World Record Diary -- Part VII
Posted By Tanya Streeter on 29 July 2003
Wednesday, July 9th, 2003
As we left the dock it seemed the weather might at last be getting better. Out on the mooring the boat seemed to be rocking about the same as it has done on the last few diving days. But when I got in the water and saw how the rope stretched and bowed in the water my nerves rose up. More than once I approached John and Paul for reassurance that the divers would be OK in the conditions, and they put me at ease. I got on the sled to see if the waves would inhibit my preparation too much. It was very borderline, and more than once my head went completely beneath the waves – luckily when I was exhaling, so I would have to time my breathing carefully. Just as I managed to focus on relaxing for the beginning of my warm-up, Gilles came to tell me that the dive was canceled. It seemed that the boat was pitching more than normal and had begun to cause a major problem with the arm that the sled is suspended from. Cracks were beginning to appear in the fibre-glass and the weight at the end of the rope needed to be removed from the water urgently to prevent more damage, or even the arm being ripped off completely.
As the sled was being lifted back onto the boat a huge wahoo appeared, but it did little to lift our spirits today. Everyone involved is feeling the stress and frustration that the weather is causing at this stage in training. With today’s dive cancelled and repairs needed to the boat, we are really in danger of falling way behind. There are now only 4 training dives left and my personal goal is 10m away from the 97m I have achieved so far.
Thankfully John graciously invited the team for a complete change of scenery by way of a barbeque at a beautiful house he is looking after on the other side of the island. Unfortunately, with arrangements needed to be made for the boat and the difficulty in getting hold of the right people, we (Paul, Gilles and I) couldn’t go, but apparently it was successful in relieving them all of their tensions – they drank them away, I think! One way or another a lot of the day was spent making calls and waiting for people to call back, and the final result is that the boat will be out of the water until tomorrow afternoon so we shouldn’t miss another dive. Unless the weather is still bad, of course.
To blow off some of my stress I went swimming with Gilles and then the three of us played tennis for an hour. I was successful at something today – I beat the boys at tennis! But, to be honest, we are all really disappointed that we have been forced to fall behind so much, and we are deeply concerned that this wind may stay for another few days. There is talk of moving the Variable Weight record attempt to one of the contingency days, to allow for one more training dive, so we will see.
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