Cordova Dive Blog

Saturday, 20 April 2019

Mitch and Nicole make his first and her second dive off Tower 4


Martha and I left the house at 7:00 am and got to the beach at about 7:15 am. Mitch and Nicole arrived not long after. We geared up and entered the water. We walked through the surf and tried to properly weight them.  Added 2 pounds to Nicole's 14 pounds of weight and set Mitch up with 12 pounds. They each were weighted enough to sit on the bottom with a full tank. 

We walked over the sand bar to fin up in deeper water. We inflated our BCD orally and swam on the surface out to the buoy off Tower 4. We descended, but visibility was so bad I did not find the blocks or any of the other landmarks. I think we got set to the South. We came across a sandy area, though, and began the skills demonstrations. Removed and replaced the regulators and practiced stationary alternate air source breathing.

Nicole was nervous about taking her mask off and was unable to even attempt it on her first try. We swam along to the NE and then she tried again. She was unable to replace the mask on her face and signaled that she wanted to surface. We went up slowly to discuss the skill and her efforts. I suggested that she treat the skill as 3 smaller tasks:  remove the mask, replace and clear the mask and then set the mask strap. Unfortunately, we were on the surface for over 5 minutes, so my computer ended the first dive and treated our descent minutes later as a new dive.

Our dive time was 32 minutes, the maximum depth was 21.3 feet and the bottom temperature was 77 degrees. My SAC was 23.29 psi/minute and my RMV was 0.60 cubic feet per minute which is an all-time high. No one took pictures during this dive.