When I saw the dive schedule and found that I was on an intern dive at mystery rocks, it was a bit of a mystery as to where we were actually diving HAHA. I was happy to hear it was a site just past Tulamben. I enjoy the two and a half hour drive as an opportunity to catch up on sleep ummm I mean study my Divemaster manual!! The location of the site was about all I could find out about this particular dive as most of the interns and MSDT instructors had also never heard of it.
After packing the right number of tanks, all our gear, first aid, oxygen and of course the lunches, we were off. As we were driving to the site Phil informed me this would be my chance to guide. I was a little nervous, not actually knowing what or where I was guiding!
Phil led us interns for the first dive as so that we could get a chance to see what the site was like. We were the only divers at the beach. We geared up at the bus and had a small walk down to the beach where we enjoyed a beach entry. There is a cave on the reef and we made our way over a sandy bank to reach it. After some exploring the entrance of the cave and the wall surrounding it we went around the corner to enjoy the reef which was covered in Gorgonian Sea Fans and huge Barrel Sponges. We spent some time on the largest gorgonian fan down there but unfortunately no pigmy seahorses were to be found. We finished the dive and broke for lunch. Lunch was interesting as everyone was left eating Nasi without spoons! Oops!
The second dive it was my turn to guide. I was to lead Ursula, Roman, Christine and Max. Phil was there to supervise. After working through my briefing using the trusty instructor slates, the divers I was leading were given ‘scenarios’ to test how I would cope. I was also asked to find three types of marine life for their interest. This I found particularly daunting as I have never managed to spot small critters for guests and didn’t know what could actually be found on the reef.
I descended, led them to the reef wall on the far side of the sand channel and was starting to relax, maybe it wouldn’t be too bad I even managed to find a couple of Nudibranches. That was until we went around the corner and realised a strong current had formed. We were down at around 18m when the southern current picked up and started to moves us in the opposite direction we wanted to go. When it picked up enough so that whirlwinds of sand started appearing Phil took control of the situation telling us to swim back towards where we came from and keep low to the ground slowly moving up the reef. We all managed to use tank bangers as leverage and move against the current. We couldn’t just swim with the current, we had to finish where we had started. It was all a bit of an adrenaline rush.
Of course, I was not let off the hook from coping with the ‘scenarios’. At the five meter stop I had Christine with a faulty regulator as well as Roman who had finished his air and needed to breathe off my alternate for the ascent. I believed the second scenario to be true, we had quite a swim and Roman is not good with air in the best of conditions. We surfaced a few meters from where we had started; and once on the surface Roman showed me his SPG with over 50 Bar left in!
The day had ended with a little adventure and an unplanned scenario but diving which such experienced divers had allowed us to deal with the unplanned current and I will be a stronger dive master for having experienced and seen how to deal with it. We had the two and half hour journey back to sleep off the excitement before we got back to BSB to wash all the gear.
Natasha
