Location: Lesser Antilles and Caribbean Basin
When I woke up this morning, I was satiated with a simple yet tasty breakfast of mango and vanilla yogurt, granola, cereal, and nuts. Once we were done with cleanup, we continued with marine biology class. And after that: Rescue, rescue, rescue!!! Watching everyone work on getting their Rescue Diver certificate sure was tiring. Swimming, diving, towing, bringing people on board, carrying tanks and weight belts, jumping in the water again, swimming some more, climbing up on Ocean Star again… The crew learned today how to proceed in a situation of a diver in distress underwater so that they could potentially save them. We also got familiar with how to provide oxygen to both a tired but breathing diver and a non-breathing unresponsive diver. While everyone did rescue, I was certified to drive the 30-hp dinghy called “Exy” with Mines and Alex. And after lunch, all the information collected for the Rescue students in the last 2-3 days was put together. They divided into groups to practice bringing an unresponsive diver to the surface, towing her to the dinghy while giving rescue breaths, lifting them out of the water, and continuing with CPR and emergency first response. Toward the end of the afternoon, a more realistic scenario was put together: One snorkeler, played by Joe, who is already rescued diver certified, had apparently lost his diver buddy and was panicking at the surface. He was “rescued” quickly, and the information about his buddy was passed on. The second diver had been “lost” for about ten minutes. A search and recovery team jumped readily in the water, an emergency oxygen kit was set and ready in case it was necessary, a scribe was appointed, and other tasks were established for an efficient rescue. It went rather well, with only minor details to take into account for future scenarios or experiences. Once everybody was back on the vessel, we ate dinner. Most divers looked exhausted, although all seemed also happy and filled with a sense of accomplishment. Then we concluded our day with some of my favorite classes, SLD. What if we can apply what we learn there to work as a team in rescue diver situations?