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.

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.

Happy thoughts in gray october days

Dive princesses and dive princes

What makes you a dive princess/prince?

1) you arrive on Roatan and think you will give it a try
2) you give it a try and kind of love it
3)You dive more and actually love it
4) whats that fish whats that little fellow poking out of the coral
5) now you really want to know what you are seeing and why they do what
6) sorry, you are hooked now
7) you don't wanna leave right now so you miss the ferry
8) bad weather, lets stay another day
9) I cant find my wallet
10) the Galaxy ferry at 7 am is too early anyway
11) Lets have a baleada since we missed the 2 pm ferry
12) We can have a dive since we are not going on the morning ferry
13) Group picture, we are really leaving. Okay. (Don't leave)
14) They left.....
15) But we know they left as diveprincesses, nothing less.
16) They went to explore the world, but know where they come from.
17) One fine day they will return.
18) I think 2 particular princesses know this story very well.
19) Is it then why we love what we do?
20) Left for your comment
21) Did not forget the diveprincess who brought the crocs and did the walks
22) We are all dive princesses or dive princes but there is only one queen and she might very well arrive in a few weeks
23) There is the Turtlekid
24) There is the seahorse finder
25) There is the paprazzi photograher
26) There is the finder of seaslugs
27) There is the seaspider girl
28) There is the little boy who one week is facinated by sharks next week by eagle rays (dive prince potential)
29) There is a diveshop family back at the shop who will make coffee and enjoy listenening to all the above findings
30)There is just enough stuff out there for everyone to enjoy. Keep blowing bubbles:-)
It's a beautiful day.

Where did Matthew go?

This is the story. Matthew was the first announced storm to come by Roatan this season (lets just forget about the actually really first one (TS Alex), because that one was too early in the season). We all follow the weather on different weather pages on the internet, since we are a dive community we have to be aware that the boats are secured and bilgepumps are working properly. Well by friday early afternoon it already was clear that Tropical Storm Matthew would make landfall on the coast of Nicaragua and venture inland to mainland Honduras, Which means the islands would go clear with a bit wind and rainfall.
Anyways, everyone goes by continuing on with daily life. Some looking forward for friday night out in town untill the authorities arrive with following announcement: Because of incoming storm, there will be a curfew from latest 10 pm, make sure to stock up on food and water as no vehicles will be allowed out untill saturday 6 pm.
Here are following emergency numbers and so on. Since when does RECO (electric company) answer their phones after hours? Anyways, this was around 5 pm, and Matthew was already zooming across the mainland and we still had peace and quiet.
Uwe did ask the authority person: will I get arrested for checking on our boat during the night? They assured that he would be fine. Uwe did not get arrested for the record.
We have been living here since 1999, and have been through quite a few northerns, tropical depressions, storms and getting the outerwinds from hurricanes and had never had a curfew put on us for that reason.

In a storm with wind and rain, it might be the safest time ever to forget to lock your door and go out walking the street or beach in the middle of the night. The potential looters and robbers will be cuddling up home where it is safe.

Well we guess the Islands had to follow the emergency regulations they have on the mainland. After all, they got all the rain and mudslides in the end.

Saturday everything was back to normal.

Now this week we have rain and it has been windy, but its not a TS , (its just miserable changing NNW/NW/SW), so we can run around in the night if we want to.

PS. Think Matthew went to Belize...

New face at Tyll's Dive

Let us introduce Amanda and welcome her to Tyll's Dive.
Amanda is taking over from Kala who is going back to Canada mid June. We don't need to change on the board that we speak Canadian, since Amanda is also from Canada.

Luckily Clay and Lisa arrived from Arizona on thursday, after not having been here for about two years, and wanted finally do their advanced course. Here they are going over homework, and what they saw on the dive.

What a nice letter

Til:

"Uwe-Dorte Bockwoldt"

Hello again Dorte!

We just returned from our trip Sunday night, so I am just beginning to get caught back up with reality ; )

We VERY MUCH enjoyed our scuba diving experience with you and Monique.

Everything went very smoothly--Tony was wonderful--and it was VERY reassuring to know that you had those details handled for us ahead of time.

I was very glad not to have to deal with the scammers at the port and have to haggle on transportation to and from your place and be assured return to the ship on time. Not knowing the local customs, and being a single mother, I was very leary and YOU made it all work out just perfectly!

Tony was a true gentleman and very attentive.

That being said, it was our scuba experience with you all that was BY FAR the highlight of our trip! We can't wait to come back and are thinking of maybe staying out there on the West End by you somewhere for a week next year and really take the time to enjoy that gorgeous little piece of paradise!

Be sure to Thank Monique for holding my hand throughout the entire dive experience--I was clearly the most difficult diver and she was a true GEM! Love HER!

When things settle down here a bit I will send the photos you requested and would be happy to write a review for you on Trip Advisor or do anything else I can to help you and your wonderful business thrive!

Thanks again for everything!

Fondly,

Linda Zubek and family

Largo, Florida

Marquito

The letter from Carmen

Marquito

Marcos is back from Tegucigalpa. Carmen and Marquito have to stay over there.
They have not done the operation yet. The doctors decided to try another treatment after they had to postpone the operation twice.
If that does not work either they have to operate, but they have some hopes it might.
The donated money has been deposited at the hospital and Marcos brought over a copy of the receipt.
It goes towards the treatment, laboratory tests. Carmen and Marcos have been assured they will not have to come up with the whole amount again if there has be a surgery in the next month or two. Guess you can call they got a package deal.

Carmen , sweet Carmen, also send over a letter to thank everyone who has been and still is helping them economically.
She also wrote a little note to explain Marquitos medical condition, but it contains medical terms which we need help with to translate and explain.

People Carmen and Marcos want to thank (and we at Tyll's too) so far:
Ed and Mo, who got generous tip on the 8th of march at the Blue Marlin, because they told it would go to the little boy.
Claus and Fran, who were visiting the island.
Jacquie (also muchos gracias for helping make this happen), Conal, Chase, Michael, Capt. Alex, Ruthie, Jenny Myton, Jenny Blenny, Kathryn (RG), Gay (CCT), Nina, Erna, Wolfgang Gehring , Marty and David Sperow, Diane.

Besides that Marcos tip money and pay for looking after Moody Blues for Noelle, went into the pot as well.

There is a saying, just not sure its quite like this, but you will understand the meaning.
Many small creeks makes a big river.