Boat Day
I am a person who usually enjoys boats and swimming in jersey, so it came as no surprise that I enjoyed today in Croatia, the weather was very nice and we were surrounded by beautiful landscapes. I would say the main point I took from this was how much the weather has an effect on the activities we do. If it had been raining all day, as it so often does in jersey, it may not have been as enjoyable. I wouldn’t say the day was particularly challenging as I found it relaxing, however, I saw that there were other people in the group who also live on a small island that weren’t comfortable with water in the same way as me. This reminded me of how different people can be despite growing up on the same island, going to the same school and living next to each other. These differences are a good thing however, as our differences are what create our individual charm.
Matt
Today was our snorkelling day, and boy was it fun! The day started early with breakfast, then almost immediately into the diving company’s vans to head down to the diving place. Once we’d arrived, the diving instructors began to get us geared for the day, and then we were headed towards the boat. It was somewhat of a surprise when I found out we were not the only group on the trip. The others were all scuba diving so sadly, there was not a lot of involvement with the other groups as we kept to ourselves on the upper deck of the boat while they also kept to themselves on the lower deck. It would have been interesting to interact with them a little more, to find out about them and their passions for diving and the sea. I’ve always been rather comfortable in the ocean with swimming, it’s the getting in that’s the problem for me. But, with a mindset of “I’m just going to go and do it and love it because I won’t get this opportunity again”, I just got in the water as soon as I could and once I was in it was so freeing. It was such a beautiful experience to be able to swim so close to such much beauty and wildlife and to be able to see the world that exists just under us, because we tend to forget it’s there a lot of the time.
I felt that the first dive was, for me, a sort of ‘getting-used-to-it’ swim and although I noticed and observed some of what was around me, I spent most of it focused on my mask and my snorkel and making sure I wasn’t inhaling water and such. On the second dive however, I was a lot more comfortable, and that meant that I was a lot more able to experience what was going on around me in the water and I loved it so much more. I felt so much more confident and that allowed me to forget about myself and just experience the maritime world I was in so much more.
Ruairi
