I stepped off the back of the boat and into the sea, then swam along side to the front or bow of the Tropical Serenity, where a rope called the wreck line was fixed. I tried to use the rope to pull myself down to 25’ as I had yesterday but could only hover at 10’. I was still having real trouble equalizing sinus pressure. It feels like the sharpest ear ache I have ever had, just by dipping a foot or two below the 10’ threshold, pain that would disappear just as fast by coming up.
Underwater nearly all communication between people is visual. Sound travels 4x faster through water than through air, and this makes directionality of any noise impossible to determine. Lacking sonar song, we must mime messages to each other using a basic SCUBA hand language. My dive instructor showed me to take my mask off and vigorously blow my nose into the ocean by doing it himself, then replaced his mask and prompted me to do it. I wrapped my arm around the wreck line, pulled off my mask and tried it. Blind, rocking in light waves under 10’ of water, holding on to this rope for dear life while I tried my very best to purge my brains through my nose.
It worked. My ears gave off a sound like a covered pot lightly simmering and all sinus pain vanished. I put the mask back on and my instructor, my dive buddy and I swooped down to the coral floor in a delta formation.
The instructor pointed to what seemed a sand colored rock floating inches from the sea floor. The little puffer fish seemed to meditate, sitting still and perfectly camouflaged against sand and reef. As we continued on our way a Queen Angel, an angelfish with an eye crown, passed by, striking royal blue and regal disinterest.
We came to a cylinder of gears, 4’ long, rusted and sea crusted all over. This is the Winch for which Winch Hole is named. Interesting to see a people thing down here; alien, uninvited.
Our team started to drill on emergency ascents. Your buddy gives you the sign for being out of air which is a hand slice across the neck. Right away take your secondary mouthpiece, called the octopus, and present it to them, making sure the vent faces downward. Then grab their Buoyancy Control Device or BCD with your right hand as they grab yours and with your left pull up your pressure gauges to show how much air the two of you have left. We surfaced together and with the first breath topside manually inflated the BCDs.
On the surface I noticed other dive boats had parked near ours.
Back down and I have trouble with my sinuses again. My left ear canal feels blocked and sensitive. I try to equalize pressure for a few moments, then demask and blow my nose again. I try to keep going even though every change in pressure hurts.
Floating just above my team we swim to the Hole in the Wall, a literal hole in the reef wall large enough to swim through. First my instructor, then my buddy make it through the hole but I have to swim over the wall because I cannot get down to 25’. I conference with my instructor, blow my nose again, to no avail, and have to call the dive over.
We all surface and begin to drill on towing each other. In case a your dive buddy has made it to the surface but cannot get back to safety under their own power you have to be able to push as well as pull them along. Wearing fins and having an inflated BCD to keep you on the surface with ease makes this a perfectly boring drill, even in 4’ waves. As I am pulling my dive buddy along, he just floats on his back and enjoys the ride. I look around at the six or more other dive boats anchored along the reef.
We split up. I get down to swim and surface alone to board. The ship is empty of divers, silent as the captain and her hands do… sailor stuff, as the boat swings and dips in 5’ waves. I count 9 other dive boats. I watch the seas and wait for other divers to return. At this moment I remember how sick I was yesterday. My sea legs were so much stronger after only a day that I had forgotten all about it, even after jumping into the ocean again.
Suddenly a diver surfaced about 5’ from the aft of the boat. They were alone and seemed to be looking for someone, so I assumed they were an instructor scanning the water for their students. I was a little freaked out that they came up so close to the chopping, pitching end of the boat, but I’m new here. A full minute later the diver, who had seemed increasingly frustrated at not seeing what he was looking for, turned around enough to see the Tropical Serenity, her aft and metal dive ladder raising and falling on waves as tall as he is, within a toddler’s length from his head, and he freaks. I realize he was not one of our instructors but a student from another boat who had gotten lost. Face contorted with shock, he dives and swims away.
On the way home we see a trio of dolphins. The captain circles the boat to play with them.
Purging brains through the nose–OUCH! And loved the puffer fish…..