We were all given a choice as to whether or not we wanted to wear wetsuits. Manu strongly advised me, as a beginner, to take one and I did. He explained that it would give me extra buoyancy and make it easier to handle the heavy equipment when floating on the surface. Esteban and the girls took the common sense approach and got suited up as well, but both the Americans declined the offer. As I got ready, I could feel their eyes boring into me. It was probably just paranoia, but I was convinced they were trying to psyche me out.
‘Don’t let those jerks get to you,’ said Esteban. ‘Once we are in the water you won’t even notice them. Everybody has to buddy up and they’ll both be too busy looking after their girls to bother you.’
I glanced around and quickly did the sums.
‘Who’s your buddy?’ I asked. ‘There are seven of us.’
‘That should not be a problem,’ he replied. ‘You are forgetting about Manu. You will have to stick close to him as you are not licensed. I can probably join with you guys and Asia to make a group of four.’
As we talked, I noticed that over the other side of the boat Barrett and Izzie were having some sort of argument. Asia came over to fill us in on what had happened.
‘I cannot believe what a jerk he is being,’ she said.
‘Who?’ I asked.
‘Who do you think; Barrett. He’s been teasing Izzie about the dive and how if she cannot keep up with him, she’s going to be swimming back to the boat alone, because he will not let some girl hold him back.’
‘What an arsehole,’ I said.
‘Exactly. Now Izzie is too scared to partner him on the dive in case he leaves her. She is going to buddy with Dee instead. I’m worried what the two guys will get up to now they’re going to be together.’
‘Don’t,’ said Esteban. ‘Tell the girls to stay close to the rest of us and they’ll be fine. Those guys are jerks, but I do not think they would be idiotic enough to actually endanger anyone; least of all their girlfriends.’
When Asia was reassured that nobody was going to spoil her day, we put on our equipment. Once I was suited up, Manu called me over to explain how everything actually worked.
‘This is your BCD or Buoyancy Control Device,’ he said, as he handed me one of the vests. ‘There is a button attached to the right side that will control the amount of air in your vest. If you want to sink deeper, you let it out and when it’s time to resurface, you just let more in.’
I took his device and familiarised myself with how it worked. So far, everything seemed quite simple. The next thing he showed me was how to attach the air tank to the BCD and then he gave me my weight belt. It was a lot heavier than I was expecting and as soon as I took it from him, it slipped from my fingers and crashed against the deck of the boat. I winced as everyone turned and looked to see what the cause of the cacophony had been.
‘Try not to sink us,’ teased Asia. ‘I really don’t want to have to swim back to shore.’
I smiled back at her, but I was too nervous to think of a witty reply. Whilst I was not normally one to suffer from sea sickness, I was acutely aware of everything from the gentle rocking of the boat to the smell of seawater in the air and it all made me feel a little queasy. I picked up the weight belt and fastened it tightly around my waist before it could do any more damage. The next item of equipment to adorn was the BCD and then finally I added the fins and SCUBA mask.
Diving was supposed to be dangerous and sexy, but I felt more like Donald Duck than James Bond as I waddled around the boat in all of my equipment. Nobody else looked as ridiculous as I felt and Asia in particular looked incredible in her wetsuit. The skin tight material clung to the contours of her body as if it had been tailor made for her figure. There were no signs of creases or bulging whatsoever.
‘Does everything feel comfortable?’ asked Manu.
The answer was obviously a big no, but I had no way of knowing how it was supposed to feel. I twisted and rotated my body to try and get a better feel for the equipment. I then bounced up and down a little on the spot to make sure that everything stayed in place. Nothing came loose, so I assumed all was how it should be. I told Manu that I was ready and he led me to the back of the boat. Each pair took it in turns to enter the water by taking a large step off the boat, but Manu insisted I enter more carefully by slowly lowering myself into the water via the ladder.
