Holiday Stories

Here is a letter we received from David W. who went on our Turkey trip in July:-

Open Water!

I am writing the draft of this letter on Tuesday 17th July 2007, while still on holiday in Kas, (pronounced Cash), Southern Turkey.

We are having a rest day after a weeks Scuba Diving with “Wrecks & Reefs Diving, Basildon”.
The main reason for writing this report is so that I can have a record for myself of the holiday while it is still fresh in my mind.

Our Dive team consisted of my granddaughter Sophie, 13½, (pushing 18), myself a 65 year old retired ex Ford Engineer and our two Buddies. The buddies were from Wrecks & Reefs, Glenn a Padi Master Instructor and Terry an Assistant Instructor. (Sophie and I both attained our Padi Open Water and Padi Advanced Open Water Certification with W & R at Stoney Cove Leicester and Nuwieba Egypt.)

We did not arrive at the hotel in Kas until 04.15am, Sophie and I decided we would not start our diving until the next day. We were very late arriving at the hotel for two reasons, the first being that a passenger was unfortunate enough to have a heart attack on the plane and we had to divert to Belgrade so that he could be taken to Hospital, the second being because there was a 2 ½ hour drive from Dalaman Airport to the Hotel in Kas. This was the first time the pair of us were to dive since passing our Padi courses 12 months earlier.

Glenn & Terry decided to dive on the first day and when they returned to the hotel in the evening we asked them what it was like. They informed us that all dives were to be from a boat. We had not dived from a boat before. All our dives had been from the beach. We were aware of the methods of entry, as we had practiced the giant stride and the backward roll entry during our training. Actually doing it for real from a boat however is a different matter. I made out that I wasn’t bothered just for Sophie. To be fair I think she accepted it without too much apprehension.

We arrived at the boat at 8.30am and produced all our Padi documents and signed the various forms etc. The boat was quite large. It was about 60 feet from front to back. Sorry, bow to stern. It was about 14 feet wide. The was a captain, two crew, a dive supervisor and two dive guides. The boat left the harbour at 09.30am.

After about 30 minutes we were told to gear up as we were approaching the dive site. It was quite exciting I must admit, to be putting on the gear after such a long break. On our previous holiday in Nuweiba, I was always the first diver to run low on air. Having discussed it with Glenn it was decided that I should use a 15LTR Steel cylinder, instead of the normal 12LTR Aluminium cylinder. As I am knocking on a bit, I found it quite an effort in Nuweiba to lug all the gear, weight belt, tank, fins, kitchen sink, etc from the beach into the water. It was a distance of about 50 Metres.  One of the major advantages of boat diving is that you never have to carry your tank and gear too far. In fact it was only about 4 Metres. Another feature is that the tanks are held at the side of the boat at back level behind the seating. The boat also takes you directly to the dive site without the need for any swimming or scrambling over the beach, sunbathers, or rocks etc. to enter the water.

We were at the dive site and we all did our buddy checks. The dive guide Klaus and Glenn were the first in the water. It was now Sophie’s turn. She manoeuvred herself to the exit point, inflated her BCD, held her regulator and mask with her right hand, held her left hand across her front to control her other equipment, looked straight ahead, took a giant stride and she was in. It was more like a giant stride with a little jump, but either way she was in, she signalled she was OK and was waiting for me and Terry.  There was no fuss no panicking or hesitation. Kids they make you sick. It was now my turn. I tried not to show how excited I was. I attempted to look as nonchalant as Sophie. I did all the business and I was in. It was great.

The first two dives were very good. It is the third dive on the second day that I want to record in more detail.

For the third dive we were given our briefing by the dive guide as usual. We were to enter the water at one point, do the dive and return at the end of the dive to the boat.
The boat set anchor and we all entered the water. On entering we were told to go hand over hand down the side of the boat using a line which the crew had secured from bow to stern. We were then to pull ourselves down the anchor chain until we reached the bottom. This was necessary as there was a slight current on the surface, which would have made it difficult to maintain our position. We all settled at the bottom and established our buoyancy. I found this manoeuvre quite different and exciting. We then preceded with the dive. After a few minutes of swimming along the bottom over rocks at varying depths we came across a cave entrance. The dive guide had described the cave and chimney during the briefing. The cave entrance was about 1Metre diameter at 15 Metres deep. It went into the rock face horizontally for about 3 metres. Once at the end of the cave it came to a chimney approximately 1.5 Metres dia which took you straight up to about 10metres depth. Glenn went into the tunnel first, followed by Sophie his buddy. I followed Sophie at a reasonable distance. I was followed by Terry. At the end of the tunnel I saw Klaus our dive guide sitting there with a torch. As I reached Klaus I looked up the chimney prior to ascending. All I could see were two sets of fins as Glenn and Sophie had not cleared the chimney. After a minute or so they had both cleared the top into open water. I slowly made my ascent to the chimney top.
This was obviously the first time Sophie and I had done anything like this and we both found the experience very different and rewarding.

