Working in Zero-Visibility
We’re back in the dock today and after repeating yesterday’s exercise there’s a new challenge for us: sawing a chunk off 2-by-4in piece of lumber. Sawing wood isn’t really my forte on the surface… this should be fun under water.
I’m paired with Ronan and Toni today and Alvaro going to dive with Gautier. I still feel terrible about yesterday. This won’t happen again and we make sure to discuss communication in zero visibility as well as never to let go of each other, before we jump in the water.
We follow the first mooring down to the main chain and make our way to the second dead-weight. We take turns completing the exercise and one of us waits on the surface as safety-diver, while the other two descend to cut the piece of wood, each one gets their turn. 
I’m the last one of us to take the saw. The silly piece of wood keeps floating away and while Ronan is holding it as tight as he can, it’s quite the challenge to get the first groove started.
Suddenly I feel something on my leg. I turn around but can’t see a thing. Again, there’s someone there, must be one of the other teams following the mooring system. I change position to move further away from the main chain and give the other guys some space.
As we all move around on the mirky bottom the visibility gets worse and worse. By now, I can neither see my hands nor the saw, not even 10cm in front of my face. “Careful now, ” I think to myself “don’t cut your finger off!”. I feel along the piece of wood until I reach the saw, lodged not even a third into the piece yet. “F%#KING PIECE OF S*#T!!!” I yell into my regulator and angrily keep sawing. It seems like it’s taking me ten times as long as the guys.
My frustration is causing me to move around even more and this does not help the visibility or my resulting ability to work efficiently at all. I stop for a moment, take a deep breath and calm myself. “One, Two, Three, Four, Five.” ok, calm and steady.
Finally! The small piece comes loose and I break the last bit off by hand. YES! We all did it! We high five each other and quickly make our way to the pier. I’m freezing.
As we make our way to the ladder I can’t help but smile, this is pretty cool. I can’t wait for the next fun exercises tomorrow, but first, a hot shower.
Finally Full Face
When we get back from our lunch break, Tato is already sitting at his desk smiling ominously. There’s two large grey boxes on the table.
As I walk a little closer I can catch a glimpse of them, full face masks. This is so exciting, I’ve always wanted to try one of those. Really? Next week we will use them? I can’t wait!!!
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We’re all fascinated by the big, complicated-looking breathing apparatus and it takes a while before Tato can finally get started on the class. Full face masks, helmets, surface-supplied air and communication systems, finally we’re starting to talk about the “cool toys”. I can’t wait to try all these things for myself.
But before we get to try out full face masks, there’s a few other exercises left for us to do in the dock tomorrow.
Tato starts drawing a “Brida” on the board. “Brida in English” I type into google translate on my phone and “Flange” comes up. “What the f*#k is a ‘flange’?”. Let’s try the German translation. “Flansch” ok, well that’s comforting, I have no clue what that is in any language. “Big, metal ring, with holes for bolts” I write into my notebook, deducing from what I believe to be shown in Tato’s drawing. Good thing I don’t have to talk under water.
We talk about other tools and equipment used in commercial diving and Tato starts explaining the use of lift-bags. We will be using them later this week and he makes sure to warn us of all the dangers that come with moving heavy weights around on the bottom of the ocean.
Ronan and I smile at each other, this is gonna be cool.
