Tyll's Dive April 2015

April 2015

I have neglected the blog for way too long. Either been busy or not being able to find words unless it involved playing SCRABBLE. (By the way the shop got this shiny new Scrabble board for Christmas, and we were all excited and had guest players. Several people have been tapping on my shoulder and said it is time for an update!

So where to begin? Seeing the yellow Frogfish, finding the Seahorses or swimming with the pod of about 100 Dolphins?

Or the vast amount of Sargassum seaweed that kept floating in for weeks earlier this year. Tons of it. Apparently a piece had gotten loose and began to float. The Sargassum Sea is a very unik floating habitat in the middle of the ocean. Held together by the ocean currents. Look it up on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sargasso_Sea very interesting. But when it hits land it begins to stink when it begins to decompose.


March was the month where everybody decided to come visiting. A good fun month with our loyal diver family. We just kept getting messages, Okay coming so and so, flight is booked.But it all worked out just fine. Some knew each other, others met for the first time. Got to go on a sailing trip with some of the divers on Captain Alex boat. A marriage proposal happened.Kevin and Danis wedding will be next year down here.
Had a visit from the past, Ron brought a dvd from one dive at Mandys Eelgarden in 2003. West Bay was jungle and Mangroves and wide sandy beach. No Mayan Princess, no Infinity Bay…no nothing, just beach.
Ron, you made us laugh seeing that dvd. What a bunch we were back then.
So they all left and boo, really quiet until we got our new team Utah arriving. Yes, we have team divers, a few team Colorado , a couple of team Arizona and of course our 2 team Wisconsin, and not to forget team Houston, New Jersey, Toronto and New York. Probably a lot more…

We have added some new shop members: Jackie Chan and Boy. We some how ended up with them...

The biggest news are that Dorte is going to visit her family in Denmark very soon after not having been there for about 9 years.

A quick update

An era has come to an end. The Blenny House and cabins has been sold.
Between packing up and sorting out stuff, Jenny Blenny did find some time to come diving at Tyll’s. Many good memories and fun times to think back on. Wish Jenny all the best in France and we are sure some of her future travels will include a stop on Roatan for some more diving.
For a long time we did not take any divemaster trainees, but accepted Vincent earlier this year. We found we were busy enough to offer him good training and get enough experience that we would hire him. Well he had to go back to Canada.



When he comes back he will be an instructor and we hope we will have work for him.
We are now in August. Waiting for the Silvesides madness to return to Blue Channel. While waiting there have been so many great sightings. Pipe horses, Juvenile Trunkfish, also known as the Pea, Eaglerays, Turtles. You name it.


Tyll’s Dive is happy to see many of our “old” divers returning after a break of 6-8 years not being here. It has been amazing.
One of them is Wolfgang now doing his divemaster.

Slow down 2014, you are a way too fast moving year!

We at Tyll's Dive are (among many others) glad to leave 2013 behind us and start up on a fresh, clean page with many hopes for 2014.
This wonderful group of divers gave us a great start.

Having many of our repeat divers (now like friends and family) coming back around the same time every year is something we always look forward to.
We have added quite a few new members to the dive family.

Kimberly and Gary organized a fix the deck workshop one Sunday. Thank you all so much for spending a Sunday sweating,sawing and hammering. Here is the crew. Scott, Terry, Gary and Phil. Kimberly is supervising and Christian must be next door pulling nails out of reusable floor boards.

We did not find any treasures or monsters underneath the deck. But the cats, Blanca and Bailies are still not convinced - about the monster part.

We are glad to have Mel back,but we have not yet had many opportunities to play Scrabble. Phil and Tess who had been cat sitting and covering for her, went onto their next adventures. Phil and Tess, we can not thank you enough for all your help, support, hard work, enthusiasm, and being creative by giving the dive shop a little face lift with colorful signs.

For the diving part. Recently there have been seen Seahorses, Pipehorses and Harlequin Pipefish, last week was Eagleray week, then the weeks with the little puffers every where. Turtles, Drumfish and I could keep going.

Kal took some really nice photos. He has turned himself into be Tyll's Dive private u/w photographer and does not mind to share his photos with other divers.

Here is Kal.

Congratulation to Willem's 3 Open Water students Tracy, Michelle and Tino who just got certified.

Fall 2013

Tyll's Dive, Fall 2013

A new blog entry is way over due. What happend between April and now?
It’s not all dive related, but still connected to Tyll’s Dive.
After a great spring seeing many good friends coming back to Roatan for their yearly get away from the cold, we have been enjoying the more frequent visits from Gary, Dory, Tracy and Kal, who are in the process of building or reconstructing their Roatan home away from home.
The Summer months rolled by fairly quick and we made new friends to add to our Tyll’s Dive family.


