Day 15 Gear Class and Night Diving

Howard covers the compressor system.

After breakfast and morning briefing we completed and reviewed our enriched air nitrox exams.  It was challenging however it was satisfying to learn so much and really be able to grasp what we are doing when we lower the nitrogen and increase the oxygen in the air we are breathing and how it is accomplished.   

Derek enlightens the group.

We were planning a deep dive and a night dive so we had a quick lunch where we worked on gathering and organizing the data from yesterdays boat dives into a map and ecological survey then we headed to the dive locker.  We had a really amazing afternoon class that helped me really understand my gear a lot more.  First Howard covered the compressor and tank filing. Then we focused on our gear. We started with tanks, on the difference between steel and aluminum but more a focus on how they are marked for DOT or CT (CA transportation) then a real detailed instruction on what the hardware on the top is doing.  We worked from the tanks to our BCD’s where we removed and replaced the dump valves, looked our own BCD’s over closely.  Next we focused on regulators starting from the valve, then the first stage, and ending with us taking the basics off of our second stages down to the diaphragms and looking inside to see how they work. By then we realized we had run out of time today for a deep dive so we headed to town for dinner.  Effie and I headed out early and got treats at the patisserie and hunted down the post office by pointing to where the stamp goes on a blank postcard.  We all met up and had crepes or gyros and headed back to prep for our night dive.  I paired with Leslie and Lee and the dive as amazing!   

I love cut-aways!

We say so much more life at night including an octopus that played with us for a little while, many squid, huge shrimp, tiny shrimp, some mantis shrimp (!) many little crabs, and many different fish. Everyone was exhibiting different behavior than we observe during the day.  It was truly amazing!! Life changed so much after dark.  One squid really liked my light but then would freak out, it kept leaving to the edge of the light, then coming back, eventually it swam down my body, into my leg, inked and swam off.  When we got out, Effie sadly had a urchin spine in her foot so we all watched Dr. Begley try to get it out, entertainment for all. I then headed home to log my dive and get some rest. Additionally we addressed worries for both oxygen toxicity and nitrogen narcosis.

Best shop combination, gas station, bridal store.

Day 14 Ecological Survey Time

Komuna Ksamil, our dive site for the day.

After a breakfast of a fried egg, fried toast, a piece of a kielbasa, juice, tea, hot milk and coffee we had a simple knot tying a line to a post or other solid object.  We then grabbed our gear and tanks and were rejoined by the van driver from yesterday. 

Our dubious driver.

Effie looking over the wreck.

Today we headed to Komuna, Ksamil to do two dives on a purpose sunk torpedo ship with a funny history.  When Albania was still a communist nation in the 1960’s China gave them several ships including a few torpedo boats.  In the 1997 during a civilian uprising the Navy base we operate out of was stormed and the boats at the dock, including two torpedo boats and several others, were sunk.  Of course they were at the dock so they sank a meter or two and rested on the bottom mostly out of the water.  Albania realizes that diving is coming one day and that tourists and their money are a part of that. So in October 2010 five boats were purpose sunk in a harbor near Saranda.  Of course when the Albanian Center for Marine Research inquired as to the specific whereabouts no one was sure, not the Navy guys on the base, not the military police at the ferry terminal, no one.   

Flying over top.

Life growing on an old warship.

So they searched using sonar and various tools.  Eventually on of the guys on the navy base who had been there that day offered to take them where the boats were purpose sunk.  They tooled around until he said here, Derek and Howard dropped down and searched fruitlessly, upon returning to the boat Derek decided to proceed under the boat to the swim step and realized they were anchored nearly directly on top of one of the wrecks.  They have since found the other four and today we headed out to dive the torpedo boat.  We arrived at a gorgeous beach resort, rented a few lounge chairs in exchange for using the beach, and hit the water.  Effie and I paired up and worked together well. 

Leslie descending on the radio tower

As the surface swim out to the boat was about 300 yards we bottom swam back to shore.  We lunched and got back in for an ecological survey of the boat.  The algae have surely taken over the outer hull and there were fish aplenty but not many inverts.  I am however very jealous the Leslie saw an awesome nudibranch that I did not.  After the dive we headed home and found out that there had been no water on the base in the morning so our gear would go unrinsed for the day.  As we arrived back and started unloading the stuffed to the brim van is started raining and by the time we were done there was a full on thunder and lightening storm in effect and it was pouring.  As we initially hung out our gear to dry when it was sprinkling it ended up getting a good fresh water rinse even though we lacked water.   

