One of the fun things about going to New England is that it’s like going to a whole new country – but you’re still in the USA! There is a distinct culture to the region, as well as a distinct language. And I’m not just referring to their wild accents, I’ve heard some phrases here that I need a translator for. Phrases such as “wicked diggah” or “down cellar” that make me feel that I have to learn an entirely new language if I were to ever spend a prolonged period of time in the area. But I love the differences; it’s so fun to learn about the rich history and culture of America’s oldest region.

I spent all of Sunday with Kim at East Coast Divers (ECD), a dive shop in Brookline, where Kim was recently hired as the training director. We drove up in the morning and got to the shop a bit before it opened at 10. Upon arriving we were greeted by the lovely Mr. Nick Fazah, freediver extraordinaire, who also co-owns the shop. Kim and I spent the morning doing office work in the shop. She prepared student folders for pool sessions later that evening while I wrote a blog and mingled around the shop. It’s a nice business, with about as much variety in diving opportunities as you could ask for – from free diving training to recreational scuba to tech diving, you name it, they can probably work it out for you! Plus the staff is all young, energetic and friendly. After lunch, Kim kept working on her to-do list while I was given the chance to sit in on a lecture session for a basic freediving course. I’ve always been interested in freediving, but have never had the chance to learn proper techniques and theory. It was really great to have that chance with ECD and while freediving has a lot of similarities to scuba, there are still a lot of things I have to learn! After a nice lecture, we had a bit of down time while the instructors finished loading the shop van with gear and tanks, then Kim and I headed over to the Boston University pool, where ECD does pool training every Sunday and Wednesday nights. I was able to jump in with the freedivers where we practiced various safety skills and finning techniques. I had a blast – freediving calms you down so much and it was a nice challenge to work on breath holding techniques, relying on yourself for air and not on a scuba tank! After two pool sessions and lots of happy little divers, we packed up the van and then headed back to Marion for the night.

 

The next morning I tagged along with Kim, but this time to her second job at Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI), where she works as the assistant DSO. We had also brought along my drysuit in hopes of testing out my new neck seal. It was a drizzly and gloomy New England morning, but it was fun to head out to Cape Cod for the day. After a nice tour of the WHOI buildings and dive locker, I jumped in my drysuit and, because of bad tide conditions, just climbed down the ladder into the boat well until my neck seal was submerged. This suit formed a great seal on my neck, as no water trickled in and no air burped out. Excellent! I scrambled back out of the well, happy that we solved my problem. The afternoon was spent sending emails and trying to plan some logistics for my next destination on Vancouver Island while Kim taught some WHOI divers a rescue course lecture.

Tuesday was another gloomy day, but without the rain. I had the chance to start tidying and packing in the morning (can you believe I’m already off to my next adventure?) Around 9:45, Vin came back to the house and picked me up to head over to WHOI. Vin, Kim, and  I were going to do one last drysuit dive to get me a bit more experience and do one last check of the new neck seal. We got to WHOI, slowly proceeded to get our gear together and suits on. We hopped in the boat well off the pier, a solid 8-10 foot drop, may I add, then used the set line to go down. Well. I knew New England was not known for crystal clear waters, but today seemed to be particularly murky. We had about 2-3 feet of visibility, which made this dive possibly the most surreal dive I’ve ever had. The pier overhead blocked out much of the light, and in combination with the poor viz, you could barely figure out your surroundings. With the added glow from our dive lights, it felt like we were exploring some alien world. Thanks to the dive staff at WHOI, there is a system of fixed lines going underneath the massive pier and out into the channel a bit, so despite the limited viz, we could still navigate around with the rope system. Thank goodness I was with probably the best 2 people to be with on that dive, as the entire time I was never really quite sure where was up, down, left or right. Every once in a while I thought I was rising in the water column only to realize the bottom was actually close enough to touch, I just couldn’t see it 3 feet away. But nonetheless, our fearless clan swam along, stopping every once in a while to look at a starfish or try to figure out which way we wanted to go. I just happily bumbled along in between Vin and Kim, completely stoked that my drysuit was working so well! Because of the poor visibility, we ended up doing a bit of a shorter dive (only about 35 minutes) then headed back to the boat well to do our safety stop. Success! I finally had a truly dry dive and felt super comfortable as well. I figure if I can manage that dive, I can manage almost any other dive. After a delicious lunch with AMAZING rum raisin bread pudding, Kim and I swung by the WHOI mini-museum and gift shop. They had some really neat little exhibits and it was highly informative. Vin and I then headed back to Marion where I put out all my gear to thoroughly dry out and have a cat nap. Once Amy and Kim got back from work, we headed out to a BBQ joint for dinner and to celebrate my last day being 23. And by that I mean I was secretly celebrating– I hadn’t really broached the topic of my upcoming birthday with the Malkoskis, as birthdays have never been a big deal for me. Man, there is nothing more delicious than BBQ (or Mexican food) and I ate to my heart’s content.

