Roxana Jackson - First Class Diver Practical Exam Report 2006
Day 1 Friday
01 September 2006
This was the last First Class examination event held at Great Cumbrae for 2006. A total of 9 candidates and 8 examiners travelled to Great Cumbrae on the west coast of Scotland.The week leading up to the First Class practical exam was filled with apprehension and uncertainty. A number of us had spent the previous weekend diving out of Largs, to gain familiarity with the area so that we were as prepared as we ever were going to be.
This was the event that we’d all been preparing for, for over one year and now it was finally here!! Spirits were high and thoughts were running through our heads of how we would feel on the eve of Sunday, when it was all over?
The journey began on Friday morning towing a 5.6mtr RHIB from Darlington to Largs. The journey was filled with much speculation as to what we would be asked to do on the day. To pass the time of the journey we tested our knowledge by questioning each other on anything and everything!
Approximately five hours later we arrived at the ferry terminal at Largs to be faced with a horrendous queue of traffic waiting to board the ferry across to Great Cumbrae. Had they all heard about the First Class practical exam? The BS-AC First Class Diver exam had coincided with the Wild West Country & Western festival in Milport and there were a lot of people dressed up in checked tasselled shirts, Stetsons and pointy boots.
Excellent we thought the BS-AC even provided Saturday night entertainment!
The examination was held at the Watersports centre and we settled into our classroom around 7.30pm starting with introductions. We were given a brief of the overall event and specifically what we needed to do for the following day. Approximately one hour later we had been divided into two groups, two rooms and the planning sessions for Saturday commenced.
With feverish excitement our group cracked the whip! We divided our group up by activity so that we would complete the task in a timely manner. Our task was made up of a wreck survey of the Beagle, to search for an unknown wreck and to map a wreck of a barge as a first exploratory dive.
We were kindly informed that an Indian meal had been booked for us, but food was the last thing on our minds. At around 9pm our stomachs’ rumbled and attention spans were stretched. There was no other way, it was going to have to be a fish and chip run, and the planning went on…..
With the night moving on and through the darkness of the car park our trusty team scrambled around under torchlight. The car park looked like a car boot sale for divers, with lines, buoys and an assortment of weights scattered about. We were attempting to simulate the layout of the shotlines, measuring tapes and diving logistics as a dry run.
Day 2 Saturday
Saturday began early after not having much sleep. The examiners were woken from their slumber around 7.30am for a dry run in the car park.
We were on the hardboat for 9am so this left just enough time to grab some sustenance. The day on the hardboat proved to be quite challenging yet fulfilling coupled with the luxury of having bags of space, and plenty of hot drinks all day.
With military precision the boat was loaded, and the skipper was provided with instructions for the day. We travelled around to the north west side of Great Cumbrae where our first task was to put a shotline on the wreck of the Beagle. A shotline was deployed but not on the wreck, instead onto a bunch of fish!
The task for the first pair on the wreck was to lay the survey lines. We believed this was achieved successfully and reported this back to the next pairs of divers. Subsequent discussions and plenty of giggles later revealed that some of us would benefit from a crash course in wreck orientation.
The examiners, feeling the need to question us to the limit took up any opportunity of slack time on the boat. As if that was not enough to test our courage mock incidents were thrown in……
Oh no, a diver with a suspected bend that required a call into the coastguard and coordination with the rescue services. Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water, a diver floating away face down and finally a distressed diver who had fallen overboard and broken their leg.
The plan? The timings on our plan had turned to rackshit at this stage but without avail the last pair of divers completed their task.
We made way for the second task of the day which was to search for a suspected wreck within the same area approximately 300 metres from where we were. The afternoon was filled with hope but after many sweeps using the boats echosounder the wreck was nowhere to be found.
The last task of the day was a short run north, towards Skelmorie Bank to locate the wreck of a barge. This proved to be quite challenging and wondering where the barge was, eventually it popped up on the echosounder.
The barge was to be a first exploratory dive where points of interest were marked by letter. As this was the last part of the day, to relieve tensions no dive would be complete without the need for carrots? Carrots were worn....to help us see in the dark and to recite the alphabet of course!!
We returned back to the watersports centre a little later than planned, it felt like it had been a long day. We settled back into the classroom and started planning for our final day knowing that there were a hundred other things to do also. There were two RHIB’s to prepare for the next day, there were cylinders to fill, we needed to do a dry run and we had to eat at some point! A Chinese meal had been booked for Saturday night plus there was the country and western festival!
Day 3 Sunday
We had gained by learning from our experiences the day before, and this day was going to be faster, slicker and meaner, and that was just the candidates!!
We were a party of two RHIB’s and it was important that we demonstrated good coordination and a clear understanding of what each group would be doing. Unlike the day before we didn’t have the same luxuries of a hardboat and therefore had to be very economical with space and equipment.
We made our way west across to Kilchatton Bay of Bute, attempting to read charts in plastic wallets travelling at 15-20 knots, while the examiners discussed with us weather and navigation etc over the noise of the engine.
After a short period of time we arrived at our chosen site, and shotlines were being made ready for the grid search. At this stage it was imperative that we deployed the shotlines in the correct orientation according to the depth contours as we’d planned. Each boat had a shotline to deploy plus a bottom line, which could have ended up like knitting. The team worked well involving the examiners at each stage of shotline deployment!!
We discovered a slight flaw in our plan which meant that the orientation was not quite correct and the plan had to be adapted. Despite this minor hiccup each pair of divers completed their task successfully, returning to report their findings.
A quick review of the timetable reflected that we were doing remarkably well, so much so that a leisurely lunch was in order. Both RHIB’s were moored in the harbour on the Isle of Bute and we lunched at the picnic tables.
The second dive in the afternoon was more or less a rerun of the morning except further ground was covered in the search for a wreck. Despite our valiant efforts to locate a wooden schooner, the only evidence that was found were lumps of coal scattered across a wide area within the bay.
Truly feeling like we were on the homeward stretch both RHIB’s headed back to base. But just as if to remind us we were still being examined, one of the RHIB’s snagged a loose line floating in the water and no sooner had this happened when one of the boat’s ran out of fuel!
To complete the day back in the classroom we had to prepare a group report and present our findings. We completed this through sheer exhaustion and adrenalin, with the feeling that it was almost over.
The weekend concluded with all the examiners and candidates congregating in the room where we first began; a huge wave of relief filled the room.
Everyone quickly dispersed and hurriedly went about collecting their equipment and packing up cars.
For one unlucky candidate the next hour was spent deliberating the best way to break into his new Audi, to retrieve his keys with the minimum of damage. Half an hour later some duct tape, one fire extinguisher, a tarpaulin and someone with a history of breaking into cars was all that was needed!
The last ferry was on its way, and a hasty departure for all from a weekend full of tales.
Page last modified: 6th Mar 2007 - 14:38:55