The storm drove us indoors, it even hailed at one point.  It seemed the perfect time to work on our Enriched Air Nitrox exams and we plugged away until Lee came and told us it was almost dinnertime.  We had planned on going to our fancy dinner for the trip, up at the castle on top of a hill overlooking the whole town, but due to weather we headed to a seafood place right down the road we had yet to visit. 

The food was amazing, I ate 4-5  Lizardfish that were gutted and fried, head and all.  The bones pretty much fell out and there were very easy to eat for whole fish.  There were also salads, fried cheese, peppers and baked cheese, mussels, and calamari, all of which were delicious.  That pretty much did people in and everyone headed home for bed.

Serious rain!

Delicious lizardfish!

Day 13 Wreck diving!

Our glorious van.

Dr. Chris Begley.

Effie and Dave wave hello.

Today I woke up feeling better! This change of states couldn’t have happened at a better time as today we got to dive a wreck, the Probitas!  I was grateful to enjoy a light breakfast then more joining knots and days of the week.  In true Albanian fashion the van to drive us to our dive site was about half an hour late, it was amazing though, an old Mercedes blue van with some bench seats and some seats that were boxes with upholstery on top.  We loaded up and headed downtown to the beachfront at the west end, next to the Eagle’s Claw restaurant.  We unloaded and set up, happily the guys running a beach front paddle boat rental, snack bar place were happy to watch our gear that wasn’t going in to the water with us.  That is one nice thing, as Derek pointed out, of being in a country where diving is so new and rare, people are intrigued and curious.  We had a nice short surface swim out to the deck of the Probitas.  It is a WWII Italian freighter turned medical ship that had been headed home with wounded soldiers when the Germans, returning from an African bombing run, spotted her and unloaded the rest of their artillery, sinking her in the main bay of Saranda.  She lies on her side, with the starboard side facing up in about 15 feet of water. We practiced locating objects, on her starboard side placed by Lee and Derek and estimating their size, then we were free to explore, up to 60 feet depth and without any penetration. We stayed out both out of respect for the war grave and also because it simply isn’t safe. 

Derek exploring above Chris and I.

I paired with Chris (Dr. Begley) since I was feeling better but wanted to feel free to call the dive at any time without robbing a fellow classmate of such an amazing opportunity.  Happily I felt fine and was able to complete the entire dive.  In a nice coincidence this dive brought my cumulative dive time to just over 24 hours.  I learned that I tend to overestimate size, which isn’t surprising in water. 

Fish schooling over the bow.

The dive was amazing, seeing the destruction, metal twisted and everything off kilter anyhow due to the Probitas being on it’s side, additionally seeing how nature is already reclaiming her, making an artificial reef.  After an amazing dive we headed home for lunch and I was finally truly hungry.  I headed to Erjoni’s for a sandwich, which consists of a fried egg, bacon, and cheese.  Protein hit the spot.  After lunch we had our nitrox, enriched air lecture followed by testing the mixture in tanks at the dive locker. We then brought some gear up in preparation for a two dive day away from the base tomorrow.  We had about an hour and I managed to get in touch with Eric and we video chatted for a while.  It was really nice to see and hear him and helped combat the slight homesickness I had been feeling.  We then headed to Lee’s favorite restaurant which I cannot remember the name of where I had moussaka,  it is kind of like lasagna butt with potatoes instead of noodles.  It as amazing! On the way home there was some sort of festival happening at the football (soccer) stadium that we pass. 

New life growing among the destruction.

The others had seen it the night before but since I hadn’t I ducked in alone and watched a singer, some traditional dancing and what may have been some sort of political speeches, whoever they were they did not lack passion.  I then grabbed an in ice cream and wandered home to rest up for what should be a two dive day tomorrow.

This big guy was guarding my gear bag upon return to shore.

