Captain Rich and Captain Carol returned from their travels to Costa Rica yesterday.
“The best laid plans of mice and men……” That describes day 5 of the Divemaster Academy at the Florida Sea Base. We were mostly successful with our first dive of the day, a deep dive at the Eagle wreck. Seas were about 4′, several Divemaster Academy candidates became ill and one aborted the dive.
From there we were planning on moving to Pillars of Atlantis for the Search and Recovery dive but we were concerned that the candidates suffering from gastroenpukulitus would not be able to recover from the rocking & rolling of the boat decided the visibility was still too bad. So we moved to the bay side of the Keys and moored behind Lignum Vitae Key to evaluate rescue skills.
This is supposed to be a re-test of one specific skill scenario learned in the PADI Rescue Diver course. Of 18 candidates, Hank Gordon did excellent. Four others earned barely passing scores. The remaining 13 were given MULTIPLE opportunities to pass the scenario but were unsuccessful. We are falling further behind schedule. I am incredibly disappointed that the candidates were not trained or didn’t retain the training to pass this course component. We were on the water until 1645 (4:45 pm).
After dinner we returned to class for two lectures and a 60 question exam. Everyone passes the written exam on their first try. Yeah!!!!!!!!!! I think the lowest score was 91 or 92%. It was a very positive way to end a tough day.
The DMA is scheduled to be in the pool again today. We are hopeful that the seas will lay down a bit and the visibility will improve so we can have more successful days at sea for the remainder of the Academy.
Capt. Steve Willis
Professional Scuba Bum™
Aboard S/V Escape