14 May

Leanne's ear problems persisted today but she now had throat pain and a cough, she tried using some of the medication we had brought with but this didn't help. She decided to stay in bed for the duration of the day with the hope of sleeping it off. Meanwhile I had to go to Simple life to be examinated on the Rescue diver theory by Alex, one of the instructors.

At lunch I headed to one of our favorite restaurants, purchase some food and headed home to check on Leanne. She ate but was still not feeling well even though she had been sleeping most of the morning. I spent some time with her before having to return for the first practical dive session. We headed out to Japanese gardens where I was briefed about what to expect. I had heard at Perhentians and from other dive shops that instructors loved giving rescue dive training as they can do all sorts of tricks on the learner and everything goes.

The first dive was only 15m but I had to take off all my gear, the whole BCD & tank and hold it under my arm swimming around in a circle. Take off the weight belt and do the same. Then came buddy breathing, responding to unconscious or panicking diver under water. Taking off all my gear, swapping it with the instructor's and putting on his gear, then returning it again.

The first dive went well, I was able to remain calm which is 80% of what is required of you before you can act. The second dive was a little different, having proved I can do everything, now I needed to apply it in real life situations. We went for a dive around the reef but there was never 30 seconds that something didn't go wrong. Either one of the divers was panicking and bolting for the surface and I had to stop/slow their ascent, taking off their gear, grabbing my regulator out of my mouth leaving me with no air before I could find my alternate. Many times my BCD was inflated causing me to rapidly ascend or fins pulled from my feet. We finished up and headed back, I actually enjoyed the dive immensely and agree that after experiencing the situations one becomes more self aware and confidant in your abilities.

I was given a debrief and told that the next day we would focus on much the same but much of the work would be surface work. We headed back to the office where I was told that the dive of the morning, which had gone to South West Pinnacle had delivered a whale shark, Leanne would have made that dive had she not felt sick!

Leanne was still not feeling better, in fact her ear was worse. We headed out to find a doctor, not 40m from us was a huge medical clinic, where we stopped. Leanne chatted with the doctor explaining the problem after which he washed out her ear and had a look. She had a small perforation in the membrane due to an ear squeeze, which according to him would heal by itself. He however prescribed antibiotics just in case she got an infection. After dinner we returned home, where I continued reading up on the theory and filling out the exam, while Leanne passed out from the pills, occasionally lifting her head before dropping of to sleep again.