Message from Peter Toth:

"St Stephan, King of Hungary: June 2008, I finished statue #73. This is a very important statue to me, as it is my first one on the European Continent. St Stephan was the first King of Hungary, around 1000 AD, and he introduced Christianity to the country. If not for him, there would be no Hungary today." It is located about 20 miles from Budapest, in the town of Delegyhaza. It is in a Park dedicated to King Stephan, adjacent to the Post Office."

Cozumel

The beautiful island of Cozumel, the keeper of the largest reef in the world, Palancar Reef. This reef is between the island of Cozumel and the Yucatan Peninsula. The currents are swift, and one of the most exciting dives is the drift dive. The boat captain lets everyone off to dive, and be swept along with the current. One must hang on to whatever is available to be able to stop your movement. When you are neutrally buoyant, you drift at about 4 mph. When you surface, an hour later, the boat has followed you there. The captain has tracked your bubbles. Everyone makes it on board!

This week of diving was the first serious diving since certification. After the second dive, I was with the group and we were about 70 ft. down. I exhaled, and the next breath intake was water, not air! Talk about serious panic, I looked around for my buddy, and he was about 20 ft. away. Too far! I looked up and saw the divemaster. I tugged on his fin an when he saw me pointing at my mouth, he reached down and gave me my regulator, sans the rubber mouthpiece, which was still in my mouth. As you might expect, the air which came out of the regulator was very welcome, to say the least.

We surfaced, to talk, and what had happened was that the plastic clamp that held the rubber mouthpiece to the regulator had broken, and when I exhaled, the pressure blew the regulator out of my mouth. The divemaster said to replace the mouthpiece back on to the regulator and to hold it on with my hand while we finish the dive.

That evening, reviewing the events of the day, I got an A for not panicking, and an F for not checking my equipment before diving. To learn by experience in this game, is dangerous.

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