Rescue Diving and a Very Fast Turtle

 The last few days have been very busy. On the beach all night, diving for most of the day. As of today, I am officially a PADI Rescue Diver.

 The course started off with a short introduction. (Really, not much more than "Welcome to the Rescue Course.") Then all four of the Dive Masters in Training (DMT) who were helping with the course fell into the water and began "drowning." Maya, the instructor for the course, stood there grinning as the three of us who were taking the course gaped at her. We all soon learned that this was core to her teaching strategy. By the end of the course we were all good at two things: 1) rescuing an unconscious diver at the surface (something we did over and over and over again) and 2) thinking on our feet. Maya kept us on our toes and she also kept the DMTs in the water (usually panicking, but sometimes unconscious). By the end of a day of diving, we would have yanked people out of the water in between 15-20 times. During one debriefing, one of my classmates started to wander off. When Maya asked him where he was going, he gestured vaguely over his shoulder he calmly told her that "Nikki is drowning." Sure enough, yet again a DMT was in the water. By the end we were all a little blase about pulling the DMTs out of the water, but that is part of the point--we no longer have to think about each step, which means we are much faster at getting a victim to safety.

This course is easily the most fun and interesting of the dive courses I have taken so far. There is some physical challenge in dealing with a panicked diver or swimming with an unconscious diver to shore, but it is also mentally challenging. Every time you get into a rescue situation, the circumstances will be different and you have to adapt what you know to the changing conditions. If you are considering taking any diving continuing education courses, I would highly recommend working up through the Rescue certification. 

Caribbean Reef Squid (part of a school of 18).

 We have now had turtles on three of the last four nights. Two false crawls and one nesting turtle. The false crawls were quite similar, both turtles spent almost two hours on the beach digging test nests--between five and six apiece. Each time, they found that something about these spots that did not satisfy them. However, the first turtle came back the next night (at 3 am of course, when else would you want to lay eggs?) and laid her nest in the first hole she dug. Hopefully, the turtle who false crawled tonight will follow her example

Bringing an unresponsive diver to the surface.

Fun diving! (I'm in the white fins.) 

Trunk fish. They're triangular shape and super cute!

Tonight's turtle was nicknamed "Speedy." We had to flipper tag her even though she hadn't nested, which always provides a bit of a challenge. However, the moment we touched Speedy the first time, she started trying to bolt for the ocean. This lead to a bit of turtle rodeo, with at least two of us holding her down at all times. We finally got both flipper tags in and decided to let her go without trying to do anything further (she will be back in the next few days to lay eggs) and Speedy was true to her name. I have not seen any of our previous turtles move that fast. It seemed as if she had her whole body in the air at times. Within seconds, she was down the hill and into the water, leaving a trail of gaping researchers behind her.