Day 12 Physics, Physiology and food poisoning

Today was the halfway point of the program!  Sadly my food poisoning continued into the day.  Upon waking up I left my room long enough to let folks know what was going on, grabbed some water, and headed back to my bed. Luckily for me today was a day without diving and even better the morning was for folks to sleep in and explore the town.  I embraced the sleeping part and though I didn’t go play with everyone I felt grateful that I did not miss a morning meeting or any diving, just sightseeing.  In the afternoon we all met in the boy’s room to review our rescue tests and then have the physics and physiology lectures. I managed to get through all six plus hours with only some light dozing and nausea which everyone gracefully ignored.  Alma is such a sweetie that she made me soup when she learned that I wasn’t feeling well.  Then she felt bad for not sharing so she brought everyone chicken and rice soup.  We are lucky to have such an amazing woman here for us.  After class ended the local internet installers arrived, some guys in a pickup truck with some spools of wire in the back.  The program had worked with Alma and her family to have the internet installed.  The girls,  Anna-Maria and Emily, are over the moon, only about one in ten households has internet access in Albania and that may be a heavy estimate.  That was all the excitement I could handle for the day and didn’t go to dinner with everyone.  They kindly brought me back noodles with butter, which I was able to eat some of before falling asleep for the rest of the night.

My sweet sweet bed.

Day 11 Problem solving and surveying

Derek explaining that force fins are designed on marine mammal fins.

Today, of course, started with knots and language lessons after breakfast.  We began to work on knots that are for joining two pieces of line and started learning the days of the week in Albanian. Today was also our first 2 dive day with skill building, but first gear selling.  We had a “yard sale” where everyone talked about their gear and what they did and did not like about it.  I want to try Derek’s crazy force fins and like his mask strap that is also a mask pocket that protects your glass in transit, it even floats most masks in the water (marsoop is the brand).    Everyone else geared up for sunny climates I was only one for low light, it was fun to see all the different set ups.

Making it work!

Next we spent some time quadrat and RPC building when it was realized the quadrats had not accompanied the rest of the gear to Albania.  Howard had procured all the necessary PVC, corner joints, and such.  We found out the hard way that PVC in Albania isn’t made to fit into joint pieces as it is at home. Always the problem solvers we whittled the PVC and made it fit into the corner joints, we then used our extensive knot tying skills to set the cross pattern of strings within the area of the quadrat.  Our hard work was briefly interrupted when a herd of goats decided to cut through the middle of our work area.  

Figuring out how to run the lines on the quadrat.

Then after a short break for break lunch we took our quadrats and headed out to dive. I handed off beach master duties to Leslie.  We did   two dives back to back today and Lee was my buddy.  We swam out to what is now the normal point, dropped down. I spotted a beautiful shell and shook out bristle worm living in it.  Then it was time to address our business, we swam tape, set up a line on the proper heading, took quadrat one direction and did RPC the return, returned to shore to switch out tanks. After replacing an o-ring surface swim tiring but good.  Got back cleaned up & headed back home to shower & we swam out and repeated our process 10 meters down the line that was laid out.  We learned today that our survey area is mostly sea grass, which is very tough compared to PNW sea grass.  Today we had big swells at the surface and quite a bit of surface swimming which was tiring, but a good day all around. We had dinner at the delicious at Eagle’s Claw, where I had seafood risotto & grilled veggies.  I got very sleepy after dinner and headed back before others.  By the time I got home I felt pretty off my game, and by the middle of the night it was clear to me that I had food poisoning.

Class clowns.

Day 10 Problem Solving

Our morning Albanian lesson.

This morning began with a different kind of fried bread with honey, coffee, sausage links but totally rectangular, apples.  Funny how we associated food shapes with being correct when it is processed food like sausage, just because I get it round at home doesn’t mean everyone else isn’t eating sausage with right angles. Today was about tasks and problem solving in the water as well as task loading. I got to be the beach master for the first time. Before we got in the water though we got our new scientific diving slates, which we assembled and figured out our preferred pencil in medical tubing and BC clip configuration set up for our gear and comfort.  Today we dove off the base, swimming around the point, we then took a bearing to the shore and headed down the line to where a group of tasks had been set up for us to accomplish. 

Part of the view from our home base.

