11 June 1994 Charlotte Amalie Marina
These eleven o’clock bedtimes and six o’clock mornings are killing me. All of the others in the class are weary too! We spent four hours in the pool in the morning, followed by a dive on the Cartenser wreck to do a navigation dive. We then did a couple of hours of physics and home by six o’clock – it’s a miracle? I still ended up messing about until eleven o’clock reading and preparing a couple of Open Water Classes.
12 June 1994 Charlotte Amalie Marina
Day 7 of the course - only two sleeps to the exam – am I ready? (Not yet!). In the morning, we had a lecture all about standards for the Open Water Course and I started to realise the tremendous responsibility a diving instructor has for the safety of students. We did two dives - teaching one open water skill each and practised “controlling” a Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent – total chaos. We did some more theory in the afternoon. The Open Water part of the exam is the most worrying – screw up and that’s a fail – no retake.
13 June 1994 Charlotte Amalie Marina
Final day of the IDC. We did two dives off Coki Beach in the morning. I had to do mask clear and controlled emergency swimming ascent both of which went well. We did rescue practice which seemed fairly straight forward. We did some more theory in the afternoon and went through a standards and procedures test which I didn’t do too well on, but that’s an open book exam. I had a nice dinner, a beer and went to bed at half past nine.
14 June 1994 Charlotte Amalie Marina
I felt good first thing in the morning. We had a welcome session with the examiner, Arch Archibald, first thing in the morning. Our group went straight into the written exams – I got 100% on all of the theory exams and 97% on the standards and procedures open book exam. We then did the 800 yard swim and I did it in 14:32, well within the 17 minutes. I was the quickest out of the whole lot until one guy had to do it again because he had a cramp on the first attempt – he swam it in 14:05, which is to be expected I suppose!
We then went on to the confined water presentations, and I scored 4.0 out of 5. We had to do a skill evaluation circuit where we had to demonstrate 3 skills - hover, mask replace and AAS breathing. These had to be done to demonstration quality and I’m afraid I scored 4, 3 and 3 out of 5 simply because I hadn’t thought about it!
I got a lift off Rich Courtney and we went to Bridget Gardner’s flat to eat a takeaway and prepare our Academic Teaching Presentations. I had to do “Breathing Air at Depth” lecture which I didn’t do until half past ten, but scored 4.1 out of 5 which I was quite pleased about. Back to the marina to prepare my two open water presentations for the next day and collapsed in bed at half past one! Glenys told me that the alternator doesn’t work, but I can’t do anything about it!
15 June 1994 Charlotte Amalie Marina
Up at six o’clock and off to Coki Beach. We did our unconscious, non-breathing diver rescue – I did a very good one. We then did our Open Water Presentations. I had Regulator Recovery and Stationary Buddy Breathing and scored 4.2 and 4.0 out of 5. We went back to the dive centre and had a debriefing and a little presentation ceremony at about two o’clock. Bill had laid on beer and a barbeque, so we all got a little tipsy. The “Passing Out” party broke up at five o’clock, so I went back home to find that Gareth had arrived.
We had a TV dinner on “Dabulamanzi”. I’m absolutely shattered but it’s been a great 10 days. Three people failed out of 20. Rob and Zeno from our group both failed their theory exams. Zeno had the strength of character to complete the IE but Rob freaked out and didn’t show up on Day 2. The total cost of the course was just under £1000, but well worth the money just for the experience.
16 June 1994 Charlotte Amalie Marina
Up at half past six – it will take a few days to break the habit! I sorted out a priority “to do list” first thing and then wired up the 110V circuit, so that I could put the battery charger on. By one o’clock, I’d discovered that the alternator was burnt out, our battery charger has stopped working and 3 out of the 4 domestic batteries are dodgy. I’ve found a local guy to look at the alternator and God knows what to do with the rest!
I went out to Bolongo Bay, spent $1050 on dive gear and had a 2 hour session with the equipment repair guy. We went for a drink on “Filia” who turned up today. What a day!
17 June 1994 Charlotte Amalie Marina
Bit of a hangover today. I went to see about the alternator – he is going to get the stator rewound and I should get it back Monday or Tuesday. I dug out out our petrol generator to try to recover two of the dodgy batteries. Bungy from “Shivara” lent me a small battery charger. I reckon that I will only have to buy one new battery. We went to “Dabulamanzi” for a barbeque with Margaret from “Filia” even though it was raining.
18 June 1994 Charlotte Amalie Marina
Glenys left on “Dabulamanzi” for a week as a ship’s cook. I swapped all of the batteries around and managed to recharge all but one. The boys and I went to Wendy’s for lunch and then dinghyed over to the submarine base to have a quick look around. I went to the supermarket, bought some food for dinner and then discovered that Glenys has taken all of her cookbooks with her! I made a chilli which I thought was well improvised.
19 June 1994 Charlotte Amalie Marina
Big tidy up today. I “reassembled” the workshop and made a simple frame to attach 4 air tanks to the granny rail. We went to the pool for an hour and the boys helped Margaret to walk her dog. We all went to “Filia” for dinner which was very nice of Margaret.
20 June 1994 Charlotte Amalie Marina
Hangover today – it’s all Margaret’s fault. I went and bought a new battery and found that the alternator will be ready tomorrow. I rang Bill at Bolongo Bay and he said that he would sell me some Open Water Manuals and Discover Scuba cards. We started to go round in the dinghy, but the swell was too bad, so I left the boys with Margaret and caught a taxi. I bought a load of stuff and left $175 of Open Water Manuals behind. Stacy and Steve kindly brought them out to me.