(by Clive Bowen)
Friday,
6PM. We’ve finally arrived at Heathrow. Dave Simmons and I are booked on the
9pm Air Malta flight. We’re off to Malta for the week to do the BSAC First
Class Diver Prep and Practical Exam. We’ve already been studying for months
and completed all the pre-requisites so now it’s away to do the real thing.
We’ve
decided to arrive a bit early due to the amount of luggage we’re booking in.
We’ve already been given 15kg of excess baggage-but the 99kg we book in costs
another $50.We’ve got so much stuff as we’re taking everything we think
might be needed and leaving nothing to chance.
At
2am Saturday morning, we arrive at the hotel and get to our rooms. The next
thing I remember is being woken up by the phone ringing - it’s Sarah, the
local organizer and FCD candidate. Good news she says-everyone’s meeting at
7.30am to go to the dive center and set our kit up and then going to do a
check-out dive. As it’s now 7am,we’ve got to get a hurry-on. We get our
stuff together and meet up with some of the other FCD candidates in reception.
Arrived so far are 7 FCD candidates-including 2 from Malta-and Jeff Reed,
National Instructor and Chief Examiner. After loading us and our gear into a
minibus and Land Rover, we’re off
to the dive centre. We’re using Dive Med as our base, which is just across
from where we’re staying at the Jerma Palace Hotel in St.Thomas’s Bay. The
owner, Manuel and his shop, is descended on locust-like by everyone hungry for
cylinders and we make a big dent in his stock.
Once
everyone’s kitted out, we head out to the south west coast and near to the
famous Blue Grotto where we’re going to dive the Umm El Faroud which was sunk
deliberately to attract fish and divers. We do a stride entry in,between the
little local boats taking tourists to the Blue Grotto and after a 10 minute fin,
a shape comes into view which then becomes a ship sat upright and complete on
the bottom. We’re diving with Dionne the other Maltese FCD candidate and a
professional dive guide who takes us on a tour of the ship. We drop down under
the prop at just over 40mtrs first then come up over the stern onto the deck and
then into and through the wreck - exiting just behind the bridge. We’ve just
got enough time for a quick look over the bow before heading back to shore. Into
the local café for a quick snack and up on the wall are pictures of a huge
Great White shark-22 feet long and weighing 3 tons, which was caught by a local
fisherman just off the wreck we’ve just dived! The shark was bigger than the
fisherman’s boat ! I’m glad we didn’t run into its brother on the wreck!
It’s
Saturday evening and now all 9 FCD candidates and another examiner have arrived.
We get together for our brief for the first day’s prep. We’re split into 2
groups with 1 group in charge of the navigation, dive marshalling, helm and
deckhand with the other being the day’s task group-I’m in the first group
today.
We
split the day’s crewing between us and rotate them at pre-determined points.
Our task is to drive the traditional Maltese fishing boat, called a Luzzu, find
and “ping” 4 pre-determined
sites using our navigational skills and echosounder. We then have to find the
site for the second group to complete their task-to build, deploy and recover an
anti-submarine net 9m wide, 3m deep , suspended 1m under the surface at all
states of the tide. After a successful day, it’s back to St.Paul’s Bay to
unload the boat, load the van, back to the dive center, back to the hotel in
time for a quick shower and a bite to eat before the briefing for the second day
of the prep.
This
time the groups alternate and our task is to map out an underwater reef of 300
square meters, marked with a keystone in the NE corner which must be lowered in
a controlled manner to the seabed. We’re also going to do the Advanced
Lifesaver Exam for those who still need it. The day goes well for both groups.
Now
it’s Monday evening, all 5 National Instructors have now arrived and
tonight’s the briefing for the first day of the exam proper-the task day.
The
day’s task is set-we stay in our original groups with , as before, one group
in charge of navigation etc, all of us to take part in the task and the other
group will be subjected to questioning by the examiners and anything else that
they put on to us. The day’s task is to find and
“ping” 4 sites we’ve not “pinged” before and to survey 2
underwater caves to determine their length, height, and width, and to carry out
a marine life survey in the caves and to then take this information and prepare
a 15 minute presentation on our findings at 7.15pm that evening.
For
the planning stage, we split up into 3 groups to tackle different areas such as
finding the caves, navigation and how we’re to carry out the survey. By 11pm,
we’ve got most of the work done so it’s back to the rooms to tidy up the
bits and pieces-we get to bed at 2.20am!!
The
day starts and everything runs to plan with picking the gear up and heading off
to St.Paul’s Bay. My group is in charge of the Luzzu today and my first task
is to navigate us to the first “ping” site. I’ve got an examiner on my
shoulder watching what I’m doing and questioning me on navigation. With 5
NI’s on board, there’s no let up expected. They’re here to question us
in-depth on our knowledge on a broad range of subjects. Over the 2 days, I had
questions asked about the weather, tides, lateral buoyage, IRPCS, shock,
position fixing, determining boat speed, explaining how regulators and
rebreathers worked, decompression theory and counter diffusion!! This most
certainly was not a cruise!!
The
day seems to be going OK, the dive pairs are working well (the examiners do what
we brief them to) and the tasks look like being completed. During a brief lull
on board, one of the examiners starts coughing loudly and starts complaining of
feeling unwell so the group swing into the first aid mode. He’s diagnosed as
having salt-water inspiration, treated accordingly and makes a full recovery
after about 20 minutes.
