6 September 2010

Third open water dive, but actually fourth

Yesterday I did my third dive at Cap Ferret and spoke to the monitor of the club, Marc Bazot, who said that they'd count my first abortive dive as a dive, so I'll get my level 1 cert for Scuba! The dive was with a different guy again, this time Cyril Tabary, another excellent chap. He took very good care of me since again I had problems getting down to the water, and getting back up the beach after the dive. I need to find a way around the issue - perhaps some kind of travois?

Anyway, the dive was excellent. I had the same wetsuit as last time and wore a t-shirt under and was plenty warm. This time I remembered my socks and I also wore a pair of gardening gloves to protect my fingers. I used my knife twice for cutting through fishing line, once because I was entangled. We saw the usual suspects below like sole, squid, crabs and shoals and shoals of small fish enjoying the warm water. The visibility was pretty good though Cyril had no lamp with which we could probe crevices.

I have been going backwards and forwards on whether to do my Niveau II this year. It's expensive and my MS will prevent me from going too deep in any case, but it would mean more autonomy and there will be diving from a boat, which has got to be easier than the death march up and down the beach? I enjoy doing it so much that I'd really like to improve my abilities while I can and money's only money, right?