We're headed to Cozumel next week for the second time, which reminded me of the potentially disastrous night dive we had on our last trip (Nov. 2002). Hubby and I were not yet fully certified and this was our 5th open water dive. We had been under the careful watch of our divemaster and the group was really good about staying together. However, night diving presents a new hazard, especially when one's buddy (and husband) is very interested in everything going on and thinking his wife is right behind him.
I descended down to about 30' with hubby and felt my tank whacking me in the back of the head. I reached back and realized my tank had come loose, so I kept shining my flashlight at buddy to get his attention. He came over and I signalled to him to tighten my tank, which he did. However, in the process, he knocked my mask and one of his fins off. I remained calm, put my mask back on and cleared it and in doing so, I knocked my regulator out of my mouth. I reached back and got my regulator and put it back in my mouth, all while remaining calm.
A few minutes later, I felt my BCD creeping up on me so I went to pull it down a little bit so it would sit more comfortably on my shoulders. Unfortunately, in doing so, I grabbed the wrong area and dropped my weights. I started floating upward and swimming downward. I managed to grab my weights, but I couldn't get them back in the BCD. Once again, my buddy came to the rescue and re-seated my weights. Of course, this time, I knocked my own mask off, and when I was clearing it, I managed to knock my regulator out of my mouth. This time the regulator went into free flow and I gave it a whack and fixed it and continued the rest of the underwater portion of the dive without incident.
However, when we surfaced, we realized a storm had blown in very quickly. We had to keep regs/fins/masks on until we got back in the boat. The water was so choppy that the harbormaster had closed the harbor when we were in the water, and we had to go to the pier just south of town.
We hadn't formally done our checkout dive yet, but our divemaster (who had also done our training locally) said that he didn't think we'd have any problems passing and that it was good to see us keep our wits about us in what could have turned deadly very quickly.
Looking back, I really have to laugh and also be proud of how calm we stayed.
I descended down to about 30' with hubby and felt my tank whacking me in the back of the head. I reached back and realized my tank had come loose, so I kept shining my flashlight at buddy to get his attention. He came over and I signalled to him to tighten my tank, which he did. However, in the process, he knocked my mask and one of his fins off. I remained calm, put my mask back on and cleared it and in doing so, I knocked my regulator out of my mouth. I reached back and got my regulator and put it back in my mouth, all while remaining calm.
A few minutes later, I felt my BCD creeping up on me so I went to pull it down a little bit so it would sit more comfortably on my shoulders. Unfortunately, in doing so, I grabbed the wrong area and dropped my weights. I started floating upward and swimming downward. I managed to grab my weights, but I couldn't get them back in the BCD. Once again, my buddy came to the rescue and re-seated my weights. Of course, this time, I knocked my own mask off, and when I was clearing it, I managed to knock my regulator out of my mouth. This time the regulator went into free flow and I gave it a whack and fixed it and continued the rest of the underwater portion of the dive without incident.
However, when we surfaced, we realized a storm had blown in very quickly. We had to keep regs/fins/masks on until we got back in the boat. The water was so choppy that the harbormaster had closed the harbor when we were in the water, and we had to go to the pier just south of town.
We hadn't formally done our checkout dive yet, but our divemaster (who had also done our training locally) said that he didn't think we'd have any problems passing and that it was good to see us keep our wits about us in what could have turned deadly very quickly.
Looking back, I really have to laugh and also be proud of how calm we stayed.
