Day 1 – Arrival Day
I contact all of my crews before they arrive; first by
email a few months before arrival then I call a week before scheduled arrival.
This crew was no different except when I received the confirmation return email
from their leader it stated that they had been here 5 years before. When I
called the week before I was told that they had been here 5 years before, on
board the Conch Pearl, with me. Since I really never had a bad crew I became
very curious as to which crew it was; there have been a lot of crews since
then.
I was also told that they would be arriving a little
late. Since they had been here before I was hoping that their prior experience
here would make check-in and preparation to go to the ship that much easier,
and speedier.
The other crew member this trip will be divemaster Paul
Mangone. He’s my age and a graduate of the Divemaster Academy that I taught two
years ago. He’s an excellent divemaster
and brings a skill set of teaching methods that widens the abilities of the
Florida Sea Base Staff.
I just spoke with the crew’s leader. It’s almost 6pm and
they’re just leaving the Miami airport. I don’t think we’re going to get much
done tonight. We still have to feed them so all we’ll get done is
orientation…maybe gear issue. It’s really going to effect tomorrow. “it is what
it is” as Denny says.
The crew finally arrived a little after nine. A lost bag
had delayed them even more. Upon meeting them it was good to see some familiar
faces. There was the leader Bob, a ‘retired’ dive instructor and Mike, a
firefighter. They had both been with me on the Conch Pearl six years ago and if
I remember correctly, we had a pretty good time. The rest of the crew seemed
like a good bunch of folks; a good first impression.
Paul and I fed the crew with leftovers the Galley had
left for us, ravioli and vegetables, and then it was off to the dorms. We put
the crew in one of the big crew rooms and left them for the evening. It had
been a long day for them so it was no use torturing them with the orientation
presentation. Tomorrow will be a longer day with a very fast pace.
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