Day 1 – Arrival Day…Happy Easter
The crew arrived on a bus…with whole lot of other people.
We love it when lots of Scouts arrive…really. But when they all arrive at once
it creates and air of urgency and chaos, but somehow we get everything sorted
out. What made it difficult for our crew, the Live-Aboard Crew, was that our
leader was the leader for the whole group. It didn’t slow us down much but it
did put us behind for the rotation of check-in activities. This week the crew will have the pleasure of
having PADI divemaster Jenna Burton working and diving with us.
The first thing we did was collect certification cards to
make copies. That alone slowed us down more…’Semper Gumby’. We next went to the
T-Dock to have the group photograph taken. The base photographer gets very
testy if you don’t do this right after arrival. Then it was off to the dorm to
put up gear and get ready for the swim review. We were originally assigned to
the San Pedro room but it was full. Luckily we ran into Luke, the Sailing
Director, as he was coming to tell us to switch into the San Francisco room.
Again, ‘Semper Gumby’.
When everyone was ready for the swim review we did a
quick base tour from the dorm railing and then headed off to the swim area.
There was another crew in the swim area so we switched tacks and issued dive
gear instead. Flexibility is the key when so many crews arrive at once. We
finished issuing gear and headed off to the swim area. Because of the backup we shared the swim area
with another crew and completed the swim review doubled up. Hooray, everyone
can swim!
We sent everyone back to the dorm to retrieve any and all
equipment that they would be diving with and had them meet at the scuba area.
Here at the FSB scuba area we train some of the most conscientious divemasters
around at our annual Divemaster Academy. We also certify hundreds of divers
every year. FSB is one of the largest scuba operations in the world. Today was
just a scuba review for the crew. We issued wetsuits and weights but time was
against us so we had to stop for flags and dinner. Easter dinner was good…ham,
potatoes, green beans, etc. and most of the crew went back for seconds.
After dinner we met back at the scuba area to finish our
scuba review. We did a thorough verbal review of the skills then had everyone
don their wetsuits, weights and gear and get into the ‘deep’ pool to perform
their skills. We do a complete review of skills in the pool for a few reasons.
It’s a refresher for those that have not dived a lot or have not dived in a
long time. It also gives the divemaster and instructor a chance to look the
crew over in the water to see how comfortable the divers are and to see how
well they do. For the most part the crew did quite well…as well as is expected.
A few bumps but nothing to be too concerned about so forward we went. We
wrapped up the gear for transport and turned everyone loose for the night.
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