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Perfect weather, minimal roll on the sea, Steve and Jacqui ready
for their first 20 metre dive on the Ore Wreck (Concha) and leading
their buddies (Jacqui with Bryan and Steve with Tracey) to complete
Ocean Diver, subject to sign off of course. James diving for the first
time in the UK this year looking forward to spectacular vis, a rare
outing by Alan and Sue in their semi dry's, inviting Steve and Jacqui to
join them on a Live Aboard in the Red sea later in the year and Dave
boat handling. What could go wrong?!
Bryan's
e-mail to all on the 24th gave all the technical details, so what about
a view from the club's novices? Not much to tell really. Very impressive
how Bryan took control when we realised that there was a real problem,
i.e. That silly plastic thing with a funny name that covers the silly
hole in the bottom of the boat getting snagged in the prop and then
holding itself in position whilst the prop conveniently cut the rope.
All
eyes were on Dave and Brian trying to find the Ore Wreck's boiler to
drop the shot and then get diving, when attention switched to a lot of
water getting in the boat. Of course we thought it was a further
exercise for Ocean Diver to gauge how we react under pressure,
especially when the radio and electrics gave up. We were calm under
pressure and it was Jacqui who suggested we use a diving hood with rope
to plug the hole. Tracey did the honours and sunk the put! There is a
synergy between diving and golf! Tracey's inspired idea to use mask
boxes to help bail out further exemplified the Team ethos on board as we
fought to save our lives sandwiches
from getting wet!
Fortuitously,
Voyager happened to be close by and Sue waving like mad got their
attention. They were soon alongside and the rest is history as they say.
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Jacqui,
Tracey, Sue, Dave and Steve hopped on board the large RNLI rib (nice
boat with no silly holes), which towed our RIB (with silly hole, albeit
suitably plugged) complete with Bryan, James and third crew member from
rib. After a short while, Bryan and James transferred to the little RNLI
rib (with two silly holes and shorter elephant's trunks that we checked
later do not snag on their outboards) and we toodled back to the marina.
Strangely none of us felt compelled to wave at the tourists and Tracey
used her cap to cover her face. We didn't even stop for chips!
Cleaned
the boat, had lots of post mortem discussions, fired up the engines,
checked the electrics and fuses and tried to work out how water got into
a sealed unit. We then had to put up with Dave talking about everything
being a coincidence. You've heard of Calamity Jane, well we've got
Coincidence Dave. We were joined by Mr and Mrs. Hubbard later on and had
a Club outing to the ice cream shop, whereupon Voyager was seen sailing
back down the river, so legged it to pick up our kit and bid our
farewells.
A
massive thanks to Bryan and Tracey for their calmness under pressure and
despite not having the dive we were really looking forward to, a
perversely exciting day. Well at least for Jacqui and Tracey, who seemed
to be in the RNLI locker room making the donation for an extraordinarily
long time!
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