Once again you are probably starting to see a theme in our travels?
The ultimate dream for Jo, diving at Easter island! We book her in at Orca dive centre (if you know Jo then you will also know that Orcas are her fav so it seemed like fate..).
Made sure we left early from the hotel to have a nice stroll down to the harbour, me being fairly ignorant about diving asking lots of questions along the way...
We arrive and I hang around whilst Jo gets kitted up, there's lots of comaradery amongst the staff and 3 clients (including Jo) her five finger shoes get paraded around by one of the staff with much amusement making sure he shows all the local shop keepers along the way.,
A rather well built (my mum & grumpy would say 'strong') chap went to prep the panga (boat) and bring it round to the main wall - FYI as usual the killcord is just this weird red stringy thing that obviously gets in the way thus is either cut off or tucked out of reach making it very useful?!? The conditions are pretty rough round here as you have to go right through a break (where people surf, if that helps you picture the size of the waves) to get out to the dive site (are you seeing the relevance of my concern over the lack of killcord yet?). Jo and the other 2 divers receive a briefing and are pushed towards the panga with their gear already loaded on.
The set up of this gear was fairly questionable at this point..but I suppose you cant expect too much on one of the most isolated islands in the world..
They steam out through the waves catching some fairly serious air that causes the air tanks to be thrown across the boat narrowly missing jos right foot!
Arrive at the dive site, normal procedure would be to buddy up and check all your kit, not here though - strapping a weight belt around jos waist that could sink a cruiseliner and sticking some cheap snorkelling fins to her feet they push her over the side with her BCD fully inflated resembling the feeling of a boa constricter wrapped around her rib cage (normal procedure to have BCD slightly inflated).
Attempting to focus on where she was and the excitement of the dive they headed down towards the sea bed at an unfortunately fast pace, after about 20mins and reaching about 18metres they start getting close to the cavern they had come to see..
What happens next is surely a thing that would put anyone off diving for life..
Jo's regulator (the thing you breath through) closed shut.. She couldn't breath.. Looking around through the scratched goggles (school kit) she finally spotted the dive guide over 8m away and not paying any attention as he was completely focused on the other divers.. What's next? Two choices 1) emergency ascent (caesar) or 2) test to see if the octopus (emergency regulator) is working.. Now if option 2 was taken there is a risk that it wont work either.. If you try it and it doesnt work you have just exhaled all the remaining air in your lungs which makes it impossible to do an emergency ascent without getting the bends.. So gladly Jo went for option 1..
Once on the surface the dive guide reappeared a short time later asking why she was up there.. They had no idea! Eventually through various dive sign language she explained that her regulator had stopped working and was recovered into the boat..
If I had known about all of this at the time when I went down to meet her I would have gone mental! Bloody mother F**king irresponsible, careless ar*eholes..
No wonder Jo waits till we are far away to tell me things.
- Posted whilst on the road
Location:Easter island