Vin and I headed out to his office early Wednesday morning – he needed to bring the DMF boat to the boat yard for its yearly maintenance and I wanted to drive boats so we were going to accomplish both those tasks at once. We couldn’t have had a nicer morning with clear blue skies and a gentle wind. Oh, and it was my birthday! Another year older, another year full of learning. We made it out to the harbor where the DMF boat is kept and got it running. After maneuvering out of the slip, Vin let me take over and we slowly cruised out past the dike and into the big harbor. Driving boats is so relaxing for me and it’s something I want to get more experience in. I drove us over to a protected cove and Vin had me practice some maneuvering which wasn’t so bad, especially with only one inboard engine. After a while, we headed back into the port to get the boat at the yard just after 9 am. I left Vin at his work and headed back to the house to officially pack everything up. Man, did that trip go by quickly or what! Amy and Kim got home around midday and proceeded to make a delicious birthday dinner of cake and chips with guacamole. Two of my favorite foods, in fact. We chowed down and by 5 pm Kim and I were on the road to East Coast Divers for the Wednesday night pool session. I was going to join in with the freediving session again while Kim supervised the courses being run. We got to practice static apnea (basically how long you can hold your breath underwater) and I managed to get 2 minutes on my first try! I was definitely not expecting to hold my breath for so long, but when you do the proper pre-breathing you get so calm and peaceful you just relax underwater. After the pool session a group of ECD staff and I headed to a nearby cantina for a late dinner and birthday drinks. All in all, it was a fantastic birthday and I had great company the whole day. What gift is better than that?

Thursday came much earlier than I would have liked, but it was time to leave Boston and head over to the Vancouver area for the next 4 weeks. I caught a flight from Boston to LA (6 hours) then barely made it to my connecting flight from LA to Vancouver (3 hours) by a bit of fast moving and helpful airport staff. After touching down in Vancouver and breezing through customs, I headed towards the SkyTrain station, where I would take the train into downtown Vancouver then catch the Express bus line to the Horseshoe Bay Ferry Terminal. Things went much quicker and smoother than I had originally planned for and I was able to catch the 7:30pm ferry from the mainland to Nanaimo, Vancouver Island. During my adventure with public transit, I had made a chance encounter with a gentleman who lived in Nanaimo and he gave me an incredible amount of help with my travel over the next few days. Upon arrival to Nanaimo, I caught a taxi to a hostel I intended on staying at. I arrived at the hostel and was immediately uncomfortable and regretting my decision to go with the cheapest option. Luckily my friend from the ferry was meeting me shortly to go to dinner and once he got there, I asked for a ride to a different hostel and we found a nice quaint place, Nicol Street Hostel, a little up the road. Boy, was that a much better option than my original plan. All in all, my travel to Bamfield started off much better than I thought it would – I had been worried, what with the public transit and all my luggage (I had a LOT of bags), yet I made it to my first stop right on time (when do travel plans ever go as planned?!). Friday proved to be a long and interesting day. I was up for 22 hours, took two plane flights, one train, one bus, one ferry and a taxi to get to my hostel, all while running on 3 pancakes, 2 brownies, and one granola bar. But I made it to Vancouver Island!

