March 22, 2008 "Joanie's Return to the Sea"

Saturday March 22 was an interesting mix of diving and video shooting for the Video Dude.

In the morning, I was hired as a guide for a young man from Canada named Sam. He was Open Water certified with 6 dives under his belt, but had not been in the water in a year and his father wanted someone to guide him and make sure his skills were ok. After getting our gear aboard "Fathoms O' Fun" (Parrot Island Scuba) and getting set up, I had a briefing with Sam to go over some basics of boat diving, hand signals, and orientation on the wreck and the reef we would be doing. Our first dive was on "The Ancient Mariner" and we followed the descent line down to the wreck with no problems. Visibility was about 40ft or so and the temp was 74 degrees. We spent a great deal of time checking out the fish life all over the deck and wheelhouse, and then it was time to come up. The reef was "Lighthouse Ledge" and after a quick briefing with Sam on drift diving, we jump in and head for the reef. Lots and lots of fish today, as well as a few lobster and even a spotted eel! Sam was very good on his buoyancy skills and stayed close to me on both dives. I don't think his father has anything to worry about!


The afternoon brought a unique opportunity my way to shoot video for a (now) friend of mine, Joanie who had had a stroke 8 months ago, almost died from it, then was told she'd never be able to dive again. After 8 months of intense work and therapy, her doctor released her to dive again! She was so excited to get back in the water she brought along an enlarged laminated copy of her release form to take underwater and pose with for pictures! Joanie and I dove together aboard "Fathoms O' Fun" and we got to dive on "The Copenhagen" and "The Nursery" - two really great shallow dives with lots of fish, pufferfish, a spotted eel, trumpetfish, and one crab. We had a blast! Joanie kept the dives short so as not to over do it the first time out (plus it was cold!), but I think if she could've stayed all day, she would have! She was so happy about getting back in the water after 8 months! I know I get itchy if I'm out of the water for more than a week, so I can only imagine how she felt.


It was a great (full) day of diving and I made some new friends as well!

The Video Dude