Here is a day in the life of a Diver on board TS Pelican, Written by Hannah Blake. This was written during Leg 1 of the 2021 Darwin200 voyage.
“Our day starts of with a wake up at 0730, followed by a hearty breakfast 0800. An hour or so later we are briefed on the whole ships plans for the day, the dive team then meets to discuss the where we will be diving and the priorities for the dive. Most days we sail during the morning and anchor just before lunch. All hand help to launch the RHIB and shore runs begin.
As a team we begin to assemble our dive equiptment for the days adventures. Once we're finished the Welldeck is strewn with cylinders, weightbelts and other diving paraphernalia. When the RHIB has returned we start to load the kit, trying to organise it so we have room to sit and faff. It's then time to don our drysuits and head out to the dive site.
Once on site we kit up the first wave of diversand do our checks. When they're ready they roll in and head down for a dive, it is then the turn of the second pairto get dressed in and go for a dive. One of the team is left on the RHIB with the cox to supervise, the job includes maintaining the saftey of the site, filling in paperwork and amusing the divers by playing music on our communication system.
Once all the divers have completed their tasks and filmed/photographed every thing they found it is time to return to the surface. Once they have removed their kit in the water its time to be hoisted back into the RHIB by all means neccesary (some make it look more elegant than others).
We then return to Pelican where we again take over the Welldeck. We rinse the delicate equiptment with fresh water before we strike up the compressor to refill our cylinders, which is enjoyed by all who are within earshot.
In the evenings after dinner we sit around and review the footage and images, and attempt to identify as many species as we can to be able to fill in a seasearch form. It's then time to get our heads down before it all begins again in the morning.”
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