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| That was hectic! |
Do not
let that smile deceive you!
I was up
at 4.30 to stretch and prepare for the mornings diving, we launched at 6am.
I was
feeling very upbeat about the dive ahead, having made some significant changes
to my rig, I was prepared for anything the Indian ocean could throw
at me today...that's a scream...I have totally lost my sense of humor,
SERIOUSLY, I am not making a joke or trying to be witty here.
The first
error I made was to take my mask into the water with me to have a look at the
water before I started diving. Yesterday I had dived with fluid goggles, so I
was not aware of how spooky the water looked. Believe me, I am no stranger to
poor visibility diving, I am particularly good in low and even zero viz. But
there is something disconcerting about diving deep in low visibility water that
is home to Great Whites, Tigers, Bull Sharks, Oceanic White tips, Duskies,
Mako's and I am sure there are others.
The
visibility is reasonable until 30m but from around 40m it is non-existent. From
the surface though there is already an inky black hue to the water. Anyway
despite the nervous tension that this caused, I processed it, and was still
committed to diving. The real problem I was faced with was the current, I had a
30kg lead shot weight attached to the bottom of my 10mm line, it should have
been more than enough to keep my line vertical. But it was not, the rope was
nearly horizontal at times.
I did a
few warm up dives and got back on the boat to sort out a few snags and refine
the system. All this extra activity is not conducive to deep diving at all.
Then it
was back in the water, the boat drops us off and we have to swim to the rig, it
is like a bucking bronco in the swell. Anyway, I still felt good to go, so I
started a breathe-up of 6 minutes, mostly just trying to reduce the CO2 that
inevitably builds up just from being in there.
When I
surfaced, it took me 10 minutes of recovery breathing before I felt comfortable
enough to talk to any of my team.
First Ian
said to me that it was like swimming against the Umgeni river in flood down
there. Then Dean came up and he asked me if I had my eyes open or closed…
before I could answer his rhetorical question he said, “because it would have
made f#@%-all difference!”
So I have
gone back to the hotel with my tail between my legs, again.
This has
been without a single shred of doubt the hardest diving I have ever done in my
life.
As I said
before, current, surface chop, wind, poor visibility, sharks and swell are
individually all potential deal breakers. Combined they are downright
terrifying!
I never
thought I’d see the day that I’d let people know I was frightened of anything.
Truth is,
today I was.
The first
thing I did when I was back within cellphone range was to call Lesley, both for
comfort and to discuss the way forward. Fortunately I came prepared, my mental
resources are bolstered by the campaign and my desire to spread the word as far
as I possibly can about the plight of our sharks. Find out more about our
campaign at
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