Sunday, 18 August 2019, 4th Open Water Dive

During our almost 2-hour surface interval, Andreina took her final exam for the second time. This time she passed missing only 3 questions.

On that happy note, we geared up and got in the water. We swam out past the buoy line and descended where I hoped to find the blocks, but they were not there. We headed East looking for landmarks.

Spotted Trunkfish (Lactophrys bicaudalis)

I photographed a Spotted Trunkfish after about 15 minutes.

Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas) 

I saw a small Green Sea Turtle about 5 minutes after seeing the Trunkfish. She looked like she was just waking up. .

Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas) 

She glanced over at me and then raced away. I didn't even try to keep pace with her.

Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas) 

As we continued swimming across the Big Coral Knoll, we came upon a much larger Green Sea Turtle who was also just waking up.

Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas) 

 This turtle swam slowly right next to me as the Andreina and Evan caught up with us. She seemed quite happy to swim along with us.

Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas) 

I got this great closeup of the turtle as Evan came towards us. She did not seem threated by me or the camera. I had no strobe.

Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas) 

I got this great shot of Even directly in back of the turtle as we swam along the Big Coral Knoll.

 These two Green Sea Turtles were the star of the dive, but there were a lot of other fish to see.

Gray Angelfish (Pomacanthus arcuatus)

This Gray Angelfish, for instance, swam with us for a short while and seemed unafraid of us.

Ballyhoo (Hemiramphus brasiliensis) 

 These Ballyhoo seem to hang in the first few feet from the surface and travel in larger schools.



Bottom time was 86 minutes  at a maximum depth of 20.4 feet. My Surface Air Consumption rate was 16.02 psi/minute and the Residual Minute Volume was 0.41 cubic feet/minute.

Sunday, 18 August 2019 3rd Open Water Dive off Tower 17

Andreina Gomez began the PADI Open Water Certification class on 14 May 2019. She attended classes on the 15th and 19th of May which was when she had scheduled her pool session. We discussed Chapters 4 and 5 in the Manual and she took but failed her final examination on that date. She did successfully completed her pool session, however.  She completed her first two Open Water dives on June 2nd, but suffered a panic attack on one of those dives which kept her from diving again until today. 


Both Evan and Andreina insisted that 10 pounds would be too heavy for them, so we went with 8 pounds, each. We got in the water at 7:30 am and swam on the surface out to the Eastern Edge of the First Reef line to make the two ascents required for Andreina's certification. I towed Andreina a good part of the way because without assistance she would drift off to the North.

When we got to the Ledge, I went below to tie off the flag line. I expected Evan and Andreina to descend along the flag line when I signaled them by pulling the flag sharply twice in a row. I watched Evan approach the flag and I signaled and I waited but no one showed up. I was concerned that they may have had some trouble descending, but I surfaced and there was no one at the surface near the flag. A long 5 minutes later I spotted Evan and yelled to get his attention. They were together, but they had drifted about 100 yards to the North.

They swam back to the flag and I explained that in low visibility environments like what we experienced that day, divers should follow the flag line down to ensure they would not drift away.  Andreina descended slowly but seemed to have no trouble clearing her ears. Once she got to the bottom we quickly made the alternate air source ascent. 

Then we tried the CESA. I had explained that I wanted to take and exhale two complete breaths then take out the regulator and ascend once we had inhaled the third breath. She aborted the first attempt within seconds of starting the ascent. I went through the explanation a second time with hand signals. Our next ascent was fine. We went up slowly and controlled. She continuously exhaled all the way to the surface.

We made a final descent to untie the flag line and then swam underwater back to the beach. I had hoped to find the Big Coral Knoll along the way, but we did not. Still, no one ran out of air. They were light, however, as they ran out of air. I gave them each rocks to hold and to make them neutrally buoyant.
Our bottom time
 was 55 minutes with a maximum depth of 35.5 feet.  My SAC was 17.46 psi/min and the RMV was .45 ft3/min.