 airplanes, which are now all resting at the bottom of the lagoon. Also, among all the wreckage are the remains of their occupants.

Diving is what gets my blood flowing, the challenge and the adventure of it draw me in. In the last few years, I have been reading lots of books about diving and although they get me pumped to get out there, they have also instilled a tremendous respect for the sport. The more I experience and push, the further I want to take it but now it is much more calculated. I research, and for this trip I look forward to memorizing the wrecks before I get there because for the first time, I will be exploring the inside of the wrecks. Some of these wrecks are massive and I plan on seeing as much as possible.

I’ll do two certifications when I’m there, my Nitrox and Trimix. Both have their own benefits, I just like to have my options. Trimix will allow me to go deeper than I have ever gone. Normally, I wouldn’t push the limits just to achieve a certain depth but I will go when there is something worth seeing, as there is in the Chuuk Lagoon. In addition to the first time going in a wreck and deeper than ever before, I will also be diving with two tanks for the first time. I have been diving since I was 18. Although the first couple of years the dives were far and few between  the last couple of years I have stepped it up and figure I have more than 50 dives under my belt. Now, that I’m comfortable in the water, comfortable with the unexpected, I’m ready to take on technical diving. I’m just going to be a sponge and soak up all the information I can during my time on the boat.

March 2013.

Stubs.

Getting my motorcycle license wasn’t something I really talked at all about doing. Deep down inside of me, I was really prepared to be terrible at it. I am one of those people who is not super good at one thing but pretty good at most things in general, so I’m used to picking things up quickly but in the times that I don’t, I get hilariously frustrated. My need for perfection driven by my strong sense of competitiveness can really work against me when things aren’t going well. In the last few years though, I have come to realize that you really can get good at most things, you just have to practice. So, that was my attitude going into this weekend but I was really unsure of which way it was going to go.

The first night, was “the classroom night”. This involved eight of us sitting in a room in the size of my entry way practically, listening to someone talk and watching short video’s on motorcycle basics. This is when I am at my worst. I have the worst case of adult A.D.D. when it comes to classroom settings. I am a doer. Always have been. My attention span is not the greatest at the best of times but it is non-existent in that environment. Watching a bunch of corny, terribly filmed movies about how to brake a motorcycle was not my idea of a good time.

The first morning of actually being on the bikes was freezing and it rained for a little while. Miserable is a good word that comes to mind. Luckily as the morning wore on, it improved. Driving a motorcycle is one of the most concentration required skills I have ever tried to learn. I used to think that diving was bad… you have to be aware of what is going on in every minute but not only that, you must have at least one, maybe two plans of what you’re going to do if something goes terribly wrong. On a motorcycle, it is the same situation but every decision has to be made in a split second. All that, plus, the fact that you are utilizing both hands and both feet at the same time.

Because I have been driving a standard for years, I am pretty good at it (if I do say so myself) so I’m really comfortable with throttle and clutch and how that whole deal works, so that was like one huge thing off my plate that I didn’t have to worry about. I barely stalled at all and never stalled at all on the portion where you take off while you’re on an incline. If I didn’t know that, I would have been in serious trouble. Knowing how to drive a standard is one thing, doing that while bugs are flying in your face, shifting gears with your left foot, breaking with your right, clutch on the left hand, break AND throttle on the right hand. Crazy talk. I look forward to the day I can just hop on one and ride without thinking about it. I do not anticipate that day will be any time soon. I am a motorcycle grasshopper.

Stubs

In the last few days, I have started to explore more and more of the “back 40” they call it here. A system of paths that go through the hills. The main trial system has a trail loop that is 5km but there are so many interlocking trails, you could make a good hike out of it if you really wanted to.

Unfortunately, that is the area that the cougar is hanging out in right now, so I’m a little anxious to do some of the further, more remote parts of the trails until that friendly little fella is removed. Even with it hanging around the neighbourhood, I have stayed closer to the houses and explored a couple of different sections of the river also. The river is fairly shallow the entire length of it but you can kayak it early in the season. This time of year, you can pretty much walk from rock bar to rock bar as long as you don’t mind getting a little wet. Caper does mind. She still to this day hates the water. Sometimes, I can’t believe she’s my dog.

The last couple of weeks, I’ve been filling up the pantry, and preparing my emergency kit. It snowed three days in a row. It is going to be a long winter. With the closest store being 20 minutes away, I want to make sure I have everything to hibernate in comfort this winter. I have a fire every night now because it’s pretty cold when the sun goes down. It’s been below zero at night for the last two weeks or so. I actually love cold weather for some reason, so I’m not worried about the long winter but everyday more and more I realize how much work it takes to live outside out of the city. Between chopping wood, preparing for the winter, trying to unpack the house, painting for four days, and managing to hike around and have lots of awesome people come out to check out the place, the days have been exhausting. Because the room that is eventually going to be the den needs a lot of work, I just decided to leave the room empty until it’s done and all that furniture is piled in the future “adventure planning centre” aka, the office. That means that I haven’t had any TV since I lived here, not even to watch movies (I haven’t had cable in the last five years). I thought that was going to really bother me, especially at night when it is quiet but I find myself often just sitting next to the fire and enjoying the quiet. I know it will end, eventually I have to go back to work, haha.

Stubs.

Well, the first bear experience here wasn’t exactly what I had pictured but I suppose I’ll have to take it. I was in my room and I could hear it from in there. You could hear it breathing, clear as day. I had my canoe on the side of the house and it was filled with a bunch of stuff from the garage, so I wasn’t overly concerned with getting that unpacked right away. It was just sitting in the yard with a tarp over it. I could hear the bear trying to get the tarp off the canoe. From any of the windows, I couldn’t see it  unfortunately but I stood by the window and listened for a while. The next day, I was talking to the neighbour, who had seen it pulling on the tarp and she said it was a big black bear. Luckily, I didn’t have anything worthy of bear food in the canoe, so nothing was damaged.

The next day, a friend came out to check out the place, and we headed out for the first time in the Waiparous back 40 they call it. You can get there from my house, so it’s an ideal place to walk Caper. When we get to the trail head, there is a sign saying that there is a problem cougar in the area and fish and wildlife were attempting to remove it from the area. Needless to say, that’s the kind of hike you’re never really very comfortable on. “Problem cougar” never really sits well with me.

The house sits at about 4500ft about sea level, which means the snow is early to come, and long to stay. Yesterday we got the first snowfall of the season and not just a few flakes either. Almost time for snowboarding.

Stubs.