May 31, 2008 Saturday evening - The Night Dive!

Jack and I woke up from our nap, made a quick dinner and joined Margie at 7 pm in the small dorm to go over the fish and fauna we'd seen during our afternoon dive. It's always easier to check the dive computers for information when sitting with someone that knows how many times to tap the left or right button to get the screens to change to where you want them.

Being the slowest at getting geared up Jack and I started assembling our equipment as soon as we were done with the Underwater Naturalist paperwork. The rest of the class was to be suited up and ready at the boat ramp at 8 pm. With our "head start" Jack and I were suited up and ready when Kaya came down the ramp. That was a first!

Kaya is the class instructor... Jack and I were assigned to Margie. I think we were the "special cases"! Whatever the reason we were lucky to get Margie as our individual trainer. She took the time to get us properly weighted, show us the intricacies of our dive computers, point out the octupus under the ship remains, and share to 'wonder of the deep' amoung other things.

After the instruction portion of the night dive we all shrugged into our BC's and headed down the ramp to the waters edge. As we did a bueatiful bald eagle swooped by and landed on the point just past the ramp. In the gathering darkness the white feathers gleamed. Noble and regal he watched our group of seven black hooded, bug-eyed, white faced humpbacked creatures swim out in to the dark waters. Wondering what type of creatures we were?

Before going in I made sure I knew the compass heading for where we were going, the heading back, that Margie's tank light was white, and Jack's was red. I turned on the big hand held light, swallowed my apprehension and waded in with my dive buddy, Jack.

The mission was simple. Navigate out to the bouy, practice communication skills with lights underwater in the dark, look around for the nightlife, turn our lights to our chest and experience the darkness and watch the luminous fauna glow, then navagate back to shore. All the time staying close to your dive buddy.

I got an unexpected extra credit assignment. My hand held light dimmed to a orange-red glow after only the first few excersizes. I could see Margie's white tank light ahead of me but as I looked around for Jack the glow didn't penitrate the darkness enough for me to see him. I didn't see his light either. We had stirred the bottom up with our decent and visibility was extremely bad.

First I shook the light hard several times - that's what works on our flashlight at home. Then I banged on the side of the casing feeling more anxious as the 'glow' faded to nothing. It was completely dark. "Keep breathing. Be still. Think the situation through. Move slowly and deliberately." I repeated to myself. The 7 mil gloves made unzipping the pocket on my BC by touch awkward but I managed to get it done and pulled out my back-up flashlight. Basically by braille I oriented the flashlight and found the On switch. And there was LIGHT! Whew! And the little light seemed much brighter than the large one! And there was Jack and Margie - not far away. I guess if I'd looked around longer I would have seen their lights but I'd become very focused and tunnel visioned around the fading light in my hand.

I was very glad to see them! I did not want to do the lost buddy routine no matter how much extra credit could be earned. I'd embarrassed myself enough earlier in the day!

Signaling I was 'OK' I happily let Jack take the lead in navigating us back to shore.

Topside Margie complimented me on handling the situation so calmly. Evidently she'd been watching me the entire time. She even admitted she'd enjoyed watching the process and was impressed that I solved the delimma without assistance. I accepted the praise, mentally promising myself I will not be doing any other night dives.

One more dive to go! Sunday morning 8 am at the boat ramp for the Deep Dive!