Dive! Dive! Dive!

John is a certified diver. He has not dived in years, because he does not own any diving equipment. That is, he did not own any diving equipment until last week. One of his goals in cruising the Florida Keys was to find a great deal on all the gear he needs. He wants to dive on our trip while I snorkel and he wants to start cleaning the bottom of Island Chariot himself. After three weeks of searching and researching, equipment found John a piece or two at a time.

First came three large yellow tanks and a mini tank. The tanks had not been certified since the year 2003. John brought them to a local dive shop in Marathon to have them certified and filled. He purchased a 60-foot hose so he can leave the tanks on the dock when he cleans Island Chariot. The missing piece for boat bottom cleaning capability was a gauge to show how much air is left in the tank. Mark at the dive shop had this to say about that. “Dude, when you’re getting low on air, you’ll hear PHFFFFT, phffft and you won’t be able to breathe. Just come up then. It’s kind of dangerous, but you don’t really need a gauge.” Having served as the Safety Officer for the entire Second Marine Air Wing during his final two years in the USMC, John was uncomfortable with that solution.

While his newly acquired tanks were at the dive shop, a buoyancy compensator, regulator, and several other pieces of equipment found John. It was his good fortune to find a couple whose diving days were over and who were very pleased to have the equipment out of their house. Cleaning out is so cleansing to the soul, whether it is our physical space or our unfinished relationship business. John was pleased to be part of their cleansing experience.

We are still deciding how and where to store the tanks. Some people like to store them on deck. We like the deck uncluttered. Perhaps a deck box is in our future.