To continue our 2-tank dives to the Western part of the island my dive buddy and I planned a dive at Playa Forti, also known as Sweet Alice, almost at the most Western tip of the island and a second dive at Daaibooi, more in the middle of the island. Both sites have a lot of nice sponges.

My dive buddy recently found out that we didn't do any dive in the most Western part of the island this year. Although the island is small, driving from where I live to the most Western part of the island takes about 1 hour, so when you live in the Eastern part and want to dive in the Western part it is often a good idea to make 2 dives instead of only 1. Our choice for these 2 dives were Playa Piskadó at Westpunt for the first dive and Playa Lagun for the second dive. 

September is always the month that Coral Spawning can be expected in Curaçao. A few years ago I participated in the yearly repeated research by Reef Care Curaçao of this phenomena. Purpose of that research was to gather sufficient data to get to a reasonably reliable prediction of the dates of the yearly coral spawning. In 2013 the prediction was that coral spawning would occur in the period of 22 to 28 September.

On Monday I was at the dive shop of Trunkdivers Curaçao when I overheard some people talking about a famous person who was seen at the bar of Kokomo Beach. The name, Sidney Samson, didn't ring a bell. Apparently a famous Dutch DJ, who was contracted to perform at the Full Moon party at Kokomo on Friday, March 1, 2013. That explained why I didn't know him. I am from the wrong generation for this kind of parties. At least that is my opinion. For anyone who wants to know more about him, check his website (as I did).

Later that morning he came to the dive shop with the question if it was possible to get a dive certificate within the period that he would be on the island. That was possible provided he would start that same day with an introductory dive. So an hour later, after the basic information that is necessary to do such a first dive safely was explained to him, he was fully dressed up to go under water.

Under water we did a few excercises which all went without any problem and then we started our tour under water. Everything went as can be expected for a first-timer under water. After close to 40 minutes we surfaced; he had enjoyed every minute of his first experience under water and he had no doubt that he wanted to proceed to get a full Open Water certificate before Friday. Appointments for the remainder of the 6-dive course were quickly made.

When Sea&Sea came out with the DX-1G I bought that camera; that is more than 5 years ago. I learnt to live with the shortcomings especially the dark LCD-panel when shooting on manual and the unacceptable amount of noise when shooting at more than ISO 100 and in general I was very pleased with the camera. But the camera started to show defects after five years of intensive use (more than 20,000 pictures). So it was time for a replacement. Sea&Sea discontinued the DX-1G and its successor the DX-2G so buying just a replacement for the camera and continue diving with the housing and the wet lenses was no option. Taking my topside DLSR under water was an option but the housing and ports make that a costly one. Since a few years there is an in-between, the Micro 4/3 camera; in essence the concept of the DLSR but without the mirror and thus with a more compact body. With a size between the compact P&S camera and the DSLR but with a larger sensor than the P&S and with the flexibility of interchangeable lenses.