Friday morning I woke up after an incredibly restful night of sleep and wandered into downtown to grab breakfast. At eleven, my friend from the day before, Ed, came to my hostel and picked me up. As he was a native of Vancouver Island and lived there all his life, he was eager to show me around the area and impart some of his knowledge about the island. We first headed to Ladysmith, a small nearby town where we perused a local thrift shop. Afterwards, we headed back to his house in Nanaimo, where I helped him pick some beautiful cherries from a few trees in the backyard. Ed had an amazing backyard with cherry trees, fig trees, pear trees, apple trees, grape vines, garlic, onion, beans, tomatoes, walnut trees, and much more! After an hour of picking cherries (and barely making a dent in the fruit laden branches of his trees) we packed up his truck and headed into downtown Nanaimo. We stopped by the bastion, a small buttress built in the 1800’s as a defensive structure, but was never actually engaged in battle and today stands as a mini-museum. After a quick walk around downtown, he hopped in his truck and drove towards Port Alberni, the town where I would catch my final ferry to Bamfield on Saturday morning. The drive was beautiful, heading first north along the east coast than turning inland and west through the hills and pine forests. We stopped for a walk through Cathedral Grove, a national park with 800-year-old Douglas Fir pines. Around 5 in the evening we pulled into Port Alberni, which happened to be Ed’s hometown and where his parents lived. Ed dropped me off at my hostel, Fat Salmon Backpackers , and I got my belongings in the dorm room then met some of the staff and the only other guest for the night. I had dinner that night with Ed then he drove me around his hometown and pointed out some local landmarks, such as the paper mill and the sawmill dam. It was really nice having a new friend and such a good tour guide! I spent the rest of the night chatting with the folks at the hostel, drinking a few beers and swapping stories of adventure.

Saturday morning came bright quite early on (the sun rises and birds start chirping at 5 am or so!) and I packed my bags back up and waited for Ed to come grab me to take me to the port. At the port I would catch the Frances Barkley at 8 am to head over to Bamfield and reach my final destination for the next 3.5 weeks. It had been a long few days of travel, but I felt that things went much smoother than they could have gone. The ferry set off from the harbor right on time and we begun the close cruise down Barkley Sound towards Bamfield and the open ocean. The ride itself was spectacular, as you’re surrounded by beautiful mountains and forests the entire time, not to mention it was a clear day with bright blue skies. After making a few stops down the inlet at various small communities to drop off people and supplies, we pulled into Bamfield around 1 in the afternoon, where Katie, my host for the next 3.5 weeks, was waiting to pick me up. She drove me to Bamfield where I unpacked my bags in my dorm room (the first time I’ve truly unpacked my bags since starting my adventures!!). I then had a quick tour of the campus and labs and met Katie’s two students, Sarah and Stephanie, who were out at Bamfield for the summer. Sarah was starting her PhD program studying rockfish and Stephanie was an undergrad working as a research assistant. They immediately started introducing me to the study and showing me the ropes. I’d be jumping in and helping various researchers with their projects at Bamfield, from lab work to field collections, and I figured it was better to get started sooner rather than later.

It has been a fast paced week with a lot of adventures and a lot of traveling, but I couldn’t believe how smoothly things went. I guess all that time being a dive guide really taught me how to go with the flow and be willing to be flexible and adapt to new plans. I am so thankful to the Malkoskis and their generosity in hosting me for 2 weeks. It definitely made my New England experience top notch and I couldn’t have asked for a better trip to the area. And while one adventure ends, the next begins and I can’t wait to see what Canada has in store for me!