I find navigation under water to be the most challenging and yet when done well, the most rewarding of my diving experience to date. It was here that I found out how important communication is and how important it was to see properly.
The forward and reciprocals were really not a problem as we had practiced this in the O.W.C.
Navigating a square was a different challenge all-together. At the pre-dive brief it was clear that if I was going to kick my way across the 30m line, it was my buddy who was going to count my kick cycles. Yet my instructor deliberately asked me how many there were to ensure that I was cross-checking with my buddy. Fortunately and instinctively, I was in fact counting in between admiring the view. There were 60 to my buddy’s count of 58 of the 30 meters and it took us 1 minute and 3 seconds. Measurement completed, it was time to focus on navigating the square.
My instructor then declared the start of the square and home to be a large dome shaped coral formation and indicated an anticlockwise direction starting with a bearing of 60 degrees. I pointed the lubber line in the direction of the bearing, set the index mark at North and then took off. Sixty kick cycles later, my buddy tapped on my tank. I turned left 90 degrees to the left, set the index mark over West and kicked off; followed by South and then back East. Sure enough, as if by magic I could see the dome shaped coral formation looming ahead on the last leg and headed for it.
No comments:
Post a Comment