I was a little nervous of the weight belt pulling me under when I let go of the railing, but the air tank and BCD were more than sufficient to keep me afloat. I bobbed weightlessly on the surface while waiting for my instructor to show me what to do next. This was the last chance he had to give me verbal advice and he used it to explain the basics of underwater sign language. He showed me the signs for the commands I would need to follow and the correct way in which to respond to them. This basically boiled down to an OK for good and a shaky hand for not-so-good. I gave him an OK.
I pressed the button on the airflow valve that controlled the intake of air into my BCD and slowly started to sink below the surface. The air that I sucked in through the regulator tasted dry. It also had a relaxing effect on me. The composition of the tank was 29% oxygen and 71% nitrogen. Oxygen on its own would become toxic when compressed at depth, so the nitrogen was used to keep it to a safe amount, which roughly mirrored the composition of the atmosphere above sea level. I was, however, told that the nitrogen could produce a narcotic effect itself when compressed, but only at depths much greater than we would be descending. Sadly, I would not be experiencing this “nitrogen narcosis” as it was known.
When we were about two metres or so under, Manu beckoned me to swim towards a rope that was attached to a buoy on the surface for support, whilst we went through the skill tests. For the first one, he pointed to my regulator. This was the easy one. All I had to do was to remove it from my mouth and then throw it over my shoulder. Since it was attached to my tank on a cable it could not float away. I then put my right hand behind my back and slowly arced it forward. As it came in front of me, it brought the regulator with it, allowing me to put the air giving device back into my mouth. Upon completion, I received an OK gesture from my instructor.
The next test was not so easy. Manu pulled up the bottom of his mask, allowing about half an inch of water to enter. He then placed his index and forefingers on the brow of his mask and tilted back his head. As he exhaled evenly through his nose the mask was purged of the excess water by the vacuum that the action created. He then instructed for me to do the same.
This was the moment I had been dreading. I took several deep breaths on the regulator to calm my nerves before peeling back the corner of my mask. The water entered it more quickly than I had anticipated and completely filled my mask. Reflexively, I shut my eyes to keep the saltwater from getting inside.
Engulfed in complete darkness, I became more aware of the pressure of the water that enveloped me from every conceivable angle. I was weightless in a complete void and unsure if I was sinking, climbing or just hanging suspended in one place. My first instinct was one of panic and I wanted to just start swimming until I breached the surface, but before I could move I felt a slight pressure as something grabbed onto my arm.
It was Manu trying to steady me.
Figuring out what had touched me was enough to focus my mind to remind me what I had to do. I made an effort to calm my breathing and then placed my fingers on the mask and tilted my head back whilst exhaling as hard as I could. I kept repeating the process and stopped only when Manu tugged more forcefully on my arm. I dared to open my eyes and saw that the mask was now clear.
‘Okay?’ he seemed to gurgle as he offered me the sign.
I looked around to get my bearings and everything seemed fine so I returned the gesture. Manu then pointed to his mask again, this time placing a heavier emphasis on the fact that only a small amount of water should be allowed to breach the seal. I had a second attempt at the task and this time managed to complete it as instructed. I gave him the now familiar gesture
and he beckoned me to sink deeper. All the while, he kept pointing to his ears, which was the instruction to equalise the pressure as I descended. I did this by gently squeezing my nose and breathing out until I felt the pain ease. When we finally levelled off my depth gauge read eight metres. As an uncertified novice, this was the maximum safe distance to which I could descend.
Manu let go of the rope and started to swim in a horizontal line. I followed closely behind. The others had descended to twice the depth where I could not follow, but Asia swam up to meet me. She started to swim alongside me, but soon became bored of this and decided to show off by performing slow motion somersaults in the water. Her twists and turns were like an aquatic ballet that both titillated and amazed me.
The majority of the fish were below us. On occasion, a straggler would swim up until it was almost within touching distance. I reached out to them, but as if repelled by an invisible magnetic force, they always seemed to move just beyond my grasp. It was frustrating not to see anything larger, but I guessed that was the price I had to pay for being a beginner. I felt a bit guilty for keeping Asia from exploring more of the reef, so I let her and Esteban go off on their own for a while. It was not fair that they should miss out because of my inexperience.
