Rescue Class at the Fish Camp Rocks

Dianne came to the beach early to make one dive together before meeting Nic and Trisha to finish the rescue class scenarios. There was very little wind and no surf. We easily and quickly got in the water and swam to the reef, where we descended and headed East. We got set by a moderate current to the North, but managed to find the Fish Camp Rocks, anyway. We explored that area and found a speckled hermit crab as well as an Atlantic Deer Cowrie. I got some good pictures, then we swam to the Furry Rock. We did not spend much time at the Rock, but I did take some portraits of the fish around the Rock. From there, we swam to the Big Coral Knoll and slowly cruised the Knoll looking for shots. I found a pair of French Grunts going mouth to mouth, but I was not fast enough to get the picture.

We left the Knoll and swam South through some large rocks where we found a large Nurse Shark lying more or less exposed. I got close and discovered that some useless moron had hooked her but did not know what to do then so he cut his line. Makes me want to find him, put a hook in him, and tie the other end of the line to the bumper of my truck so I could run him down I-95 for a few miles just as a learning experience.

We continued South for a bit, then turned West and swam back to the beach. As we left the reef there was a larger rock and I found a fish apparently stuck in a hole with a Purplemouth Moray Eel and a small red crab waiting for the fish to expire. I could not free the fish, so we left it and swam to the beach to meet Nic and Trisha.

The four of us made a dive which essentially a repeat of the first dive Dianne and I made. At the end of the dive, however, we stopped by the same large rock just past the end of the reef to see if the fish was still stuck, which he was. Both the eel and the crab were waiting.

We went a bit farther West and just past the swim buoys, where I indicated to Dianne that she should play the unresponsive diver underwater while Nic, Trisha and I surfaced so I could tell them that Dianne was missing and let them mount the rescue. Trisha went first. She quizzed me about where I had last seen Dianne, then descended to begin an expanded square search. When she found Dianne, she brought her to the surface and made her initial assessment: airway open? Breathing? She discovered that Dianne was not breathing so she gave her 2 rescue breaths, called for help and began towing her to the beach. while giving Dianne a rescue breath every 5 seconds. She stopped in shallow water near the beach to remove gear, but she took Dianne's gear off first, so she had to hold Dianne up while she got her gear off. Then she drug Dianne up onto the beach, at which point we ended the exercise. I had taken my Canon with the macro lens, so I did not get any pictures of Trisha's resue. The pictures posted are of Nic's rescue of Dianne, and were taken with my 10 mp Intova point and shoot.

We had a fairly long surface interval, the made a third dive. We stopped at the same large rock just off the reef, and the fish was still stuck. Both Nic and I tried to get it free, but it was really wedged in the rock. Too bad. Dianne found a small crab on the other side of the rock and I got a picture. Then we went through the rescue exercise with Nic, who benefitted from a following sea.