Certification Complete!

I am officially a certified divemaster. Everything is signed off, applications filled out, and my diving on Utila has come to a close. This morning, I wrapped up my course by leading a dive at the Haliburton Wreck site. Then, I led a dive for four people at Black Coral Wall without any instructor supervision. Ok, three have dived with me before since two are related to me and the other does a lot of research with me but still! (The fourth was a young man who had joined the girls' Advanced course for their last adventure dive.) The girls have also finished their course and are now certified Advanced Open Water divers. Tomorrow will be busy with packing and trying to figure out where everything went in the two months I've been here. Tuesday morning, we start our trek home. 

In other news, it looks like my chances of seeing hatchling turtles are gone. Robyn and I spent the last three nights on the beach waiting to see if Lindsey's first turtle nest would hatch. It didn't. Tonight, Robyn, Lindsey, and I loaded up the ATV and headed off only to be stymied by the ATV at the first corner. The right front wheel refused to turn. Yes, the ATV is broken again. (Yes, Dad, the exact same problem you encountered when you rented an ATV from the same shop a couple months ago.) At least the battery is working, I hear you say? I forgot to tell you. It's not. Something in the connection for recharging the battery doesn't work properly and we haven't been able to use the normal method of starting the machine since yesterday morning. Fortunately, the last time the ATV was taken in because of starting issues, the owner installed a kick starter as a back-up. Yes, that's correct--we now kick start our ATV. Anyway, we decided the turtles are unlikely to hatch tonight (it's still a few days before they're due) and that the risk of driving the stupid machine to the beach was too high. Besides, we don't mind catching up on some sleep.