Today Dave was my dive buddy. First we worked on estimation of distances by learning how many hand over hand pulls or fins kicks took us 25 meters, we then swam out 25 meters took a reciprocal heading and headed back to the meter tape to see how good our simple navigation was.  We also practiced an expanding square search pattern, semi-circle expanding search pattern, and used a lift bag to raise a scuba tank to the surface. Though we got the lift bag to the surface and were told our form was good we do need to practice as we purged air a little too much as we surfaced and I ended up lifting some of the weight myself instead of the lift bag and that used a lot of my air shortening my dive time.  There was also a puzzle to put together underwater, we agreed beforehand that if not every group finished the puzzle we would buy Lee and Derek gelato, not every group finished due to air constraints so we owe Derek and Lee gelato.  After we rinsed and hung our gear to dry we enjoyed lunch then got back together for classroom time. 

Gear drying in the sun.

This afternoon our classroom lesson was accident scenarios: cause, signs & symptoms, response and treatment.  Everyone pulled an incident and location from a hat separately. I got hazardous marine life injury at Quirjalco’s, our place.  We had to come up with our scenario, the cause of our issue, the signs and symptoms we may be exhibiting, what resources are available, and what treatment we would utilize.  I decided I accidently touched a bristle worm and went from there.  We also had Leslie in full arrest at the point, where we enter the water for our marina dives from the base, then Effie had decompression sickness on the pier out front of the dive lockers, Dave went and tripped and fell carrying his BC and tank across the uneven ground to the rinse tank, then we returned to Quirjalco’s where Cam had sliced his arm on a rusty screw in his room.  After we all outlined our incidents and we discussed them fully we took a break before dinner.  We students decided to utilize our break to work on our rescue exam together as is allowed, we have out essay portion left but the rest is done.  The group then picnicked with crepes on the beach, though I had a sandwich, a baguette with meat, veggies and fries, like I had at the bus station the first day.   We hit up the store after dinner for lunch goodies, especially needed since Effie and Leslie’s room lost power and their fridge was warm for a chunk of the day.  I wandered off after we shopped and went to the Alpha Market, the big store in town.  I got figs and this crazy nutella with white chocolate on the other half, amazing!  After returning home I grabbed my computer and headed to Erjoni’s for internet.  I checked in, emailed my sweetie, and finally remembered to download my dive computer manual so I can work on that test as well.  The day started about 6.30 and at midnight it was time for bed.

Fantastic crepes!

 

Day 9 Blue Eye adventures

Beautiful Albanian country side with a mysteriously marked mountainside.

I slept very soundly and woke up excited for the day, even though it didn’t include diving, we got to go to Blue Eye (Syri i kaltë)!  For breakfast we enjoyed our fried dough and briefing prior to heading out. Today we students snorkeled so our gear was considerably lighter and easier to pack into two taxis.  It is a beautiful hour-ish drive from Saranda to Blue Eye winding into the hills.  Derek pointed out a long horizontal line across one of the hills, asked us what we thought it could be and promised to tell us later.  Even along the road the glimpses of the river that flows from the Blue Eye impressed us, so clear you could clearly see all the way to the bottom of the riverbed.  Along the road there were areas where water poured from the mountain and the locals would stop and fill their water bottles as we had in Cold Water on my first day in Albania.   Upon arrival to the Blue Eye proper we were all wowed, what a dramatically beautiful landscape nestle in a lustrous forest.  After a short hike to the spring itself through a lightly wooded area, we were graced with a breathtaking experience. The spring bubbles up out of the ground forming a pool, which swiftly flows away becoming the river.    

One of the numerous dragonfly in the area.

The water from the Blue Eye is the water the locals drink and it is delicious.

The Blue Eye

Effie enjoying a frigid dip.

