Four Ocean Diver trainees travelled to Eastrea to receive some open water training. They arrived early to make the most of the day, it was warm and sunny and apart from a few open water swimmers they had the place to themselves.

Dive 1

• Divers: Simon, Kelly, Chris, Steve
• Max Depth: 13.5 metres
• Dive Time: 32 minutes
• Water temperature: 12.1 degrees C
• Viz: 1 metre
• Dive details: Stride entry, vertical descent to the 6 metre platform to complete the skills. We then followed the rope to the double decker bus and saw the large pike just inside the rear window. We went down the left side of the bus, around the front and back up the right side. We followed the line back to the platform where Kelly did a controlled buoyant lift using Chris as a casualty. She then towed him back to shallow platform and removed his weights.

Dive 2

• Divers: Simon, Esther, Edith, Doris, Steve
• Max Depth: 13.4 metres
• Dive Time: 38 minutes
• Water temperature: 13.2 degrees C
• Viz: 1 metre
• Dive details: Stride entry, vertical descent to the 6 metre platform to complete the skills. Unfortunately Doris couldn’t clear her ears and had to abort the dive. Esther had planned the next part of the dive and led the group to the double decker bus. We went down the left side of the bus, around the front and back up the right side. We followed the line back to the platform where Edith did a controlled buoyant lift using Esther as a casualty. She then towed her back to shallow platform and removed her weights.

Dive 3

• Divers: Simon, Kelly, Chris, Steve
• Max Depth: 17.3 metres
• Dive Time: 8.5 minutes
• Water temperature: 8 degrees C
• Viz: 1 metre
• Dive details: Kelly planned the dive and decided to start at the jet provost. After a stride entry we swam on the surface to the buoy that Kelly assumed was tied to the jet 17 metres below. We all descended the shot line together and eventually came to something metal and lots of loose rope. Visibility was really bad and as we followed the top of the jet tail towards the cockpit you couldn’t see as far as the edge of the body of the jet and definitely not the wings. We got to the front of the jet and found a rope which we followed leading us to the Volvo lorry. We then headed to the doubled decker bus and then to the 5 metre platform to complete the remaining exercises.

Dive 4

• Divers: Simon, Esther, Edith, Steve
• Max Depth: 17.5 metres
• Dive Time: 30 minutes
• Water temperature: 9.6 degrees C
• Viz: 1 metre
• Dive details: Edith planned and led this dive to the Volvo lorry. After a stride entry we descended the shot line to the 6 metre platform and completed the training exercises. Edith then led the group to the double decker bus and then to the lorry. The visibility was so bad than we immediately turned around and headed back.