Tuesday, we are in the home stretch. The general mood is one of dragging. This has become more of a marathon than a sprint. With a start time of 8am every day, ending between 5-6pm every day and then having presentations to prepare, we have had some very long days. Today appeared on the schedule as a very long day. We were supposed to start with a quick bus ride to Corales Bay and then confined water presentations. A quick reminder, Confined Water can be either a pool or an environment with pool like conditions in regards to deep, temp, water movement and vis. Many of us do strictly pool so it was interesting to see how the other half lived. However Tropical Storm Chantel was starting to make her presence felt.

We had heard for the last 2 days about Chantel. Part of me had always wanted to attend a hurricane party. Perhaps I will get to have my chance. It was headed toward our eastern tip of the island and scheduled to hit land later in the next day but many things could happen in the next 2 days. Corales was not exactly ideal a few days ago when we had practiced there. Vis wasn’t great and the surge was noticeable. It wouldn’t take much to make it “un-pool-like.” As we queued up waiting for the bus, the announcement was made we were staying in the pool. There was a general sigh of relief. No sand, no surge, less suits and less time.

Our skills were originally skills that take place “in water too deep to stand.” We were given new assignments and given some extra time to prepare. Naturally, as Instructors, we are very comfortable with all the skills but it was nice to have a few minutes to prep. Did we rock it? Yes we did!

The afternoon was back to back teaching presentations. One from the IDC and one from either IDC Staff or Specialty Instructor Training. Oh yes, we rocked that too.