The water in the inner part of the spring appears very dark blue, like the pupil of an eye, and the outer ring a lighter blue, like the iris, giving the impression of an eye, hence the name.  There are dragonflies and frogs abound near the mouth of the Blue Eye.  Though we didn’t dive today Derek and Chris did, they headed about 20 meters down in to the Blue Eye to replace and check on sensors they previously placed.  We watched and waited, the locals visiting were confused and amused by us.  One woman showed up after Derek and Chris descended and was swimming in the pool, the look on her face when Chris surfaced first, coming out of the cave that forms the mouth of the Blue Eye was hilarious.   We waded a bit but I was a wimp and suited up in my wetsuit prior to fully submerging.  The mountain water was frigid!  The water is also so clean and refreshing we could just drink it as we swam.  After the guys surfaced and got out of their gear we all, including Michael Blades, snorkeled from the mouth of the Blue Eye down the river for a few minutes to where the restaurant is.  The water was swift and clear and we just let go and went along for the ride, grouping back up a few times at turns in the river.  Everyone else was cold but Cameron and I wanted to stay in so we swam around in the wide area the river formed that was fairly lacking in current.  There was a lot of algae and we swam through it finding frogs and Cameron found and caught a water snake.  

Cameron with the snake he caught.

 We headed back in after about 20 minutes and showed the snake off before changing and joining everyone else for lunch.  We ate outside right next to the river, there was plenty of glorious salad and tzatziki and I had a delicious pork chop.  The water was so good I just couldn’t stop drinking it and the waiters just refilled out pitcher straight from the source.  After lunch we chased lizards and frogs, and took many more pictures of the copious dragonflies and headed home.  Derek finally told us the story of the stripe on the mountain.  Local legend says that a dragon lived in the Blue Eye until the day he emerged kidnapping a local princess and flying away with her.  As he flew away his claws scratched into the mountainside leaving the mark we still see today.  Though the dragon is long gone he left behind his children, all the beautiful dragonflies.   On the way back everyone napped, purposefully or not.  After we returned and hung our essentially very well rinsed gear to dry and rested a bit.  Tonight we had dinner with Alma and family.  They made delicious side dishes including an amazing pepper dish, we provided a bunch of pizza and we feasted all together on the ground floor patio.  After dinner there was much singing & dancing, they even ran in to town and grabbed a new cd of traditional Albanian music when theirs wouldn’t play.  We all learned some traditional Albanian dances, watched the girls beautifully preform others and then taught Alma and the girls some goofy more modern dances.  We all laughed, and danced and laughed some more until we were all exhausted.  Sadly tonight we bid farewell to Michael who is returning home in the morning.  It was really nice to meet and get to know him and will take up his offer of a visit if I ever make it to Key West, Florida.  So tired I barely had time to jot some notes down and download the hundreds of pictures I took today before falling into a deep sleep.

One last shot of the beautiful river.

Day 8 Preparedness training continues

This morning after our briefing we headed down to the dive locker to work on navigation skills on land, we paired up navigating reciprocal courses, squares, talked about what to do when you encounter obstacles (ie the whole teaching crew in your path) and attempted some more advanced geometric shapes.  After we practiced navigation skills and compass work for a while we packed our gear up and headed to the beach at Muchobega.  (The beach that Cameron, Dave and I snorkled at previously.) Today we put together the skills we have been learning the past few days and did a full rescue of an unconscious diver from the bottom.  Leslie and I were teamed up and I must admit I was nervous at first so I offered to be rescued (ie unconscious) first. She did a great job rescuing me to the beach and starting CPR, then it was my turn.  

Leslie leads the way.

 After rescuing Leslie I feel much more confident in my ability to assist other divers in the future.  It is a skill set that I hope never to use but will strive to keep sharp and in the forefront of my mind while diving.  Rescuing someone is physically and mentally demanding but we didn’t stop there for the day, we moved on to imaginary emergency dive accident management scenarios.  Someone on shore would notice a diver/swimmer in distress and take charge, assigning tasks for everyone else to get the person to shore and to start administering CPR and oxygen as needed.  Derek ran us through the first scenario then we ran through a few more with others in the lead to get the hang of what needs to be done.  While practicing we garnered the interest of the local children swimming and some adults.   
 

Pinna nobilis looking smaller in pictures.

 At one point Lee swam out to be “in distress” and a boy, maybe 12, noticed right away and started swimming towards her, only stopping when Effie beat him there and he realized everything was ok.  At another point some boys and a man were watching and the man wanted to help so we had him help get Lee out of the water.  Everyone was all smiles as we thanked him and did our best to explain what we were doing.  After we completed rescue scenarios we got back in the water and practiced out navigation skills by planning and executing a dive plan within the bay with our buddy.  

