Written by Steph
Upon arrival, conditions looked considerably better than the previous day. The water looked calm, the sun was shining and the wind was absent. YIPPEE!!! Like the absolute lads they are, Will and Briony swam out to the Louis Shied wreck and dropped an SMB directly onto the boilers first try, before the rest of us had even lugged all our kit down to the sandy shore! The first dives of the day consisted of Ellie’s very first fun dive as a qualified ocean diver (again, YIPPEE!!!) with Matt on the Louis Shied. Ben and Steph also headed out to the wreck, whilst Will conducted an ocean diver lesson with Millie and Cecelia.
Visibility was miles better today, Steph and Ben zipped around the wreck a couple of times, managing to see a very large blue lobster before heading back to shore.
During the surface interval, Will and Briony got some late morning breakfast from the cafe and we heard many compliments from other dive groups about the placement of the SMB on the wreck, again, way to go Will and Briony!
The second dives of the day saw Ben and Steph take Cecelia out for her first fun dive as a newly qualified diver to the Louis Shied. The wind had picked up slightly so the swim out was slightly harder than it had been that morning, but despite this we all managed to get there without any dramas. We all descended onto the boilers however, as we were about to set off exploring Ben and Steph looked around, locked eyes and realised there was no ocean diver in sight (oh well, she was only from EUSAC (joking, we love everyone that comes on our diving trips)). Much to our relief, we spotted her floating back towards the surface. We ascended to help and luckily she managed to get her buoyancy under control without assistance from us. An important lesson as to why you should practice getting your buoyancy right during your training. Ben, Steph and Cecelia took a quick tour of the wreck, spotting the blue lobster for a second time, before navigating underwater on a bearing back to the shore to avoid the long surface swim back.
During this time, Ellie and Matt had taken a dive along the rocky reef to avoid the long swim out to the wreck, a wise choice in our opinion! Will was again conducting an ocean diving lesson with Millie.
However, once everyone was back on shore, the lessons weren’t over. Disaster struck! Steph had to complete a crafty practical rescue management scenario set up by Will. Millie had “ascended” far too fast from 30 metres and was “showing” signs of decompression illness. Fun fact: if someone is suffering from DCI they most likely 1) deny they have it, and 2) refuse oxygen. Steph did not know this. Instead she used a bargaining tactic on Millie in an attempt to get her to accept the oxygen. You’ll all be thankful to know that it did actually work, though it is not a recommended way to go about things. During this ordeal, Sophie was very helpfully informing the public that we were in fact training and an ambulance did not need to be called. Though shoutout to the passersbys that were willing to aid us if it had been a real emergency.
Eventually it was time to return home. The traffic however was not in our favour. An emergency bridge repair added a 3 hour delay to our already long journey. Despite this, we all eventually returned to stores where we put in a graft to clean our kit before heading off back home.
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