Location: Kalong, Indonesia
Today we woke up to a beautifully semi-cool morning. Chloe, Shuman, and Bo made challah french toast – also known as the best french toast ever. All of our rescue divers in training got to practice some more skills today, which was both educational and entertaining. After lunch, we picked up anchor and headed to the island Kalong which is known for its immense amount of flying foxes that awaken at sunset and fly over the bay area. We made it to the anchorage at around 4 pm and were able to pick whatever spot we wanted, which proved to be amazing because as it got later in the day, more and more boats kept arriving at this anchorage to experience the flying foxes. The amount of live-aboard boats that filled the bay blew all of our minds. There were SO MANY boats around us! Once the flying foxes started flying out from the mangroves, we all just gathered on deck and watched in a trance as not tens, not hundreds, not thousands, but HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of flying foxes emerged and flew over the top of us! They were absolutely amazing to watch. For dinner, Chloe put in a little extra love and pre-made us lemonade, and CHILLED it so that we could have a cold beverage with our meal! (How sweet is she?!) We all greatly appreciated that. My squeeze question today was, “who is your best friend at home and what is a cool fact about them?” I got to brag about my best friend at home in Vero Beach, Florida: Nyla, and that I think it is super cool that she owns and operates her own consignment shop!
Some highlights from today were our rescue seven skill: administering rescue breaths to an unresponsive, non-breathing diver at the surface and the emergency first responder scenario makeups on the deck while underway. Both consisted of many mess-ups and even more laughs. Thankfully, all of us have now passed our EFR scenarios and are moving on with our rescue certifications!
Pictured:
1. Chloe, Rykleigh, and I hanging out in the cockpit
2. Lucia on the helm and being a goofball – as per usual
3. Sid and I assessed Shuman during one of our EFR scenarios
4. Justin (an unpaid actor in an EFR scenario) freaking out after witnessing multiple of his friends get seriously injured and watching as the emergency first responders moved Margo (unresponsive)
5. Rykleigh, Preston, and I moving Margo to the deck to perform a primary assessment during an EFR scenario
6. Me performing CPR on Margo after determining she was unresponsive and not breathing (EFR scenario)
7. Will on the helm as we came into the anchorage at Kalong
8. A man trying to sell us large squid as we were anchoring (we said no)
9. The flying foxes emerging into the sky from the mangroves at around 6 pm