Advanced Open Water Certification - Check!

Kerriann and I finished our advanced class yesterday, so are now able to go on some of the deeper dives in the area. I'm pretty excited, though diving five dives in less than 48 hours is too tiring for us noobs.

Highlights of my dives from the advanced class:

San Luis Beach (Night Dive) Friday, July 15, 2011 ~7 PM
I did this dive without K, as she had some other more...interesting things to do that evening.

1. Huge (2 ft +) puffer fish hanging out behind a rock. While I've seen several of these of various sizes so far, I've never seen one puffed up.
2. Elephant ear sponges, one about 3 ft in diameter.
3. Black sea urchins about the size of a softball - moving around. I've always thought of these as sedentary, so it was really cool to see them moving along the coral.
4. The full moon was out, and you could see it from a depth of 40 feet.

American Tanker (Wreck Dive) Saturday, July 16, 2011 ~2:30 PM
This was a boat dive in Apra Harbor in the Navy Base.

1. Swam length of 300+ ft long tanker on the bottom of the harbor.
2. Swam in a door and out through a hole in the roof of a small room on the stern of the tanker.
3. Had to fight the urge to "right" myself in the water, as the tanker leans to the side.
   
4. "Titanic" bow photo op.

Finger Reef (Deep Dive) Saturday, July 16, 2011 ~4 PM
Second stop on the boat.

1. Deepest dive to date (97 ft) and essentially to the limits I'm now certified for.
2. Geeked out on science and color changes at different depths due to red light not penetrating as deep as blue light.
3. Sea turtles!
4. Huge school of 12+ inch fish off in the distance - very spooky dark blob following us.
   

Clipper Landing (Navigation Dive) Sunday, July 17, 2011 ~2:30 PM

1. Lost my buddy (Kerriann) during a navigation test with a compass since I swam too fast for her without checking that she was following (oops! won't do that again).
2. Big confidence boost navigating the perimeter of a 10,000 sq. ft. section of reef alone using only a compass and ending up exactly where I started.
3. Swam as shark bait for the entire dive as the knee that I injured getting into the water continued to bleed for over an hour in the ocean.

Gab Gab Beach (Multilevel Dive) Sunday, July 17, 2011 ~ 6 PM

1. More turtles.
2. Completed certification!
   

(There wasn't a lot of new stuff to see on the last two dives as they were mostly about completing skills in the water.)

Note: All photos are still not mine, as I have not yet purchased a camera. Some were found on scubaguam.com, while others are my best approximation of what I saw from some pics found through Google image searches.