The end of a long day...

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A long day, so the sun was setting when I got back to our hotel.

Day two of my course, and two 30m simulated decompression dives using different Nitrox mixes as back gas and decompression gas. Lots more skills too, so it's all hard work. These include shutting down valves in response to simulated gas leaks, sharing air with an out-of-air diver, removing and replacing my stage etc. I've also had to learn a different technique for sending up a surface marker buoy.

One of the most challenging skills so far has been swimming 15m without breathing gas to a cylinder that needs to be checked and turned on before I can breathe from it.

The most challenging however was dropping off my stage on the seabed while swimming, then turning round, finding it, picking it up and reattaching it all while swimming fluidly. Not so hard on its own, but all this had to be done with no mask!