5 July 2014

Meg and Cathy at the dive shop

I turned on the fan (it was warm in the room) and didn’t see the on button, just the timer button.  We could set it for 2 hours at a time…which is what we did all night.  Duh!!  Meg said I woke up as soon as the fan went off to turn it right back on!!  The beds were very comfortable and it was so awesome to sleep!  

note the pink nails...
it's a guy who loves
his fest!

Patrizia, the hostess, has an adorable schnauzer named Gaia.  She is soooo tiny and has such a sweet personality.  She was one of the highlights of the trip, certainly!  At breakfast we met a Canadian girl from Vancouver who’s doing a cycling trip.  Fun for Sherri was riding for about 60-80 miles every day.  No thank you, haha!  

The dive shop finally emailed me and we set up a time today to meet.  The shop was terrific and everyone was extremely friendly!  Meg came with me just to watch the chaos and we learned a little about why everyone in the town was wearing pink.  

La Notte Rosa is a festival created to celebrate the first of the summer.  It’s a huge night, like New Year’s Eve and there were fireworks last night, which we missed because we were dead passed out in our room!  We apparently both slept through all the noises and the parties, etc.  Everyone on the dive was in great spirits!  

more festivities!

Meg went off to do her thing and we rode an hour out in the boat to a gas platform that had exploded and sunk.  It made for a terrific location!  There are some things on the dive I was completely NOT prepared for.  Thank goodness I’ve had so many dives, but I still didn’t handle the ending well.  But, the good stuff first.

Because it was an inflatable boat (it was still about 30’ long), we all went in backward.  I had never done that before and it was a weird sensation!!  You somersault backward into the water and you’re all completely disoriented.  I had made sure my jacket was filled with air…..that helped!  The water was really choppy, so I got a lot of water in my face, which I just hate.  I detest being on the surface.  Get me under asap….don’t keep me on a rope.  And, there was current.  Not fun.  Got on the rope, calmed myself down and Marco, the guide, got into the water and the four in our group were the last to descend the rope.

Very chic!

The water, for the first 25’ or so, was murky.  As in, you could not see more than about 3 feet in front of you.  NOT FUN!  But, we all descended the rope and then it cleared up beautifully!  It was not crystal clear nor was there much sunlight.  It’s hard to describe.  I guess it was a heavily filtered light, but you could see about 20-30’ all around you.

The platform was very interesting!  It must have been quite the explosion!  It was in pieces everywhere, just strewn around. All metal parts were covered in mussels, millions of them I imagine!  We saw 2 eels, a grouper, and a zillion little sardines.

Add caption

The biggest problem I had when I was below was that I had on too much weight.  It was cold, I probably had about 4 lbs too much weight on and I kept sinking.  Trying to stay up made me suck down my air.  I had a terrific time looking, but I have never sucked down my air as quickly as I did today.  My alarm went off that I was low on air.  I tried to get Marco’s attention, but I couldn’t. 

So, I made it to the safety stop (which is at about 15’) and then because the water’s murky, we couldn’t see each other.  It was a rugby scrum at the safety stop.  The current and swells were crazy strong, the water’s murky and I’m sinking with all the extra weight.  

 Then, my computer went bat-shit crazy beeping at me because I was so low on air.  Not that I was running out of air….but the computer has a safety system in place to make sure I don’t run out of air. I know, rationally, that I am only 15 seconds from the surface and that I am in no real danger.  I already checked the make sure I could release my weight belt if I needed to do so.  So, thank God the rational part of my brain was working. 

Unfortunately, the irrational part of my brain then entered the game and basically asked me what the hell was I thinking?  I needed to surface NOW and I needed to get on the boat NOW.  So, the panic ensued and I pushed people out of the way to get to the ladder.

The captain asked what was wrong, I told him I was afraid and he asked why.  I told him I had too much weight on and that my air was too low.  He asked if I needed the weight off and I said YES!  He said, okay, I’m going to touch you now and he reached for my weight belt, which was by then around my hips.  I did have the presence of mind to smile and say “era buona” (that was nice/good) when he got it off and he just laughed!

Everyone was very nice afterward, but omg am I embarrassed!!  Someone else said that’d happened to them, and someone else said it wasn’t a big deal.  I did apologize to everyone :o)  But, it was La Notte Rosa and everyone was interested in Sangria, popping balloons with our butts, and singing loudly!

Cathy trying on hats!

The result of the experience is that I am not meant to swim in a rough, murky ocean where getting in and out is like a rugby scrum.  I also know that I need far less Kg and that I need to work on my math skills.  Better for me to be too light that too heavy.  A learning lesson and a beautiful dive!!

We stayed out for an hour or so drinking small amounts of sangria (seriously, I had maybe 2 shots worth of it) and a lot of water and pink focaccia bread.  Then, an hour back to the dock where I met up with Meg.

didn't get them, but
we should have!

My face was bright pink/red/sunburnt!  The rest of me was fine as I was in my 50 spf skin suit and I had on my boots.  I got everything rinsed off and put away and we headed back to the B&B.  We ran into Sherri and made plans for dinner and I took a shower and then Meg & I went to go get some gelato to tie me over until our 8pm dinner reservation.

We walked around the beach front area.  It’s a lot like Ocean City or VA Beach.  Lots of little shops, a nice beach, a couple gelato places.  We bought a couple of small things as souvenirs and I bought a pink, La Notte Rosa shirt.  Meg had bought one, but didn’t bring enough money to get me one at the time, so we had to come back ;o)

marching band on the main street
behind Patrizia's house

Came back to the B&B and took a little snooze for an hour or so and then met up with Sherri and headed to dinner.  Locanda  Il Portolotto was really good!  Patrizia said they’re known for their friend sardines and people certainly got those by the dozens!  We, however, opted for a big bowl of mussels to start.  The meat inside was as big as quarters!  Delicious!!  

Meg eating our
seafood spaghetti

For dinner, we got a seafood spaghetti dish.  That was divine….just perfect!  There were clams, more mussels, calamari, sardines, and a couple of other things I cannot remember.  Just gorgeous!  After that, Meg & I were still hungry (haha!) so I got one of my favorite dishes:  meat with arugula and grana cheese.  That took forever to get to us, but it was worth the wait.  

Meg and Sherri had the cutest dessert.  There are cookies called Pan di Stelle (bread of stars) that are chocolate delicious!  Think of delicious, fully chocolate chips ahoy and you get the idea.  On one of the cookies they spread a generous dollop of Nutella and before they put the cookies together, they put freshly whipped cream in the middle.  I suppose it was like a mudpie but better.

We were under the impression that there would be fireworks again, so we came home, took an hour nap and then went to the beach.  Patrizia had us go peek over the fence in the adjacent park so we could see some traditional regional dances.  She, like most/all Italians, is very proud of her region.

Meg and I wandered the beach until about 1230 and headed home after guessing correctly that the info we’d gotten from the web was wrong.  Alas, no pink fireworks for us this year.  We went to bed sad, but thrilled to have had such a great day!