…………………………….since we were 90 minutes far from the mainland.
It was my day.
The weather was hot and the instructor’s statement cleared all the doubts and my tension. She asked, “is it fine for you to dive without wet suit??”
I replied, “ I don’t mind, but is it acceptable to you??
She said, “Yes it is fine for me if you are fine, weather is hot and water temperature is suitable too.”
So, the last hurdle was clear now, and I quickly wore my BCD over my T-shirt, geared up with all the essential equipments, took my underwater camera and from the side edge of the boat, took entry into the sea water through back roll. I jumped into the water first as per the plan and waited for my wife to join me, which she did in the same manner.
After entering water, we started our descend and I was asked to start descend first and wait at the anchor point, till my wife and the instructor reaches below, the estimated depth was 5-6 mts.
I started my descend and reached anchor point but the visibility was very poor inside the water which was unexpected. So, when I reached to the anchor point, I could not see anyone coming down, so after waiting for a minute, I ascended, where I saw that my wife was struggling to descend.
Our instructor was trying to calm her down and asked her to try again. This time I was floating above water and was observing her, as my wife went few inches under water, I saw signal of my instructor to descend which I followed.
After going down for few inches, I could see that my wife was struggling again and she was again taken up and so I followed her. This was my second ascent.
We lowered down our masks, shared the concern faced while descending and having resolved the issue, we again started our descend. The main reason which I observed was that she was bit nervous in descending, however it was not her first dive and she is a good swimmer too.
This time I went half way down and kept hold of anchor rope, to see the descend.
The visibility was very poor and I could calculate that it was approx. one meter inside the water, no doubt the worst of the visibility in my 25 diving experience.
Again, the story was same, she could not manage to descend and again she moved up and again I had to ascent. This was third time I had to neutralize my ears due to frequent change in the depth, which resulted in pain inside my ears, but still I managed to handle my situation, without getting it noticed to anyone.
It was now time to remove the mask and to know the actual problem, we all removed our mask over water and then discussed the issue in descending.
It was nothing but panic, which was creating problem and hence we asked her to stay calm and not to panic. I was also diving along with my wife so I requested the instructor to hold her hand, so that she might feel relaxed. But the instructor refused because she told that it is better that only one person should hold her and that too the instructor herself, otherwise she will try to follow my orders, which will not be good for dive. So, we decided to make another attemp.
This time I decided to descend only if she is able to descend and will wait and watch above water. As she descended, I got signal from the instructor to follow and without wasting any more time, I reached near her. But to my disappointment, the visibility was very poor and it was difficult to locate anything beyond 3-5 meters inside water. So, I had to stay very close with my instructor and wife, so that all navigate in one direction and no one is lost.
The visibility was so poor that even after colour correction, the picture quality was not good. Lot of green plankton made visibility very poor.
Even after colour correction the above picture was still not good, so imagine the level of plankton.
The aquarium was not very good but it was just fine, the visibility was poor and number of fishes were limited. Only few could be spotted.
It was very hard and difficult to spot the fishes and only corals could be seen. The level of plankton inside the sea water made the water bloom or you may say that the sea was plankton rich. But this richness was not good for me as it spoiled all my diving experience. We stayed inside water for almost 30 minutes since we wasted almost 10 minutes of air in descending and as per the dive protocol, we ascended.
My wife was unsettle after returning back but was also relaxed. She struggled a lot inside water as water entered her mask and it was difficult to see anything over and above the poor visibility. I also faced difficulty in diving, since I was diving freely but everytime I had to stop and locate my buddies.
Neverthless, my first dive was over and we boarded the boat to relax and prepare for next dive. Meanwhile, it was time to have some snacks and water to restore energy lost in diving.