Back in business
Door: Yaisa
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Yaisa
20 Oktober 2010 | Malediven, Malé
After one week of preparations on land and two trips, I finally have time to write a little update on our adventures in the Maldives. The season started in fifth gear and it seems we have been back forever.
We are doing great, happy to be back and personally, I’m enjoying the challenge of the new responsibilities we have been given. We are now the local responsibles for the daily operations of Seafari Maldives, which means we manage three boats and are the liaison between all activities here and “HQ” in Egypt. And in the meantime of course, we are the cruise directors of our beloved Princess Haleema. Managing the three boats sounds more important than it is, since both other boats are of course run by colleagues who do the same we are doing on Princess Haleema. My job however, is to harmonise all paperwork, improve reporting systems, creates financial benefits through economies of scale, plan the staffing schedules and manage all HR activities. Stefano is responsible for all the technical issues, including diving equipment, compressor and tank maintenance and liaison with the owners of the boats. And in between we entertain our guests on Princess Haleema and dive a bit. Yes, a bit, especially me... Since we got here, we organised 33 dives with our guests and I only did 10 of them. The rest of the time I was sitting behind my computer doing administrative tasks.
And honestly, I don’t mind. I know I’m putting a lot of time and effort in it now, but like all things, if you do things right in the beginning, you’ll benefit from it in the long term. So I resign myself to the fact that I have not seen the ten eagles rays flying on top of my head, or the 15 grey reef sharks in the channel, or the two ghost pipefish during the night dive (although that last one is hard to swallow), and I tell myself that soon, once I’ve set down the right fundaments for an improved reporting system, I’ll have plenty of time to do more dives than I wish for. And I’m almost there, so soon I’ll log my 1000th dive...
But of course I did not miss out on the dives in Hani Faru Bay, a world famous lagoon where in this season, dozens of mantas and whale sharks gather for a frenzy feeding on plankton. We did three dives in a row there, and I still cannot believe the amount of mantas that were twirling around me, making loops, mouths wide open, slapping divers on their head with their big wings and coming so close that I could have photographed the parasites on their skins, would I have been a skilled photographer. I took some pictures, yes, and also some videos and I will post them some day, but I warn you beforehand, the quality of the pictures is crap... Notwithstanding my camera skills , I was never this close to so many mantas and I don’t think there is many other places in the world where one can witness this. And there were no whale sharks this time, so hopefully, we'll run into some of these giants next trip.
The first trip was tough though. Bad weather, not being able to do the crossing to Baa Atoll and therefore no dives in Hani Faru Bay. Strong current and bad visibility. We tried to explain to the guests that these are conditions that we simply cannot control, but some are just too disappointed to listen to your arguments. And then they complain. And then you feel bad, because you would have loved to kick off the season with a fantastic trip, every customer happy, all the crew happy, us happy... It wasn’t like that, malesh... The second trip quickly made us forget the sorrows of the first one. All guests super happy, lots of mantas, great weather, great group...
Every day still, I think about how my life has changed since I left the corporate world. Every day still, I’m amazed at the different kind of happiness that I have found and how much I am enjoying it. This current job gives me the opportunity to do what I’m good at (organise, make lists of checks & balances, write lots of emails and get frustrated when people don’t answer instantly) and to dive in one of the most amazing places in the world. The only thing I have problems with, is keeping up my yoga practices... Not only because I’ve been very busy and I’m not the kind of person who’ll get up at 5 am to practice before every body else is awake, but also because it’s kind of hard on a rocking boat to balance on one leg, lifting the other leg by holding the big toe and trying to reach your knee with your nose. The head stand is also a challenge... But I’ve managed 3 practices in 3 weeks and now that I bought a new mat, I’m going to try and keep it up.
This week we don’t have any guests, so I have ample time to finish off as much paperwork as I can, purchase all necessary spare parts and items we need from Malé as well as do yoga at a decent hour of the day, sleep in a bit and watch a movie in the evening. Saturday, the party starts again, we’re expecting a group of 14 Belgians who ordered 50 bottles of rose for the week. That should be fun!
Stefano and I are doing well together. We have learned from the problems we had last year, the time we spent apart during summer gave us a good perspective on things and made us realise that this is what we really want. We are and always will be extremely different, but I believe we found a way to respect each other in our differences and benefit from the complementarity (is that a word??) of our characters and skills. We are in love and make a killer team at work, what else can I wish for?
Maybe one thing... being able to show more friends and family what it’s like here on our Princess Haleema... Miss SKO is due to arrive next month, who else is following suit? Special plice fo’ you my flend!!!... :-)
Baci & bubbles
xYx
We are doing great, happy to be back and personally, I’m enjoying the challenge of the new responsibilities we have been given. We are now the local responsibles for the daily operations of Seafari Maldives, which means we manage three boats and are the liaison between all activities here and “HQ” in Egypt. And in the meantime of course, we are the cruise directors of our beloved Princess Haleema. Managing the three boats sounds more important than it is, since both other boats are of course run by colleagues who do the same we are doing on Princess Haleema. My job however, is to harmonise all paperwork, improve reporting systems, creates financial benefits through economies of scale, plan the staffing schedules and manage all HR activities. Stefano is responsible for all the technical issues, including diving equipment, compressor and tank maintenance and liaison with the owners of the boats. And in between we entertain our guests on Princess Haleema and dive a bit. Yes, a bit, especially me... Since we got here, we organised 33 dives with our guests and I only did 10 of them. The rest of the time I was sitting behind my computer doing administrative tasks.