Back
on shore, it’s not over as we have to unload the boat, pack the vehicles -
we’ve now got a second minibus to give us some time away from the
examiners - get back to the dive center and back to the hotel. We’ve then got
just 75 minutes to collate all our information (we have a maximum of 8 hours
from leaving shore to returning each day), ready to present to the examiners at
7.15pm. Again,the team splits up to tackle different aspects of the presentation
and it’s ready on time. Today it’s the turn of my group to present the
findings.
OK,
that’s day 1 finished, now the brief for day 2; the diving day. The groups
stay the same but alternate responsibility for navigation etc. We’re to
“ping” 9 new sites by the use of transits and we’re to dive 2 wreck sites
and carry out a marine life survey of the wreck, a sketch of the wreck and to
draw a proposed “best circuit” of the wreck for
a new book on diving wrecks in Malta. Both sites chosen must be
challenging with regards to depth and/or unknown sites. With so much work to do,
we go and grab something to eat but forgot the shower - I pity the other guests
eating in the restaurant. We then split up into groups again to tackle the day
ahead’s tasks. All done, we have an early night-it’s only 1.30am!!
For
day 2 we successfully “ping” a few sites and then we’re on the site of the
Imperial Eagle, ready to dive. Today, I’m first to dive with Jeff the chief
examiner. Over the 2 days, we all dive with an examiner at least once - some get
the pleasure more! I run through a SEEDS briefing with him, the dive plan and a
buddy check (he’s using an Inspiration rebreather) then it’s time to dive.
Our plan as the first pair is to line-off from the bottom of the fixed
anchor-line to the wreck so that all the other dive pairs find the wreck. I’ve
been told by the 2 local FCD candidates that as long as I keep the reef on my
left shoulder, I’ll find the wreck easily-however, what no one had told them
was that they’d moved the so-called fixed anchor-line and 10 minutes and 2
reels later, I was very relieved when we found the wreck. I tied off on the bow
and left our buddy-board there to log the dive pairs onto and off the wreck-the
last pair would then recover all the equipment and bring back on board.6 of the
7 dive pairs followed the plan, but Dionne the local dive guide who knew as soon
as he got to the bottom of the shot that they’d moved it, didn’t as he knew
the line went away from where the wreck lay. He got confused and abandoned the
dive. This wasn’t too much of a problem but for the last pair, whose job it
was to recover the equipment. As Dionne didn’t get to the wreck, his tape was
still on the buddy-board so the last pair assumed that they were still onboard
and commenced a search of the wreck not knowing what they might find - only
giving up when they were low on air.
Back
on board all was explained and the plan adapted. We went off to “ping” the
other sites and we would return to this wreck to further survey it and recover
our equipment. The 9 FCD candidates are each having to “ping” a site using
transits and I’m just running in on mine when the “man overboard” shout
goes up-only in this case it’s a woman – Sophie - one of the examiners has
“fallen” off the stern and yelling
to us that she thinks she’s broken her leg. We swing into rescue mode and
splint her leg in the water before lifting her on board and giving her O2 and
TLC. She recovers fully when we threaten to cut open her drysuit to get to the
wound!! All “pings” done, we’re back on the Imperial Eagle and the second
dives go as per our adapted plan. Then it’s the same as last night and then we
await the examiners decisions.
They
decide that we’re going out for a third day, as they want to look at 4 of the
group in specific areas again. The other 5 of us-me included-would act as the
support group to help get them through. The plan is to go and run a full day’s
diving, with a deep dive first followed by an exploratory dive on an unknown
site. The group being re-examined would dive marshall, cox, navigate and be deck
hand and would be required to further demonstrate dive-leading skills. We stick
to the same format as the previous 2 days and we head out to the first site,
that of the Xlendi which was a Malta to Gozo ferry which was sunk deliberately
to attract fish and divers but which struck the reef wall whilst sinking,
causing her to turn upside down where she now sits at a maximum depth of approx
42mtrs.
On
arrival at the site, the diving pairs went in to do their dives and complete
their tasks-a survey of marine life at various depths on the wreck.4 of the 5
dive pairs dives go as planned but due to poor dive leading and confusion,
Dionne attempts a CBL on his examiner which wasn’t required and which didn’t
go down too well. Things are just going from bad to worse for him. All back
onboard and we head off to the second dive site-an underwater pinnacle which
rises from the seabed at approx 40mtrs to 15 mtrs on the chart and which was an
unknown site-even to the locals. The brief for this dive was exploratory and to
survey any marine life. Mine was to accompany one of the examiner’s as he
shadowed Dionne and his examiner - they were giving him every chance to achieve
the required standard. Within the first few minutes it was clear that that
wasn’t going to happen so we headed off for a “pleasure dive” and saw the
only large fish seen that week-an eagle ray. Back on board we headed on shore
for the group to finish their day’s work and then headed back to the hotel for
the final debrief from the examiners.
The
9 FCD candidates and 5 NI’s get together to discuss the exam. The full written
reports won’t be with us for about another 3-4 weeks but we can all wait for
that-we just want to be told the results. Of the 9 candidates,8 of us pass with
Dionne being the only one that didn’t, though the experience of the past week
will help him when he tries again in the future.
For
the rest of us it’s a mixture of relief, happiness and tiredness as we head
off to the bar for a beer or two to celebrate!!
All
I’m waiting for now is my First Class Diver number.
Clive
Bowen.
Note from Webmaster: Clive has now received his FCD number: 847