Location: Sandy Spit, Green Cay
Waking up after the busy day that occurred yesterday was definitely difficult for me and my fellow shipmates this morning. The breakfast (spectacular french-toast) was consumed in droves as everyone woke up at staggered times while Katie, Matt, and Tommy attended a morning meeting. As soon as they returned, we left Jost Van Dyke and set sail for Sandy Spit, where we would soon complete a variety of dives and rescue exercises. Upon arrival, we were briefed for our fourth and final search and recovery dive (we are now all official search and recovery divers!) Soon after, we splashed, and our dive began. The dive consisted of asking the staff questions about the lost object, conducting a search pattern that was most appropriate based on the collected information and finding and retrieving the object via a lift bag. Portia and I successfully completed the task, so we got some pretty rad fist bumps from Tommy.
When we surfaced, Katie was ecstatic to hear that we had found her beloved kettlebell. Lunch tasted just a tiny bit better knowing we all did such a great job on our final search and recovery skill. After lunch, Toby and Dylan decided to cut the sleeves off of their Sydney’s shirts they bought yesterday. I felt bad letting the sleeves go to waste, so I cut them and up-cycled them into matching braided bracelets for the entire boat. As I was tying one of the bracelets on JT’s wrist, I heard wailing from the port side of the boat. Thinking it was just Bend the Rules jumping off their dinghy and messing around, as usual, I resumed tying the bracelet until a few seconds later when I realized we were conducting our first real-time rescue scenario 🤯. People scattered around the boat; Cyrus jumped in the water with fins, a mask, a snorkel, and a fender and tried to calm the panicked diver.
Once we brought the panicked diver back onto the boat and questioned her, we realized her buddy was missing. The second set of divers (George and Nick) found the missing buddy and brought him to the surface. The diver became panicked and tried to drown George, but George did a great job handling the situation. Soon we realized there was a THIRD BUDDY missing, and another team of divers (Nick and Thomas) retrieved her and conducted an assessment to find out that she was unresponsive and not breathing. Ellie and Gabi did a miraculous job setting up the emergency oxygen so it would be prepared for the unconscious diver when she was brought onto the boat. As Portia was tending to the first panicked diver (Cece), Cece ran away and jumped back into the water. Luckily Claudia and I were all kitted-up and were ready to jump in right away. We quickly swam her back to the boat, and I calmed her down by asking what her favorite color was.
As I was calming Cece down, I saw Sedona in my peripheral vision doing a great job leading a group that was lifting the unconscious diver onto the transom. Toby was doing a great job keeping everyone cool while he took notes on everything happening around him. Gabi and George began rescue breaths and CPR on the unconscious diver, and the staff finally ended the scenario. Though we weren’t perfect (we got a 6/10,) we had a great debriefing afterward, and we are all prepared for whenever the next rescue scenario will happen. A great reward for the stress the staff induced in us was a fun dive at the playgrounds. It was my first-time dinghy diving, but it was amazing. Xanadu II saw two sharks and an eagle ray, so we were super pumped to see a bunch of cool marine life. We didn’t end up seeing any sharks or eagle rays but we did see a lot of different fish, and the bottom topography was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. We ended the day with an (interesting) dinner of frank and beans and a very successful life works forum. Today was definitely one of the craziest and most interesting days yet.
Mom, Dad, and Liam, I miss you guys, and I hope this lives up to your blog standards. Can’t wait to see you guys soon.