Manu led me back up to the surface after just fifteen minutes. He did not want me to stay under for too long on my first dive, but the others remained submerged for longer. He promised that once everyone was back onboard he would move the boat to another dive sight and take me down again to somewhere that I would hopefully see a bit more. Manu then went back into the water to check on the rest of the group. I took off my fins and BCD while I waited for them all to return. Asia was the first to surface, followed closely by Esteban and she was giddy with excitement.
‘You will not believe what I have just seen,’ she said.
‘And what is that?’ I asked, but before she could answer she was distracted by the next couple to surface.
‘Did you see it? Did you see it?’ she repeated, frantically.
‘Of course,’ answered Dee, as she clambered back onto the vessel. ‘I thought it was going to give Izzie a heart attack. I’ve never seen her so afraid.’
Her dive buddy was climbing back onto the boat at the same time, but did so with much more urgency.
‘See what?’ I asked, impatiently. ‘What has gotten you all so excited?’
‘A shark!’ Asia exclaimed with glee.
‘A really big shark,’ added Dee, as she put her arm around Izzie to comfort her.
‘A shark,’ I repeated sceptically. ‘It wasn’t dangerous, was it?’
‘Who cares?’ Asia replied. ‘A shark is a shark and that was just awesome.’
There were times when Asia could be a bit too American. Whilst she proceeded to gush about her “awesome” encounter, the final pair returned to the boat and surprisingly, they were a bit more reserved about what they had seen. I guessed they were just trying to play it cool. Asia, however, could not have been more excited. She went straight to Manu with a barrage of questions.
‘It was a tiger shark,’ he confirmed.
‘A tiger shark,’ she repeated. ‘That sounds dangerous – please tell me it was dangerous.’
‘They can be man-eaters,’ confirmed Manu. ‘The question as to whether they are dangerous is relative.’
Being new to diving, I did not take the news that I had been sharing the water with a potential killer quite so calmly as the others. My reaction had more in common with that of Izzie who was now vowing never to go back in the water.
‘What do you mean - relative?’ I asked. ‘Either they eat you or they don’t.’
Manu laughed off my concern.
‘Sharks rarely attack humans,’ he said. ‘They are nocturnal feeders and coming across one at this time is like stumbling upon a human sleep walking. The odds of one attacking a diver without provocation are pretty much non-existent.’
I glanced over the side of the boat, but could see nothing. The shark could have been directly under our hull or a hundred metres away; there was simply no way of telling.
‘For argument’s sake, what are the options if one did attack?’ I asked.
‘I can answer that,’ interrupted Barrett.
The American reached down to his shin and unclipped a six inch blade that he had previously kept concealed from us all. I knew it had to be part of his own personal kit as there was no way Manu would have given it to him. He turned the blade over in his hand for us all to see.
‘All you gotta do is to take your knife,’ he began and whilst thrusting the knife outwards in a stabbing motion, continued; ‘then cut your dive buddy. Whilst the shark feeds on him you can make a quick swim to safety.’
‘Fuck you,’ said Clay.
Being Barrett’s dive buddy, he was obviously not amused. He went on to initiate a short mock boxing bout where the two of them punched one another in the arm. It was cringe worthy stuff and more akin to schoolboy behaviour than that of two full grown men. The rest of us tried our best to ignore it.
‘Like I told you,’ said Manu. ‘Sharks do not attack divers, so nobody needs to go stabbing their buddy. If you ever do feel threatened by a shark the best course of action is to hit their gills. This will be sufficient to deter them from getting too close.’
