Found at: http://www.anguillaguide.com/article/articleprint/4670/-1/133/
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Thoughts Of An Epat Living On Anguilla: Life Begins At Forty By Penny Legg
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‘Life begins at forty!’ they say. Since turning forty I have tried several new things… like scuba diving.
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Penny underwater Courtesy of Steve Donahue
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I began with my fingers crossed. Could I remember everything in the PADI Open Water Diver Manual? What did BCD stand for again? Will I be able to find my ‘O’ ring? Gulp! Worse still, will I have to wear a wet suit?
Medical and associated information was checked and the swimming test passed before my instructor showed me how to set up the equipment I needed. In the manual it looked straightforward - if I could just remember which bit was which.
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Preparing the dive boat
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I practised assembling and disassembling all of the apparatus before entering the confined water of Sandy Ground. ‘Confined’ because it is sheltered and calm, not wild ocean. I learnt how to breathe underwater through a mouthpiece. I inhaled and when I breathed out I found the bubbles of my exhaled air clouding around me, a strange sensation!
Amongst many skills, I learnt how to clear my mask of water, how to retrieve my regulator if I lost it and how to purge it of water. I experienced being underwater without my mask and what it felt like when air ran out.
Then we went deeper to practise buoyancy control. I was to lie on my front and, by using the breath entering and leaving my lungs, raise and lower myself in the water using my fins as a pivot. Hmmm! My instructor made it look easy of course. When I was ‘invited’ to try I gracefully floated to the surface repeatedly!
After this I had to remove my weight belt and buoyancy control device (BCD) whilst underwater. I am a buoyant individual so had a hefty 16 lb strapped to my waist to keep me submerged. It had to be removed and replaced. I was shown how to do it of course but lack of practise makes for a clumsy Penny and I now know that it is possible to laugh aloud underwater!
Then I had to tackle the BCD. This was sobering. If necessary I need to be able to remove it, check it and then put it back on again without drowning myself in the process. The air bottle has a mind of its own, continually floating away, so it is a struggle to control it. In the meantime you cannot drop the regulator as having no air is not a good idea underwater! Well I am still here, but it gave me a new respect for the equipment I was using. Suddenly I understood that this was no game. If I forgot my training I could drown myself. I came out of the water a more thoughtful girl than I went in.
The next day I headed for Open Ocean. I had done my homework, slept REALLY soundly and was full of beans. The boat trip to Hole in the Wall, along from Black Garden Bay, was fun but the wind was more than I had expected. The swell was a little strong but I would be under the water so I did not take much notice of how choppy the surface was.
I was thoroughly briefed about the dive ahead: what we would do, the depth we would reach, how long we would be under water and what my gauges should read. My instructor became my ‘buddy,’ looking out for me underwater and vice versa. After checking the equipment we rolled backwards off the boat. I did not like this experience. I suppose I am a control freak and I did not feel in control of myself rolling backwards. As I surfaced the choppy water slapped at me and I found myself breathing faster than the day before. I tried to stay calm, remembering all I had learnt. The water was clear and I knew it was not so deep really but dry land sounded good at that point! My instructor understood. Patiently he suggested we snorkel and look at the world we were about to join.
It looked lovely down there. Fish were swimming by, plants swayed gently and the swell on the surface was only a ripple beneath.
Strangely my heart was not beating madly when we descended. I expected it to but it did not happen. The water was calm and peaceful, with shafts of sunlight penetrating like spotlights on a stage. It was beautiful.
We saw many fish and an Old Wife followed us inquisitively, its blue colour shimmering brightly. It was a lovely feeling to be amongst the undersea world, rather than peering at it from above. I was sorry when we had to leave.
Now I had to prove I could remove my weights and BCD and replace them at the surface. The awkward weight belt, this time, was no problem.
Bearing in mind that a BCD is a buoyancy control device, designed to keep you afloat, when you take it off you tend to sink. My instructor was nearby; all the same I remembered the last thing I had told my husband that morning was that I loved him. It flashed through my mind, as the wretched equipment would not go back on and I became increasingly desperate in my attempts to control it, that perhaps I had seen him for the last time. I floundered about, the weight belt dragging me down. I began to tire. Luckily for me my instructor stepped in or I would have been in big trouble. Tired and shaken I decided that that was enough for one day. Exhausted, I boarded the boat.
My instructor, ever encouraging, tried to cheer me up. I had had the courage to dive when unsure of myself, I had been submerged safely and I had successfully completed so much. I had just been unable to get that BCD on and had badly frightened myself in the process. Next dive would be better and before then we would practise again. Privately I wondered if there would be a ‘next dive’.
To be continued…….