The Silversides have been back in the swim through again at Blue Channel. Amazing as always.

After several reports of Whaleshark sightings, Mel finally got to see and swim with her first one ever. What a treat for Sean and Virginia on their first diving day on Roatan.

So things began to slow down and we had to do maintenance on the boat. Quite a costly affair indeed. Well if you have a car or a boat you will know.
Have to mention what a great community West End has. During the time the boat was out of the water, we got help left and right so we could keep the business going.
This is Samuel" on "Very Deep", also gently called "The Slow Boat" by our divers.
It got them to the dive sites and back and we all very much appreciated we could borrow it.

Following is a little about renewing Honduran residency.
Our 5 years were coming up for renewal and change of status. Should be straight forward and not too complicated as long the Immigration receives the new 5 year fee up front on time. Then the lawyer puts together an application to be filed.
So far all is good until she try to get a statement from Interpol Honduras,that we are not wanted criminals. But there is a small detail, the Interpol office has been closed down for unknown time, and there is no plan B...Who mentioned fiascos in paradise?

Just recent we had a visit from our very first diver from when we took over Tyll's Dive in June 2002. Last time Nancy visited Roatan was 6-7 years ago. We had a lot to catch up on while her son got certified Open Water Diver. A great week that went way too fast.

In the mean while Jenny Blenny and Ben are touring the States, meeting Tyll’s Dive family every where...

And guess who is here right now? Matt de Jong. Good to see him after so many years.

Spring 2013

April 2013 Semana Santa is over. Did not seem too crazy after all except the loud music at night. So, I promised Kal to post the Cow song from Tyll, which is not from Tyll at all, he modified it. So am not sure it qualifies. But found other gems in Tyll’s treasure box. But before we get to that, a little update might be in place. After a very slow fall season it got busy around Christmas. Shop full of very nice people and then there was this high maintenance couple who ran from their bill. Well that was a learning curve. Have only had this happen once before in all the years. Everybody was so upset that this happened to us. Mid February into March was like a big busy family reunion. It was wonderful. Also having Jenny Blenny and Ben around was just an extra treat. We had 2 Birthdays we celebrated next door at The Buena Vida. Thanks Kimberly to be on top of that and help arranging the get togethers for Elizabeth and David. This is Silke and her dad Bernd who did his open water. He decided to learn English now. . Am glad I first broke my wrist later. If you decide to walk to West Bay, be aware of very slippery rocks that have to be scrambled over in a certain section. We have been very happy to have Anika and Giles Working with us and are sad they will be leaving soon. Working their way back to the States to get married. All the best wishes and hope they will be back one.day. Rather sooner than later. The first dive at the point after a couple of days with rain and strong winds, was amazing. It was Patti and Jims second time here, and that dive was their best ever. A school of about 200 horseeyed Jacks!!!! Photogenic turtles on other dives are always something special. The water temperature is taking its time to warm up this year it seems. Air temperature not so much. Hopefully this year will give us all a bit more steadiness business wise instead of the previous couple of years with either feast or famine. Big thank you to all our loyal divers/friends, instructors and divemasters.

Updates, I guess

Finally got a bit inspired to write.
First of all, I want to share that the Roatan Marineparks photo contest calender is available. Have a look at their FB page and see some of the amazing photos that were submitted. I am proud to say I think I bought the first one as they had just gotten them in. A great birhtday present to one of our divers. (Lisa I hope its in your office and makes your smile and dream of your last spectacular visit).
With the West End Road project finally finished after a year of construction of sewage system and road surfacing, we can all finally get back to normal life.

Leo has been documenting everything for a year now. He must be the one to consult if there are any questions about where the water and sewage pipes are.
What a relief not to have dodging heavy machinery, random holes that were closed one day and open again the next. We miss our sandy road. But since there was no choice, we are glad to see we actually got the better of the evils. A kind of sandy colored cement road with a rippled pattern.
We had a couple who have been diving with us for the last 5 years. At the end of a diving day  included logging dives, maybe have a drink and out come the fish and creature books. Lisa and Clay announced that this time was the year they observed the most variety in the marinelife. And bigger groupers, bigger and a lot more lobsters and crabs.
This is a thumbs up for the Marinepark and all that are involved and support.
September also was the time to see crazy amounts of Silversides and Glassy Sweepers in the Blue Channel swimmthroughs.
The treat for the divers a couple of weeks ago were a pregnant pipehorse. Well its the male who carry the upcoming offspring so don't really sure what term to use...are the offspring of the seahorsefamily called “ seafoals” then???

From the local scene, Haywood still directs the traffic once in a while. Emerson is now selling fresh Basil picked in front of the Blue Marlin most likely, the crazy twin is getting even more crazy. Will not get into details on that one other than she has a thing with hibiscus plants. Either she loves or hates them. The woman who used to take her pig swimming in Halfmoon Bay on Sundays is not allowed anymore.