We then regrouped and continued the dive. Exploring the contours of the sea bed and viewing the various forms of sea life.

We had completed the dive and had reached a rope line which was anchored to the bottom and was rising to the surface. We surfaced and the 4 of us inflated our BCD’s. Terry and I were holding onto the line to maintain our position. Sophie and Glenn were next to us but were not holding the line. They were maintaining contact with us by swimming against the current. From the briefing we were expecting the current to take us to the boat. Unfortunately the current had changed and it was taking us away from the boat, which at this point was 100metres away. It would have been quite an effort for us to swim against the current to get back to the boat, so Glenn said that Terry and I should hang on to the rope and he and Sophie would just drift with the current. I remember saying it was just like that film I had seen. Quick as a flash both Glenn and Terry said “OPEN WATER”. It was almost as  if they had rehearsed it. Glenn and Sophie after a few minutes were 50 Metres away. (Glenn later told me that Sophie thought it was great.) I think this reflects on how good her training was and how much confidence she had in Glenn her buddy.
Meanwhile, back at the boat on the top deck making buttons, Granny ‘Wendy’, my lovely wife of over 40 years, was watching.

Glenn then released an orange  rescue ribbon. I think he knew very well that the boat crew were aware of our situation and had it all under control, but he was demonstrating to Sophie and me the need to be prepared when scuba diving. He also said later that in over 29 years of diving, it was the first time he had ever released a rescue ribbon.

Immediately on seeing the rescue ribbon the boat crew were in the tender and were heading towards us. They reached Terry and me and asked were we OK. We said we were fine, they said they wanted to pick up Sophie and Glenn first and they would get us on the way back. Terry and I watched the “rescue”. Sophie and Glenn by this time were at least 200 Metres from the boat. Sophie was first, she removed her weight belt and handed it to the crew. She then took off her BCD and handed that over. She was soon out of the water in the boat and ‘safe’. Glenn then did the same and the boat returned for Terry and me. It was so easy to get into the rescue boat after you have removed your weights and BCD. Just a couple of kicks with your fins and you are over the side of the boat, on your belly and in. By the time I had slid in and turned over the crew had removed my fins and were handling them to me. I think they had done it before. The crew then picked up our dive guide and his buddy who were clinging to rocks nearby.
When you do the Padi training you think you will never have to take off your weights and BCD in the water. But here we were on our second day doing just that.

A little about our dive team. Sophie and me you know.
Glenn our team leader is 47 and is built like a brick toilet. He has very many years experience as a police diver. He has a very annoying habit of ending the dive with almost twice as much air as anyone else. It might be because he is Australian.

Terry my buddy, is 50, he is built like a howitzer shell. He is a poor mans Yul Bryner. When he is not diving Terry is a bus driving Instructor His annoying habit is disappearing. Where has he gone, not left, not below, not right, not in front. I roll over on my back and there he is all the time directly above me and slightly behind me. When I do find him you end up looking directly into his eyes, it almost makes you jump.

The remainder of the dives were taken over the next few days and we saw a replica of a 3,500 year old fishing boat complete with sails and rigging. The original is in the Museum in Bodrum. This replica is being used for scientific research into the effects of seawater.

Another dive was along a vertical rock wall. . We were diving along the rock wall at about 20 Metres depth, we were restricted to this depth by Sophie. Below us you could see the bottom at about 35 Metres. All of our dives to date were when the bottom dictated the depth, to actually be diving in mid water like you see in films and magazines was great.

On other dives we saw a school of Barracuda about ½ Metre log, a Turtle 0.6Metres in dia and all sorts of other fish. At one stage were came across a school of small Tuna, we must have been in their feeding ground, as there were hundreds of them swimming all around us. I think they wanted us to move away, which we did. We saw several wrecks of fishing boats and a large variety of other fish.

Sophie and I were wearing 3mm shorties, the recommended suits were 5mm full length. Glenn said beforehand that our suits should be fine at this time of year. He was right, the water temperature was generally 26 degrees and we did not feel the cold at all.

Sophie and I were doing our Padi Peak Performance Buoyancy and Padi Digital Underwater Photography during this holiday. Before one dive she asked me to change the memory card on her camera and guess what I forgot. During her dive she beckoned me to her and showed me the card full message on her cameras. Quick as a flash before I received my first telling off under water at 15Metres, I gave her my camera. Luckily I had finished my photography course on the previous dive. We were using two different cameras, a Fuji F30 and a Panasonic TZ1. We were familiar with both of them so it did not matter who had what. This was a very good lesson in doing what we are taught. You must check your battery and memory before the dive. Its a bit tricky to change anything when you are underwater. We will not do that again.

There may not have been any coral, or a huge abundance of exotic fish as there is in the Red Sea, but for a Scuba Diving experience it was fantastic.

David W