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Dive
logs for Vance Stevens, P.A.D.I. Open Water SCUBA Instructor #64181
Abu Dhabi, May 25, 2000
Dives 345 and 346
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Diving with: Ebrahim at Meridien, AB Divers Dive buddies: Michael Gallanaugh (and Russell
Bowen on first dive) Others in dive party: Dusty and Omar,
diving 1st time on their own Others at site: Ebrahim, Sarah, Emirati
divers, a British lady and Italian guy
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Sea condition: mild |
Water temp: 29 |
Visibility: poor, 4-6 meters |
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Wetsuit combo: lycra suit and Typhoon longsleeve top 1st dive, but ditched top the second |
Weight: needed: 8 kg first, but passed 2 to Mike, 6 second, ended with 4 |
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Data from dive computer:
Dive 345 - 5.5 meters for 52 min. = http://www.vancestevens.com/divelogs/dtrak345.jpg
Surface interval: 53 min.
Dive 346 –-4.6 meters for 40 min = http://www.vancestevens.com/divelogs/dtrak346.jpg
Training:
Kind of uneventful diving. First dive vis particularly bad. Lots of
algae and grass accumulated on seabed sweeping back and forth with tide and
currents gave impression of rocks moving.
Second dive, vis was better, and boat was by then positioned over coral
heads, more interesting than the first dive.
First dive, we headed out on SE heading, returned on NW more or less,
came up far from boat and had Mike do cramp removal and snorkel reg exchanges
on the way back in. Russell was with us
and was very good with keeping an eye on Michael, restoring his octopus to
proper place, things like that.
Second dive, Russell went with Dusty and
Omar, who were diving by themselves for the very first time (without Dad). Mike and I swept over the coral heads, vis
decent here, until we reached the sandy edge.
Here we became enamored of the shoals of snappers and other fish moving
through, the juvenile parrots, and the occasional big batfish that came up to
us. Eventually we settled in the
sand. Mike was having trouble with
buoyancy, and also concerned about urchins in the sand, found it hard to
settle. I had him toss a reg away and
he got it back but didn’t blow bubbles so I had him do it again, but he was
light and by the time he got around to repeating the exercise, didn’t know what
it was for exactly. I indicated a
partial mask flood and he did a full one.
I should have had him do a partial and a full, but he was having no
trouble with clearing, not bothered with having water in the mask, so I let it
go. He was in control of his airways
ok. Then we did a shared air exercise
with me grabbing his reg. It had been a
while since he’d done the course so he didn’t remember the routine all that
well, and I had to prompt him, but again he was in possession of whatever it
was he was doing. Finally we attempted
fin pivots but Mike wasn’t much in control of that and after a while it became
one of those things, well let’s get on with the dive and we’ll talk it through
later (he wasn’t using lung volume, I guess – starting out first dive he was at
the surface a bit, but he worked it out to stay down by end of dive; here
again, he was getting buoyancy together, just not able to fin pivot to
standard, best to let it go for now. )
We went back to the reef and I collected the porites
coral samples requested by Steve Coles.
I felt a bit bad about cutting the coral, but I guess it was for a proper
cause. Then Mike grabbed my reg and we
surfaced with it. The boat was far off
and we took a heading on it, 330 degrees.
Mike decided to try and compass underwater for the boat, and we
descended quickly because Ebrahim had started the engines and I didn’t want him
coming for us. So Mike took out on
heading, veered right angle left and I recovered him and straightened him out,
and we kept on course for a while over the best parts of the reef and
eventually came up under the shadow of the boat. I was very impressed with
Mike’s compass work (he was using mine, I had no way to check). But then I realized they had moved the boat
after all and come to us.
Still, Mike did a great job for a first time
diver. Needs work on buoyancy, and
there’s a bit of surface work for the
next one, but he’s doing fine.
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Last updated: June 9, 2000 in Word 2000