Joel in Big Red (the dive master's truck) on our way to the marina to go diving! Joel was about to take the last dive of his Open Water Certification and then immediately start work on his Advanced Open Water certification. I got my Open Water License in Corfu in 2006, so I was joining just for the advanced class, which included five dives: high performance buoyancy, underwater navigation, search and recovery (Catherine, many jokes were made at my expense about lost cameras), deep diving, and multi-level diving.
Comments
Did you learn anything that would have helped in the search?
— Catherine Hovell
I guess so. Most of what they were teaching could be summarized loosely as to be systematic in your search. For instance use a grid and coduct searches in U shapes or an expanding square. The second part was learning to use an underwater compass to stay oriented sixty feet below the surface in murky water.
— John Hovell
How does a compass help you stay at a certain depth?
— Catherine Hovell
Sorry. Sixty feet was an example number. The point was that it is hard to keep wast from west when you have no sun, references or landmarks. Hopefully during a search you are looking on the bottom.
— John Hovell
Ooooh, I read that wrong. I was thinking you were staying oriented at/to/around 60 ft (as in, not 55, not 65), as opposed to staying oriented while not on the surface.
— Catherine Hovell