I get Duncan as my buddy (phew, I like him a lot and he's really calm and we've worked together in the pool a lot so that's a huge relief) and Vinnie as our instructor (another inner "hooray" as much as I love Bob, he's a bit of a joker and tends to put me off underwater a lot) and off we head to the "Bus Stop" for our first orientation dive.
Walking the few hundred yards to the water is agony! The weight belt is 10 kilos, there's 12 kilo tank on my back and the unfamiliar suit, hood and gloves make it a complete nightmare so I'm out of breath before we've even gone in (note to self - go to the gym more often you muppet!).... I get my fins on (with help) and do the giant stride entry and JESUS!!!!!!!!............. the shock of the water temperature sends me spinning.
The dive is not entirely pleasant, I can't take my breaths properly, the visibility is less than I'd imagined, and while I'm not panicking I am pretty relieved when we get to surface again. That said, there were fun bits; we went down to 8m for 23 mins, swam past the nautilus and through the cockpit.
After a surface interval of 1:43, we embarked on the second dive of the day. This time I'm more prepared and the giant stride off the bank seems less stressful. We went down to the platform and did regulator recovery, and alternate air source use/ascent. The mask fill/clearing skill is not a huge success as I caught my breath due to the freezing water and water got up my nose and choked me! But I coughed through the regulator and eventually cleared a partial fill.
This time I managed to get my buoyancy better and I saw shoals of perch and had my photo taken with "The Monster" in the Den! This dive was to 8.4m and lasted 28 mins. At the surface I couldn't clear my snorkel at first, but did eventually manage the snorkel/regulator exchange swim. Got out exhausted but a lot happier....
After two hours at surface we did dive three, which kicked off with a surface compass swim. We descended and went down the road – where I apparently swam past my brother and his wife without noticing – and we went over the edge and down to 12m. A lot less scary this time than the hang over the edge in dive one.
I felt the cold on this last dive and I was really getting tired. The full mask clearance was a nightmare – once again the cold water on my face made me struggle to breath. I'm so disappointed in myself as in the pool it was a skill I did effortlessly almost. At surface Duncan and I have to tackle weight belt removal.... I can't do it. My gloves make me fluff the removal and I drop a weight, and then cramp sets in to both legs. Luckily Vinnie says I can do the skill on the fourth dive.
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