Leslie and Effie watching Derek explain the O2 unit.

Leslie and I were partners and spotted some giant clams, Pinna nobilis, aka the "noble pen shell" or "fan mussel.”  We didn’t know that at the time though and lacking words we were still excited at our find unsure of what it was.  They were nestled in within the seagrass beds we were exploring.   After everyone finished their dives they showed off things they had found, Effie found a really stinky goat horn we left behind as well as some abalone shells.  I was excited as I had found my first abalone shell as well. (I have a special place in my heart for abalone.) After packing up, returning to the base, rinsing and hanging gear we headed off to lecture.  Today we watched the DAN (Diver’s Alert Network) video focused on first aid and CPR and got some hands on experience with the O2 unit.  We all had a chance to put the O2 together, take it apart, handle the different mask options and generally get comfortable with the unit. We then headed in to town for another delicious dinner at Limani, I had an amazing penne with shrimp and zuchinni.  Dinner was followed by beach wandering and much discussion about the “Super Moon” which eventually did make an appearance.  While waiting for the super moon we took a spin on the beachfront bumper cars.  

Bumper cars!

 You’ve never seen a group of so called adults regress to giggling children as quickly as when their bumper cars are switched on.  These are not the bumper cars of home where everyone drives the same way in a circle, we had no restrictions and drove accordingly. We then had some fun taking super moon pictures and headed home.  Upon our arrival Leslie spotted and caught a small tailless lizard, he had already been lucky enough to survive once.  We told him he was cute and released him, of course.  We slept well anticipating our trip to the Blue Eye the next morning.

Super moon above Saranda.

Day 7 Ksamil Bay

Ksamil Bay

  Today after our morning briefing, knots and language we packed our gear into a taxi van and headed to Ksamil Bay about half an hour from Saranda.  The program had, to this point, only been to Ksamil Bay via boat but today we found it by road.  The road down to the bay itself was too harried even for the fearless taxi driver so we had him drop us at the top.  We hiked all of our gear, tanks, lunch, and other supplies down quite the road to the most beautiful beach.  It was very hot and the road a challenge so we were rewarded with some swim time prior to starting, it was glorious and rejuvenating.  

The gang enjoying some hard earned relaxation.

 After we cooled down a bit we geared up for snorkeling and spent time exploring and working on our skin diving skills and tired diver assists as well as cramp assistance.  Derek guided us to a beautiful swim-through, another gloriously beautiful experience at an amazing location.  After snorkeling we broke for lunch then headed back in to the water.  This time we teamed up with those nearest our size and after Derek demonstrated on Lee we practiced extractions from the water of an unconscious diver.  Though Derek made it look effortless and graceful we greatly lacked his experience and spent a lot of time giggling as we struggled to remove our partners to the shore without further drowning them, dropping them or causing greater injury.

Swim through with buddies.

Pretty sponge hiding under a rock.

Today we discovered that Cameron is ridiculously heavy when unconscious and for a simpler extraction it took the rest of us working together to form a human stretcher, though Dave was determined and did rescue Cameron on his own.  Today Chris and Lee were our saviors, they carried everything that could not get wet back up the large hill to meet the taxi driver.  The rest of us paired up, or in our case Effie, Leslie and I were a triplet, and we got to dive our way over to the next cove and the resort there. Lee and Chris met us there with the taxi to pack up.  The dive was gorgeous!  We found the swim-through again and experienced it again from another angle, we also enjoyed finding fire worms, sponges and all types of fish. 

Bristle worm, look but don't touch.

As I have mentioned diving is very uncommon in Albania so the looks we got when we surfaced at the resort beach were priceless.  Our group navigated well and surfaced right at the resort surprising a few people.  We packed up the van and headed back to Saranda, exhausted, happy and soggy.  After we rinsed our dive gear and ourselves we met up for todays classroom lesson, emergency oxygen provider and CPR/FA/AED training.  Derek seems to have a gift for making the serious also fun and educational. While making sure we learn what we need and understand the importance of it, he shares stores that get his points across both serious and amusing.  I already feel more prepared as a diver!  After class we cleaned up and headed in to town for dinner at a fancier restaurant down at the end of the boardwalk.  We were right on the water and the meal was fantastic! I enjoyed kebabs and grilled vegetables. After we finished the sun had completely set and we headed upstairs to the top level to snap some pictures of the boardwalk lit up at night.  It was a long exhausting day so after some boardwalk gelato we headed home and to bed. 

