We’re back in the dock today and it’s time to learn how to use the lift-bags.
Before we head out, Cesar and Tato go over the procedures again and we’re off to squeeze ourselves into our wet, cold suits again, luckily it’s sunny and warm out today.

Ronan, Nestor and I start out as safety divers on the surface. We’re basically hanging there motionless, watching the bubbles and buoys of our fellow divers. I’ve already started deflating my BCD a little bit, to force myself to swim and move around, but there’s not a lot I can do to keep the cold from creeping all the way into my bones.

I’m shivering slightly when my turn comes around and happy to finally be able to move a little bit.
We descend, unfold the lift-bag and slowly start inflating it.
Is the weight moving yet? No, not yet, a little bit more. We signal each other and carefully co-ordinate our moves.
There it is, it’s moving, now we have to transport it over to the target spot. A little more air, so we don’t have to work so hard and one and always on the main mooring chain.
We reach the buoy, make sure not to hold on to the bag and up we go. That was easier than I thought. We switch and drag the thing back to where we started.

… VIDEO COMING SOON …

It seems like we’re getting a hang of working in zero-visibility. Let’s see what Tato has planned for us next week.

It’s cold today, really cold. The thermometer in my car showed 7°C when I got here this morning and it’s raining.
I am not looking forward to getting into my wet, cold suit and jump into the 16°C, mirky port water. But at least we’ll get to do the “Brida”-thing today.

We gather all our stuff and as always, today’s team leader is in charge of bringing all necessary equipment, and this time the two big metal rings as well, along with their nuts and bolts – which I have learned is called a ‘flange’.

Ronan and I are teamed up and we descend to the bottom. The visibility is horrendous, as always, but by now we’re all starting to get used to it. We make sure to keep physical contact, so we won’t lose each other and carefully hand tools back and forth. “Just don’t drop anything” I keep telling myself. We would never find it again on the mucky harbour ground.

… VIDEO COMING SOON …

“This is much easier than the stupid saw” I think to myself.
As there’s still some time and we have plenty of air in our tanks, we repeat some of yesterday’s exercises. I’m glad Ronan is cutting the piece of wood and not me.

By the time we get to the pier I feel like I’m frozen solid and trying to get my fins off to climb up the ladder, it takes me a while to loosen the buckle. I can barely feel my fingers. I’m glad to be out and able to warm up. But as I hang up my equipment to dry, I’m already thinking about what we might be doing tomorrow. I can’t wait to get back in the water.

English Class with Toffy

Since Commercial Diving often requires working in an international environment, today’s afternoon program is “English for Commercial Divers” with Toffy. Yes! Amazing! Finally, I will get a translation for all the technical, nautical and otherwise specific Spanish words I have absolutely no idea about.

Toffy is good at this and she seems to be having a good time. We’re all having a lot of fun at least, with hilarious mis-translations and fun little role-plays.

We’re back in the dock today and after repeating yesterday’s exercise there’s a new challenge for us: sawing a chunk off 2-by-4in piece of lumber.  Sawing wood isn’t really my forte on the surface… this should be fun under water.

I’m paired with Ronan and Toni today and Alvaro going to dive with Gautier. I still feel terrible about yesterday. This won’t happen again and we make sure to discuss communication in zero visibility as well as never to let go of each other, before we jump in the water.

We follow the first mooring down to the main chain and make our way to the second dead-weight. We take turns completing the exercise and one of us waits on the surface as safety-diver, while the other two descend to cut the piece of wood, each one gets their turn. 
I’m the last one of us to take the saw. The silly piece of wood keeps floating away and while Ronan is holding it as tight as he can, it’s quite the challenge to get the first groove started.
Suddenly I feel something on my leg. I turn around but can’t see a thing. Again, there’s someone there, must be one of the other teams following the mooring system. I change position to move further away from the main chain and give the other guys some space.

As we all move around on the mirky bottom the visibility gets worse and worse. By now, I can neither see my hands nor the saw, not even 10cm in front of my face. “Careful now, ” I think to myself “don’t cut your finger off!”. I feel along the piece of wood until I reach the saw, lodged not even a third into the piece yet. “F%#KING PIECE OF S*#T!!!” I yell into my regulator and angrily keep sawing. It seems like it’s taking me ten times as long as the guys.
My frustration is causing me to move around even more and this does not help the visibility or my resulting ability to work efficiently at all. I stop for a moment, take a deep breath and calm myself. “One, Two, Three, Four, Five.” ok, calm and steady.

Finally! The small piece comes loose and I break the last bit off by hand. YES! We all did it! We high five each other and quickly make our way to the pier. I’m freezing.
As we make our way to the ladder I can’t help but smile, this is pretty cool. I can’t wait for the next fun exercises tomorrow, but first, a hot shower.

Finally Full Face

When we get back from our lunch break, Tato is already sitting at his desk smiling ominously. There’s two large grey boxes on the table.
As I walk a little closer I can catch a glimpse of them, full face masks. This is so exciting, I’ve always wanted to try one of those. Really? Next week we will use them? I can’t wait!!!

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We’re all fascinated by the big, complicated-looking breathing apparatus and it takes a while before Tato can finally get started on the class. Full face masks, helmets, surface-supplied air and communication systems, finally we’re starting to talk about the “cool toys”. I can’t wait to try all these things for myself.

But before we get to try out full face masks, there’s a few other exercises left for us to do in the dock tomorrow.
Tato starts drawing a “Brida” on the board. “Brida in English” I type into google translate on my phone and “Flange” comes up. “What the f*#k is a ‘flange’?”. Let’s try the German translation. “Flansch” ok, well that’s comforting, I have no clue what that is in any language. “Big, metal ring, with holes for bolts” I write into my notebook, deducing from what I believe to be shown in Tato’s drawing. Good thing I don’t have to talk under water.

