Scuba Diving MisAdventures

Scuba Diving MisAdventures Mike and I took scuba diving classes when we were in college at MIZZOU. But other than the university pool, the only “real” diving we got to do was in a muddy lake where you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. Years later, stationed at Homestead AFB, in Miami, Florida, we decided to take it up again. Mike did very well at it. I had some misadventures. Now, while I like scuba diving, I don’t like snorkeling and trying to keep water out of my snorkel. One day, when I was in the water, watching the fish with my snorkel on, Mike came over and IN THE WATER, tried to move my snorkel from one side of my face to the other, because in his mind, I had it on wrong. I was NOT a happy camper with his doing that. Then there was the dive where the Captain took the boat out in choppy waters and I was so seasick, I never got in the water. In fact, Mike found me huddled against the anchor rope at one point, unable to stand up. It wasn’t helped by the crew on the boat cooking fish right in front of me and making fun of all the people on the boat who were sick. One time, early on, we went out on a boat with a large number of people. When we got to the bottom, Mike started leading the way. Suddenly, I had no air. Mike was too far away for me to get his attention. Gasping and flailing, I surfaced. Luckily, others on the boat saw me and pulled me out of the water. Turned out my regulator was broken and while it had registered that I had air in the tank, the tank was empty. It was about 5-10 minutes later, when Mike finally realized I wasn’t following him and surfaced. The female boat captain read him the riot act. You NEVER leave your dive buddy! You ALWAYS constantly check on your dive buddy! You should have caught the problem while she was on the bottom and shared your air with her! Then there was the time where the base veterinarian, his wife, the flight surgeon, Mike and I went out diving. I couldn’t get my ears to clear. I was miserable and tried everything, but they just wouldn’t clear. The next day, still having problems with them, I got an appointment with the flight surgeon. He took one look at my ears and realized I had gotten a hematoma on both ear drums trying to clear them. He was beside himself, realizing that he had been there when it happened and hadn’t realized what was happening to me. The kicker though, was when we went night diving. Now Mike and the base veterinarian had gotten their night certification dive out of the way the week before, but for one reason or another, the veterinarian’s wife and I hadn’t gotten ours done, so the four of us were going out with another of the flyers who was a certified dive instructor so the women could get their night certification, after which the guys planned on spear fishing. At the last minute, another dive instructor had asked if we’d take one of his students along who needed to get his night certification dive done. Excited and happy, we headed out. Reaching our destination, we anchored and everyone geared up. Mike was assigned to stay on the boat (one person always remains onboard in case of trouble), but the rest of us were going down. I was the last to go down. Jumping off the boat at the back, I needed to make my way forward under the boat to the bowline, then follow it down to where the rest were waiting. I couldn’t get down. I tried everything, but couldn’t reach the bow line to follow it down in the strong current and I couldn’t get below the current. After I returned to the boat, Mike put on his gear to help me get to the bowline, then he was headed back to the boat as the safety person. I struggled to reach the bowline, going under the boat, between all the spear guns that were hanging over the side, with Mike following me. Just as I started to put my hand out to grab the bow line, I felt Mike tap me on my shoulder. Turning to face him rather than grabbing the bowline, I saw he was handing me his air tank? That can’t be right. Then I realized it was my tank. As I swam under the boat, one of the spear guns had popped open the buckle on the band that held my tank on my back. Realizing that I was now connected to my tank ONLY by the regulator in my mouth and it’s hose, I grabbed the tank with both arms. And started to float away in the current. Mike, said later that his thought was if he didn’t stay with me, and I didn’t make it, he’d never forgive himself, and if he didn’t follow me and I survived, I’d never forgive him, he chose to follow where I was drifting and try to stop me. At this point, we were behind the boat and desperately trying to find the anchor line. Knowing if we missed it, we'd end up dead. Floating in the current to Who knows Where. Knowing that with no one on the boat, the rest of the group, when they surfaced, would have absolutely no idea what happened or where to look for us. Finally we made it. Reaching the anchor line, I pulled myself, inch by inch up it, still holding tight to the tank with both arms. Exhausted, Mike got on the boat and pulled me up (still holding my tank) and we collapsed on the deck. What seemed the strangest to us, was that no one from the party who had gone down earlier had surfaced looking for me, when I didn’t show up on the bottom. We found out why a few minutes later, when the rest of the group surfaced, dragging the guy from the other dive instructor’s class between them. They had gotten to the bottom and the guy had freaked out. The rest of the group, had had to take turns holding him “down” and force sharing their oxygen with him. We hauled them up onto the boat and they joined us just sitting for a bit. Then the dive instructor said, “I’m really sorry about this, but if the gals want to get their night certification, I need to take them back to the bottom and go through the certification skills with them so they can show their proficiency at diving at night”. The husbands came unglued and pointed out that based on what each of us had just gone through, we shouldn’t have to go down again. We compromised. Mike and the base Vet stayed with the freaked out diver and the 2 women went back down with the dive instructor (this time we adjusted my weight belt and I got down). We showed that we knew how to clear our masks in the dark at the bottom. Then went back to the boat and collapsed again. As we headed back to shore, Mike asked me why I kept scuba diving since I seldom had a great dive. “Because you asked me to”