We have lived here for years now, and the priority of rules, regulations and policework keeps baffling us.

Pigs are not allowed on the beach. So the pig got a warning. If you show up again you might get arrested or shot. Reason is pigs poo on the beach. So do dogs and some humans I am sure…

So piggy is banned from the beach. Poor piggy, was fun to watch

Divemaster Alert Test

Tyll has recently been back on the island from his home in La Ceiba. He found some goodies in his old house here,he had written years ago, and we agreed would they find a great place on this blog.
Enjoy and hopefully it will make you smile.

                                                  DAT TEST 
                        (Divemaster Alert Test)

                                                                                 

                                                              By Tyll Sass

Take this Divemaster Alert Test and match your skills with those of the experts. Answers down below. (No cheating now...)

1. Archimedes Principal: If you have 30 gallons of fresh water in a rinsetank, then you submerge and fill one gallon into a container.
How many gallons remain in the rinsetank? when you compare them.
a) 28         b) 32      
c) all of the above    d) none of the above


2.   If 3 divers in the water planned a bottom time of one hour, and 3 more people jumped in and planned to stay 30 minutes halfway
through the first group's dive. How many divers would be in the water 59 minutes after the first group jumped in?
a) 5      b) 6       c) 12
d) none of the above


3. If you were diving in Cozumel, and wanted a dive plan before the boat left the dock for the divesite. Who would you ask?

a) the secretary behind the window who took your money
b) the divemaster on the boat
c) you'd call Paul Tzimolis of Skin-Diver magazine
d) nobody, you'd plan the dive when the boat got there

4. You have been assigned a new buddy, (as your last one is sitting this one out in the chamber) and you notice him fidgeting with his equipment, he is irritable, twitching and think he knows it all.

a) he has oxygen poisoning                  b) he is anxious/perfectionist
c) he is on drugs                                    d) he is obnoxious/dependent

5.You and your buddy are on 60 ft., and you notice a 10 ft. difference in your depth gauges.
What should you do?

a) immediately go to the surface & blow your whistle
b) use the 70 ft. schedule then decompress for 5 min. at 10 ft.
c) continue the dive as if nothing happend
d) throw the gauge that gives the shallower reading into the dumpster upon completion of the dive

6. You are diving in a shipping channel. It is 20 ft. deep and 65 ft. wide. The current is 2 knots. You decide to surface, and see an oiltanker  coming
towards you that draws 18 ft. of water and is 60 ft. wide.
a) Wave furiously to hail the bridge
b) swim like hell!
c) ditch your gear & head for shore
d) kiss your ass good-bye!

7. Somehow you've lucked out and drawn Bob Croft in a buddy-pool on a live-aboard dive trip. (He was the world's free diving champion in the 70's).
On your first dive with him, you are at 60 ft., suddenly his eyes widen and become the size of saucers. You should immediately:

a) drop his weight belt and slowly assist him to the surface
b) drop his weight belt and inflate his BCD
c) turn around

8. Your dive boat captain is drunk and passes out. Meanwhile the dive boat has run up on a reef and the batteries are dead.
The tide is going out.
You should:
a) call the Coast Guard
b) set all anchors and try winching off
c) patch the hole underwater with marine-tex
d) have a drink. You are going to be there a while

9. Your new dive buddy weighs 350 lbs. You both jump into the water with a giant stride. He forgets to inflate his BCD and goes straight to the bottom. Then his weight belt falls of, he hits the CO2 cartridge and comes roaring past you towards the surface.
You should:
a) grab his feet as he goes by
b) try to deflate his BCD by stabbing at it with your dive knife
c) drop your weight belt inflate you BCD and try catch him
d) get back in the boat and get a new dive buddy


10) In an emergency, using oxygen, you should:

a) lubricate all moving parts with transmission oil
b) if the valve sticks or leak, have an oxygen "expert" ready with a ballpien hammer
c) be sure the gauge does not read over 21% before opening valve
d) keep it on deck



ANSWER SHEET

1. None of the above - it never said he took the container back out, stupid!
2. None of the above - the second 3 were snorklers.
3. Nobody - the secretary doesn't speak English, none of the divemasters can hear, and Paul Tzimolis is always busy.
4. d
5. Both c and d are correct. since your buddys gauge read 50 ft.
6. Both c and d are correct.
7. Turn around. There is probably a great white closing in. Bob Croft likely wouldn't panic at 60 ft....he can free dive to 300.
8. You can't call the Coast Guard because the batteries are dead. The only answer is to have a drink.
9. d - this guy is an idiot. You need a new buddy.
10. d - if you missed this one, there is no hope.