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Donald was the first of us certified as a diver and has logged quite a few undersea hours in Florida. This followed our first cruise at the celebration of Donald's fifteenth birthday on the Carnival Line to the Bahamas Puerto Rico and the Virgin islands. I had got both of the guys snorkels and masks, and just off Nassau I had taken a picture of them bending over staring at their feet underwater in the shoal lagoon; within the week they were snorkeling the underwater trail off Buck Island at St. Croix. Within the year we were all certified open water divers and Donald went on to special certifications in such death-defying activities as cave diving. Michael and I went through the scuba PADI course together, working over the Navy decompression tables (probably obsolete in the era of dive computers) and learned the skills ready to take on the open water proof dives in Haymarket Quarry in Virginia. There is a dive platform down 30 feet, with an airplane at 45 feet and a schoolbus at 60 feet. In these unusual settings, with very respectable bass and trout looking on, we are to practice several maneuvers--the buddy breathing, taking the BC and tanks off, pulling them through a narrow constriction behind the diver in accomplishing a penetration wreck dive, and losing the mask, recovering it and clearing it. All of this would have been a bit more nonchalant had we known that was what we were going to do and had practiced it in a swimming pool before, but the instruction in what we were expected to do was also given underwater.
Oh, yes, and did I mention that this was Thanksgiving week of 1985? We suited up in our wet suits and waded out cracking ice for our Open Water Dive in the Haymarket Quarry. As was to be the case for every subsequent dive, the thrill and fear of the first little chill trickle was the scariest part, and the hardest part of any dive is floundering on the surface and trying to clear the ears and sinuses in the first few feet of the descent; but after that, the wonder takes over, and you enter this new and enticing world--re-entry into the amnion!
So, this was the first of the "courses" I pursued, working around call schedules and emergency operations as well as extensive travel, to start up a collection of "certificates" of competence in some art, such as the Power Squadron's Sailing Course to achieve a Helmsman's Rating as navigator (now, that's a scary thought!), or the PSE Bowhunting and Trophy Buck Hunt Course, and climbing and fishing and other skills still to come! Added to the Diver's "C-Card" were the Underwater Photography Courses, the Wreck Diver, Rescue, and--my favorite--"Night Diver"!
Dive Certificate
PADI