Blog Comments

It would indeed make life a lot better to find an easier solution - and TSandM suggested scooters... but they cost more to rent than my daily wage, and most of the boats here don't have a zodiac attached, only the big safari boats. Just for information, I put myself on the O2 after the divers had jumped with Trevor-In-Training, because for sure that was a warm fuzzy I didn't want to give them!

Thanks for reading and commenting,

C.

Must really give the guest a warm fuzzy to see the lead DM sucking O2 after tying the boat to the wreck they are about to dive. Glad you are okay. There must be a better way to attach to the wreck. Zodiac, small guide rope, drop in on top of wreck, pull down main line. Takes coordination but can be done. Beats the hell out of towing a 20 ton vessel 50 yards to the moorage.

I got bent once back in the 80;s while doing some serious cave diving and vowed to not cut the line so close again. I'm now in my 60s and happily have avoided a repeat. The bride and I just returned from a wonderful trip on the Truk Odyssey. Great Captain and Crew. My only bitch, besides the lousy food, was they kept trying to get you into Deco Diving. Direct quote " You need to know what your computer looks like in Decompression Mode". If I plan a dive for Deco, I'll know what the computer looks like. All week long it was "Are you diving the San Francisco Maru?" I'd tell them yes and get "You know that is a decompression dive" Only if you make it so. Down, Photos, of Tanks, back up, 6.35 minutes. The other issue was I was doing this on an 80. They hang another 80 at about 60 feet for just in case. I was told not to worry there is a tank at 60. I wasn't worried, I know my air consumption. We were in the last group so I asked if some one i the first two groups takes the hang tank is it replaced? Silence. All I needed to know.

Denial is one of those interesting things. One would assume that the will to survive would be an individual's strongest instinct and that to take care of ones-self would be an overridingly strong emotion but for some strange reason the brain magically tells itself that all is well, especially with medical issues. People will do this with everything from substance abuse, heart attacks, and large, hard cancerous bumps. Yet nudge that person while standing on a cliff or throw them in a cage with a hungry tiger and their will to survive would kick in to overdrive, there would be no denial of the danger. So why is it so different with medical conditions?

After all getting bent is a medical condition that may be just as “deserved” or “undeserved” as that bump growing in a person’s lungs. People smoke for 40 years and never get lung cancer and others have never smoked a day in their life and still end up with the disease. Some people do everything right and get bent and others do it wrong and walk away a little bolder and non the worse for the wear. For whatever reason many people can justify anything in their minds and then you have the others.

You know you’ve seen it here on scubaboard. Questions like “I just started diving and my foot felt cramped in my fins. Today I woke up and my big toe hurt, could I be bent” or “It has been 3 days since my last dive and the other day I was dead lifting 400lbs and went for a 12k jog and know my shoulders hurt a little, could I be bent?” So what separates the hypochondriac mind from the stoically disassociated? I don’t have a good answer but it seems that divers, more than most, are excellent at creating their own reality, be it with gas management (I’m a new diver and I’ve seen people with 300psi not signal it is time to ascend), or as you mentioned, writing in their logbook that they think they might be bent for two days and then completing a ”deep and nearly-deco-dive”.

Anyway great read and thanks for sharing Crowley,

Jason…

I think the army is stockpiling the fuel. Does two things weakens the populace and fuels the tanks, lack of diesel is a big clue. Been to Egypt many times but have never dove there. Do see the pyramids and museum of the antiquities. I also love your blog but as soon as MB takes over get out as you'll see that fuel heading East at about 30 klicks.

I can remember the 'test' that is given by Egyptian captains to the new guys. They'll stop the boat a long way in front of the reef, refuse to move it any further and see if you jump to make the shamandura.

If you do, you fail the 'test'. If you spend the next 30mins shouting, wailing and gnashing of teeth until the captain is forced to move lest he be late for the return to harbour, you 'pass' the test. It used to drive me absolutely ape

Yes, yes... Flamingo TONGUES. My narced out brain didn't register that I wrote toes. How do you edit these after you post them? Bueller? Bueller?