The Saranda boardwalk by night.

Leslie selects some tasty gelato for the stroll home.

 

Day 6 Let's dive!

Derek giving the morning Albanian language lesson.

Today we had our first dive!  I love the communal breakfast then morning short meeting/debriefing, with our Albanian phrase and knot of the day.  It is a good way to get started and get rolling.  We learned a figure eight, a double figure eight and good morning (Meire Menjes). 

Derek and Dave working on knot tying.

Today after we finished up and grabbed our gear, we headed down to the military base/our home base.  We had a very minor hiccup when it was realized out regulators were all set up for yoke valve tanks and the tanks here are for DIN valves but they got them switched out and ready to go in no time, while assuring us we would learn enough about our regulators during the program that we would but our first stages back in ourselves at the end.  We were buddy paired up, Cameron and I got to be buddies, and Dave was assigned shore master duties, meaning he recorded everyone’s PSI before and after the dive, as well as time in and out. After half gearing up we walked to the water, left our BCD’s and swam around the point to place the float. Derek and Chris demonstrated some entry options from the surface to get to depth skin diving while in thick neoprene suits, which make you buoyant.  We practiced our skin diving skills on the way back to gear up fully.  We went over skills such as mask, BCD, weight, and fin removal and replacement at depth as well as multiple out of air buddy sharing scenarios which Cam and I completed just fine under the watchful eye of Chris.  Don’t misunderstand, some of our tasks were challenging, taking your BCD off, which has all your weight in it while wearing a buoyant suit is fairly simple, getting it back on can be challenging and comical.  I ended up turtling, I was on my back on top of the BCD pulling myself down into it and kicking up sediment the whole time.  The skills like BCD and fin removal and replacement are more for problem solving under water rather than real scenarios. After Cam and I finished we all went for a short dive around with Chris tailing us, we explored a bit, swimming over lush sea grass beds and sandy patches.  Cam spotted a eel and pointed it out fast enough I saw it as it fled into the bottom compartment of the engine block it is living in.  The thermocline is very apparent but due to the hot weather shifts constantly and is unpredictable, you can swim a horizontal line not changing depth and swim through it several times. It does feel good though hitting that colder water that is about 65 F, especially after being in the sweltering sun lugging gear and surface swimming in black neoprene.  Visibility is pretty good, I would say about 30 feet, which compared to Pacific Northwest diving is wonderful.  After cleaning and hanging gear we had our first self-driven lunch hour.  I learned that the lunchmeat we bought has a thin paper around the outside you should remove prior to making your sandwich.  After lunch we headed to the ice box, otherwise known as Cam and Dave’s room, for the start of our rescue course, we talked a lot about liability, and assessing a situation and the choice to help or not, what that choice means to you and what happens once you choose to help.  It was a really interesting discussion with all of our backgrounds.  Derek worked at the Catalina Island decompression chamber (among several) as well as being a fully certified ETM, in all his time diving and teaching he has dealt with some pretty crazy and sometimes heart breaking stuff.  He did an amazing job getting us thinking and discussing.  Class ended abruptly as the slats under cams bed gave way and Cam, Effie, and Chris all hit the floor.  We figured that was a good stopping point for the day.  We all enjoyed a quick break and met back up to all head in to town together for dinner.  Tonight was a more traditional restaurant above the beach overlooking the swim test area.  I had an amazing stuffed eggplant dish.  I should start paying attention to what Lee gets, she has been here before and everything she orders is wonderful.  Unknowingly I order that same thing as her and therefore didn’t have to be jealous.  The moon was gorgeous and huge climbing through the sky above the bay as we ate on the patio.  Kayla showed up soon after we finished and it was nice to see her again.  Apparently my guess of the 90’s was conservative and it have been over 100 F everyday, which is unusual for this time of year, so I feel less wimpy now knowing that.  After dinner everyone headed home except Effie, Michael and I, we strolled down the waterfront, buying souvenirs and eating gelato before getting back to our residence around midnight. 

Gelato on the boardwalk.