And honestly, I don’t mind. I know I’m putting a lot of time and effort in it now, but like all things, if you do things right in the beginning, you’ll benefit from it in the long term. So I resign myself to the fact that I have not seen the ten eagles rays flying on top of my head, or the 15 grey reef sharks in the channel, or the two ghost pipefish during the night dive (although that last one is hard to swallow), and I tell myself that soon, once I’ve set down the right fundaments for an improved reporting system, I’ll have plenty of time to do more dives than I wish for. And I’m almost there, so soon I’ll log my 1000th dive...
But of course I did not miss out on the dives in Hani Faru Bay, a world famous lagoon where in this season, dozens of mantas and whale sharks gather for a frenzy feeding on plankton. We did three dives in a row there, and I still cannot believe the amount of mantas that were twirling around me, making loops, mouths wide open, slapping divers on their head with their big wings and coming so close that I could have photographed the parasites on their skins, would I have been a skilled photographer. I took some pictures, yes, and also some videos and I will post them some day, but I warn you beforehand, the quality of the pictures is crap... Notwithstanding my camera skills , I was never this close to so many mantas and I don’t think there is many other places in the world where one can witness this. And there were no whale sharks this time, so hopefully, we'll run into some of these giants next trip.
The first trip was tough though. Bad weather, not being able to do the crossing to Baa Atoll and therefore no dives in Hani Faru Bay. Strong current and bad visibility. We tried to explain to the guests that these are conditions that we simply cannot control, but some are just too disappointed to listen to your arguments. And then they complain. And then you feel bad, because you would have loved to kick off the season with a fantastic trip, every customer happy, all the crew happy, us happy... It wasn’t like that, malesh... The second trip quickly made us forget the sorrows of the first one. All guests super happy, lots of mantas, great weather, great group...
Every day still, I think about how my life has changed since I left the corporate world. Every day still, I’m amazed at the different kind of happiness that I have found and how much I am enjoying it. This current job gives me the opportunity to do what I’m good at (organise, make lists of checks & balances, write lots of emails and get frustrated when people don’t answer instantly) and to dive in one of the most amazing places in the world. The only thing I have problems with, is keeping up my yoga practices... Not only because I’ve been very busy and I’m not the kind of person who’ll get up at 5 am to practice before every body else is awake, but also because it’s kind of hard on a rocking boat to balance on one leg, lifting the other leg by holding the big toe and trying to reach your knee with your nose. The head stand is also a challenge... But I’ve managed 3 practices in 3 weeks and now that I bought a new mat, I’m going to try and keep it up.
This week we don’t have any guests, so I have ample time to finish off as much paperwork as I can, purchase all necessary spare parts and items we need from Malé as well as do yoga at a decent hour of the day, sleep in a bit and watch a movie in the evening. Saturday, the party starts again, we’re expecting a group of 14 Belgians who ordered 50 bottles of rose for the week. That should be fun!
Stefano and I are doing well together. We have learned from the problems we had last year, the time we spent apart during summer gave us a good perspective on things and made us realise that this is what we really want. We are and always will be extremely different, but I believe we found a way to respect each other in our differences and benefit from the complementarity (is that a word??) of our characters and skills. We are in love and make a killer team at work, what else can I wish for?
Maybe one thing... being able to show more friends and family what it’s like here on our Princess Haleema... Miss SKO is due to arrive next month, who else is following suit? Special plice fo’ you my flend!!!... :-)
Baci & bubbles
xYx
-
20 Oktober 2010 - 21:13
Mama:
super allemaal, houen zo, love is in the air, fish is in the water,en stefano is at hand!geniet ze! -
21 Oktober 2010 - 06:53
Nina:
all sounds fabulous my dear!!! happy to hear/read you're doing so well. big x, also to stefano, n -
21 Oktober 2010 - 12:28
Mir Janssen:
Yeaissss back in business!! I hope I'll be able to see that for myself! People keep trying to go Sri Lanka so who knows! Need a special plise though!
XM -
21 Oktober 2010 - 19:30
Anjo:
Bijna aan de 1000?
Champagne zeg ik! -
21 Oktober 2010 - 20:36
Katelijne:
Klinkt geweldig! Heel blij voor je/ jullie! x -
23 Oktober 2010 - 18:37
Yaisa:
Hoi Yaisa, Bedankt voor je uitgebreide verslag.
Je moet wel heel hard werken,maar ook heel leuk dat je het zo fantastisch vindt. Ik wens jullie tweeen veel succes, veel liefs, Viola. -
29 December 2010 - 13:28
Dorien :
Ha Yais, Ik neem aan dat jij nog steeds in de zon zit? Wij hebben een behoorlijke periode van sneeuw, kou, file & trein-leed achter de rug (and more to come). Nog steeds mooi wit op het moment trouwens. Een heel goed 2011! Geniet ervan, Dorien
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