The debate about the shark continued as we moved onto the next dive sight. It was not far away from the first and given the direction of the current, Manu thought there was a good chance we would spot the shark again. Despite Asia enthusing about how great the encounter had been, I thought I could live without experiencing it myself. Fortunately, we had to allow a half hour interval between the two dives to give the nitrogen in our systems time to dissipate, so we all chilled below deck for a while. Manu had biscuits and hot chocolate to restore our energy levels and it worked a treat. Esteban remained on the deck and I went up to see what kept him.
‘What’s up?’ I asked. ‘We have hot chocolate downstairs, you know.’
He was gazing out to sea and did not reply. In the distance, maybe about one and a half to two miles away there was a small frigate.
‘You thinking that we need a bigger boat too,’ I said.
He glanced over at me, but still seemed distracted.
‘What?’ he asked.
‘That boat,’ I said, nodding to the vessel that skirted the horizon. ‘You look transfixed.’
‘It’s nothing,’ he replied. ‘It’s just that I could swear I saw that same boat in exactly the same spot yesterday.’
‘What’s unusual about that?’
‘It’s not a fishing boat and it’s too small to be a cargo ship. Why would it stay moored so close to the island like that?’
I shook my head.
‘Like I said; it’s probably nothing,’ he told me. ‘Let’s go and get some of that hot chocolate.’
On the way down we passed Barrett, who told us he was going up for some fresh air. I thought he was deliberately avoiding Izzie, which was particularly cold as after seeing the shark she needed comforting more than anyone. Both she and Dee decided to sit out the second dive. I would have liked to have stayed on the boat as well, but Asia would never have forgiven me if I had backed out too.
After arriving at the second reef, Manu and I were the first to get suited up and enter the water, but I immediately had problems. The valve on my BCD jammed, meaning that I could not let the air out and was therefore not able to descend. Manu took a look at it, but was unable to fix the problem.
‘What’s up?’ asked Esteban from the boat
‘His BCD’s busted,’ replied Manu. ‘We haven’t got any replacement gear on board so I’ll have to try and fix it, which could take time.’
‘What about the girl’s vests?’ asked Esteban.
‘Too small,’ replied Manu.
Esteban could see the disappointment in my face and offered up a different solution.
‘Why doesn’t he take mine,’ he suggested. ‘He can use the secon
dary regulator if that’s okay with you. I’ll see if I can fix his and join you when it’s ready.’
I had no objections and Manu seemed okay with the idea. It was actually Barrett who complained. As usual, the American was itching for a confrontation.
‘No swapsies allowed,’ he said. ‘If he’s broken his kit; it’s tough luck on him. Let him sit it out with the other girls.’
I could tell that Esteban was biting down on his lip to keep from saying anything back. Barrett had annoyed every one of us on this trip and patience for him had worn thin.
‘It’s not a problem,’ Manu assured the American.
‘What about Asia?’ asked Barrett. ‘Has she got to miss out too, because these two girls want to share a dummy?’
‘She can still come with Ben and I,’ replied Manu. ‘A group of three is not a problem at all.’
I climbed back onboard the boat where I quickly switched over to Esteban’s BCD and tank before returning to the water. Barrett and Clay were shaking their heads and I failed to see what their problem was. Contrary to the latter’s jibes, we would not be “sharing a dummy”. Each set of kit had two regulators attached so I would not be using the same one that Esteban had.
Asia joined me in the water and then Manu led us down to depth by a guide rope. Visibility was a lot clearer than on the previous dive and straight away I could see more vibrant colours among the coral and a much greater variety of aquatic life.
Although it was Manu who was supposed to be leading the dive, Asia was the one who mostly dictated the underwater route that we took. I followed her as closely as my limited ability would allow. The more I swum, the more regular my breathing became and the less resistance I felt from the water. As my confidence grew, I was able to summon the courage to try some of the spins and rolls that Asia was so fond of. I looked for her reaction. She responded in kind; setting me increasingly difficult challenges. Before long we were engaging in a zero-gravity, mock kung-fu fight. We performed flying kicks, double back flips and even Matrix style spins; anything was possible.
Stealing Asia Page 8