This week has actually seen some progress. For starters I have been diving. Finally. Have 2 of 5 Advanced dives completed towards my Advanced Diver's Certification. Last Wednesday evening Dean (the instructor from DiveHQ) took me to Lake Pupuke (pronounced poopookay) on the North Shore of Auckland for some diving. His wife Alana, who has never done a minute of diving, was there to try diving out. I did my Navigation dive but the water was so murky that we lost the rope. Dean figured we ended my 'square' within 1-2m of the start point but with less than a metre of visibility we could not locate the rope. We laughed about that later. The important thing is that I did my nav dive and Dean signed it off. BUT, during that square navigation (this means that I use my compass to navigate a square pattern underwater) we swam through a 'thermal' where the temperature dropped from an uncomfortable 18-20C to an unbearable 12-13C. I would have said even icier but I was blinded by the sudden cold, litterally, as my mask began to fog up too. We searched around a circular pattern for the rope but I was freezing and signalled to Dean to surface. When we did we were about 8-10 metres away from the rope end and I was not warming up. We swam to shore using my compass at 5m.
Alana took her short dive. She is a nurse at the North Shore Hospital where she is hoping to start a new job working in the Hyperbaric Medicine Unit. She did not do well on the test for working inside the chamber. When subjected to even a small amount of pressure she was unable to equalize her ears. This is a very bad thing as the job involves being inside the pressurized chamber with a patient in order to administer medications and perform other nursing duties. That is why she decided to try diving. Dean thought that if she tried diving that it would be a more natural thing. As it turned out she still had a problem equalizing and said her right ear was sore. Not a good thing. When I saw her the next day it was feeling better but she is concerned. I think that if she tries it in a swimming pool a few times first she will find it easier. When a diver is first learning to dive they spend a lot of time in shallow water (ie: a pool) where they learn equalizing slowly and gradually get used to the sensation. So she should go the same route.
I was supposed to do a night dive too but the temperature had drop[ped drastically, I was freezing and the water was cold. Dean did not lok happy about spending more time in the frigid water either but he was wearing a thicker suit than I was and Alana was freezing too. So I decided not to freeze any further and it was difficult enough to see in the murky lake without adding the cover of darkness. Even with lamps (which would have been used for the night dive) I doubt we would have been able to find each other during the buddy seperation exercise. The cold was my real reason for not diving again though. As it was we were all freezing while getting the gear to the truck.
Both Dean and Alana, and for that matter, all the guys at the DiveHQ shop, are really nice and I enjoy time in their company. One of the guys, Terry, is still recovering from an accident he had a month ago. He was struck in the face by the boom of a tow truck turning a corner too tight. His jaw and cheek bones were smashed and he had to have extensive surgery to fix it up. Considering the damage and the fact that he now has a steel cheek, the scarring is not too bad, although his face is now far from symmetrical. He is still a nice looking young man though. He must have been a real cutie before the accident. I am certain he will be again. But the worst part is that until he gets the medical OK he is not allwed to do any diving. He is going to the doctor next week and hopes to get approval for a shallow dive.
I think he would benefit greatly from a cranio-sacral treatment. That whack must have knocked every bone in his skull around. Actually, he is lucky to be alive.
Back to me ;-)
So, I have decided to take the STCW95 Basic training at the Mahurangi Technical Institute in Warkworth. What is not yet final is dates. I had hoped to get into the course running from March 15-26 but it is apparently full suddenly. It was not on March 1-3 when I received info from and talked to various staff at the institute but when I tried signing up on the 4th, poof, full. So, unless the lady I spoke with Thursday can pull off a little magic, I will have to wait until March 29th to start the course which will end April 6th. I wanted to get that training to enhance my employability for the stewardess jobs. So this delay is also a delay in my ability to find a job. It is so frustrating.
It is the same thing with the diving. I now have 2 dives checked but it will be after March 22 before Dean is available again for check-out dives. Another certificate that once had is a plus to my employability. Especially if I decide to keep going towards an instructor certificate (extremely pricey and will need a job before I can do it).
I hope to know about the course by tomorrow afternoon. Fingers crossed.
Yesterday, I went diving with Dean, Christien (commercial diver at DiveHQ) and a couple doing their Open-Water Certification dives. I got Dean to sign me off on my boat dive. Christien and I dove around, I had the only compass so I got to practice navigation. But again my 3mm suit proved too thin for the cold water. It was only about 17C and in some places I was registering only 15C. So my dives were very short. The first was only 31 minutes and I returned to the boat with a nearly full tank (2100psi). We moved to another site during the 90 minute surface interval. The water was no warmer. Again 15-17C. This time I could only do two extremely short, shallow dives of 11 and 17 minutes. Returned to the boat with 1900psi. I hate wasting a full tank like that. So now I am loking at renting a variety of 'additional suits to enhance warmth. I'll try a 3-5mm shorty and a 3mm hoded vest. I think having a hood will be a great improvement. And gloves too will help lots. Hell... more money out. I am fast running out of money. NEED A JOB!!!
Well the diving on the weekend was chilly but much more scenic than the murky, dingy water of Lake Pupuke. We went to the resort town of Whangamata. The town has a winter population of 4000 and a summer population of 20,000. Many residents move out of twn for the summer and rent their houses out for enormous sums of money. The scenery on the drive there was out of this world. This is such a gorgeous country. We were heading south and east to the Bay of Plenty. In Whangamata we grabbed food at the bakery for lunch then drove to the docks where we hopped aboard a boat owned by Marty (a well-seasoned diver himself). He took us out to Mayor Island and to the area around it. The water was choppy, the winds gusty and the currents/surges strong. The sun was shining brightly and there were almost NO clouds in the sky. It was a gorgeous day. The diving would have been beautiful and fun if not for the cold. There was a large school of Yellow Tail makerel that we kept getting in the middle of. There were several large interesting fish (must get a fish book for this area) and though deep in the seaweed there were beautifully coloured rocks and corals. I will not dive again in just the 3mm suit, I will get/rent an additional layer of warmth.
During the STCW95 course there are a couple of days (the weekend) that I have off. I will use that time to take a bus up to Opua/Pahia. There is a 52ft sailing yacht up there that I am going to check out. If I do not have work before my visitors' visa runs out I may hop a boat for awhile. I have toleave then anyway. Or I may just give up a go back to Ottawa for a visit.
I have decided where I want my life to go now. A new career as a yacht stewardess and a career in diving. With the two skills, I can get work anywhere in the world. That is the plan.
Posted by gailene at March 7, 2004 04:58 PM