I turned into a one man kitchen disaster – 25 03 10

Today was a busy day.

It started with me learning the opening up procedure for the centre.

Essentially three cohorts of divers move through the school each morning and again after lunch.

At 8:30 experienced divers come in a get their kit, at 9:30 again slightly less experienced, and at 10:30 the new.

After each group comes through and collects their kit, the wet room is cleaned and mopped.  All the BCD's and wetsuits (left in a mess or from the day before) are re-wracked.

From 11:15 I was shown how to replace a valve within the BCD inflator which required periodic service/repair due to it having started to self-inflate.

I was then talked though the method of demonstrating a partial mask clearance and regulator recovery.

Patrick then demonstrated to me how to put an empty tank onto the compressor.

After an early lunch, Simon a Polish client who has lived in the UK for the last 6 years arrived for the sea based part of his BSAC course.

Simon is a nice chap.  He is married and has a 10 year old son, both here with him on holiday.  Although employed within an optics company, he operates his own online business selling, sunglasses, mini-scales and reading glasses.

I accompanied Patrick and Simon for this to witness the instruction of partial mask clearance and regulator recovery first-hand under water.

The bay we went to was very small and provides a maximum depth of 3m.  Very good for beginners.  Since the name of the beach does not appear printed on a map towel I bought, I canot tell you what it is called.  I will find out and report tomorrow.

Fish I saw:

• A type of fish which I have not yet identified, but plentiful and friendly.
• over a dozen sea cucumbers (The first one I saw, I thought was a big poo! They are brown, about 20cm long and appear motionless).

After the dive I went back to base, took a van for refueling and then spent the afternoon with Mr D learning about the rota and the challenges faced by him as the manager of the centre trying to manage a limited staff team.

After cycling home, I cooked carbonara, burnt it whilst I ran a bath, spilt food on the floor and could not find a mop.  In fact I turned into a one man kitchen disaster.