We talk about other tools and equipment used in commercial diving and Tato starts explaining the use of lift-bags. We will be using them later this week and he makes sure to warn us of all the dangers that come with moving heavy weights around on the bottom of the ocean.
Ronan and I smile at each other, this is gonna be cool.

Today we’re finally going to start diving in the harbour. The water is cold, really cold. And the instructors have already prepared us for the fact that there will be next to no visibility. I’m really excited, this should be fun.
Our job today is to check the mooring system in the dock basin next to the school.
I’m trying to remember the drawing in the book. “The boat’s mooring line connects to a chain, what was that called again? Oh well, as long as I find it, it’ll all be ok.” All of that then leads to the main mooring chain, attached to deadweights and running along the middle of the basin. We’re supposed to check all chains and lines for each boat on the right hand side.
We’ll go down one line, find the main chain, follow it until we find the next mooring and follow it up to the boat. After signalling the “OK” to the instructors on the pier and the surface we go down along the same line again, find the next one and repeat the whole thing until we reach the buoy where instructor Toffy is waiting, alongside the buddy-team posted as safety divers.

Ronan and I are paired up again, but there’s nine of us, so one one of the buddy-teams will consist of three divers. Since the two of us have the most experience scuba diving, John who has the least is paired with us.
“Ok, this changes things”, I think to myself. In a two-person team, one diver has the buoy that signals their position while the other one keeps his hand securely and without fail on the line or chain. In zero-visibility water it’s the only way of knowing where you’re going. With their free hands the divers keep a firm hold of each other. But what now? I’m missing a hand…
Ok, I will take the buoy, Ronan will keep a hold of the line, I will keep a hold of Ronan and John will hold on to me.
“Prepare! Ready? Water!” we jump in and swim to the first boat. It’s really cold. My new wet semi-dry suit is the warmest I could find, but I can still feel the chill of the 17°C water.
Everyone ok? Ok, let’s go. We descend along the first mooring line. Again we check, everyone ok? Good, a little bit further down. So far I can still see the other two divers, about half a meter away from me, all of us keeping a hold of each other. 
But as we descend further the visibility quickly reduces to next to nothing. I’m trying to ask Ronan if he’s ok and put my hand right in front of his mask, on his mask actually. No chance, he can’t see a thing. I can’t help but laugh, this is actually really funny. Recreational diving is all about clear waters and lots of colorful fish. Here, I literally can’t see the hand in front of my face and even if there are any fish around, there is absolutely no chance I would see them. The same goes for the chain we’re supposed to find for that matter. I hope Ronan won’t let go of the rope.
The two of us quickly figure out a way to communicate by squeezing each others arms or hands, but I’m not sure John understands what we’re trying to do. I try and show him and “OK” sign while squeezing his hand twice but I have no idea if he could even see what I was doing.We descend further along the line, hit the first chain and finally find the main mooring chain. Awesome! I’m quite excited.
A 90° turn to the right and we begin looking for the next mooring off to the right.

Suddenly I feel John’s hand slipping from my arm, so I quickly grab his hand while tucking the rest of the wound up buoy line under my arm. He’s a little further behind me than I thought and reach behind to push his hand onto my leg. “Hold on to this tightly!” I think to myself, hoping he can somehow read my mind, or at least understand what I’m trying to say. The buoy starts slipping out from under my arm and I’m reaching in both directions now as Ronan keeps moving along the chain. And all of a sudden it happens. I can’t feel John’s hand. “Ronan! STOP!” I pull his hand hard. We stop and I turn around, blindly extending my arm into the mirky water in front of me. Nothing, I can feel nothing! Where is he? Where the hell is he? We go back a bit along the chain. Nothing! Holy F*$K! We’ve lost him! I turn and look at Ronan, my face about 5cm from his in order to see. “Up!” I signal him “OK! Up”. Following protocol when losing a fellow diver, we slowly ascend to the surface. I look around. No bubbles! Where is he?
“What’s going on?” Toffy is immediately right next to us. “We’ve lost John” I say, still looking around anxiously for bubbles. “No way! Really?? Don’t mess with me!!! How could this happen???” I’m really getting worried now.
“He’s not lost!” I hear Cesar’s angry voice from the pier. “He’s up here with me!” he yells over to us, looking furious “And the two of you royally F*&Ked UP!!!”. He’s right to be angry, this shouldn’t have happened, least of all to me. I feel horrible. But more than that I’m utterly relieved to know that John is ok. Apparently he had trouble with his kit, his bottle slipped and he let go of me.
Luckily we’re only training in about 3m of water, with instructors all around us. Cesar was there right away to help him onto the pier. Still, I get out of the water feeling incredibly guilty and very humbled. This can never happen again!

After cleaning and packing up all our kit, Cesar takes the time to explain to me what I did wrong. We should have put John in the middle, that way we would have avoided losing sight of him should he run into any issues an inexperienced diver may encounter.

Time for a lunch break and then it’s back into the classroom.

A Big Book

After we discuss today’s exercises in the water and go over what we should have done better, Tato goes straight into theory.
We were each given a giant book to read, study and internalize. Physiology, Physics, Engineering, are all part of Commercial Diving. It occurs to me that describing the heart and its left and right ventricle, the lungs and their gas exchange process or the neurotoxicity of Nitrogen in detail in Spanish might be a bit of a challenge for the exam. I can see a lot of studying ahead of me.

After a bit of physiology, we get a quick lesson in wet-suit maintenance before we’re done for the day.