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Under the angry Rangiroa sky we were still smiling and looking at the dolphins eager to get into the water with them and off the boat and rain. I felt thunder reverberate through my chest just before we all gave the OK and masks and regs in as the boatman struggled to steady the boat for a few seconds in the heavy swell and sideways rain. It was a quick backwards roll entry..due to the extra shorty and my lavacore I added a kilo weight before we set out as I had been diving with no weight in bora bora and only 2 kilos with the lavacore and wetsuit here. As we disappeared under the surface the warm ocean was a welcome relief from the stormy weather. As usual i started singing through my reg..stormy weather of course. The Silky was back patrolling the pass, a bold shark for a species that Frank had only ever seen exhibit this behaviour without baiting..a practice that takes place in some big dive ops which I strenuously object to. Silkys are mildly perturbing sharks, in that they tend to hang back and look at you, not moving, but have been caught on film giving
The pass.
The shallow area within the wave is where you dive under the wavedivers a headbut at lightning speed, would certainly scare the hell out of you. There are so many sharks at Rangi you actually stop looking for them. We were rounding the lone palm end over the coral before the canyon with the silky still hanging around for a few minutes more when I spotted some giant trevally mingling regally past the amazing grand blue parrotfish.
And then there they were..dolphins...in the wild...beautiful strong huge majestic mammals, 7 of them , hanging around for just a second then with a flick of their tails all tumble turning and off out into the blue. Awesome!.
There is no real invertebrate or cephalapod life in the pass that you can stop long enough to see and when you have to combine diving and surfing a few metres under a wave with jagged rocks and saw tooth sharp coral inches from your belly, you dont have time to look for them. The wave at the edge of the drop off is amazing. I have never seen or done anything like that on a dive anywhere. You have to ride the wave, let it take you, until it breaks over the coral
and dumps you into the pass. Frank told us before to just let it take with you and never try and fight it. Imagine going backwards and forwards underwater with a wave pulling you backwards and forwards as you watch it start to curl and build and you know its going to break and the ride will be over any second. The OMG im REALLY ALIVE moment is so surreal on so many levels, the beauty of the energy of the wave, the bubbles and beams of sunlight breaking through the translucent blue of the wave, the fact that there are 3m sharks, 2m barracudas and Wrasses the size of cars next to you also going backwards waiting for the wave to break. Your first instinct is to grab hold of the rocks but you are no match for the wave and letting it take you back and forth is a truly unique dive experience. When the wave breaks you plunge over the lip of the shallow rocks and into the pass itself, making sure you shoot the right side of the canyon, which we all managed to do every time as usually we were very close together.
We
were in a calm spot just into the dive when R suddenly yelled and I heard Frank beside me urgently start finning upwards....I looked up in horror and saw R shooting to the surface way way too fast. Frank managed to grab hold of his fin desperately finning to grab Rs fin by his fingertips and pulling him close to him. Cramp. The enemy of every diver. R had a savagely cramped thigh muscle and he was grabbing it as Frank grappled to try and keep him down and help him with his leg. To see R fighting for his life desperately knowing he was already possibly bent was terrible. Everything moved in fast slow motion. The nightmare you never want to see.
Frank got R under control and called his poor wife over to hold him and give him air as Frank had used up much of the spare air he always dived with and also to comfort R. We were not anywhere the boatman could pick us up. If we surfaced now here we would be whipped outwards past the boatman by the current. I cannot honestly remember the rest of the dive other than it was
a quick dash as fast but not too fast to the lagoon area. Frank and I shared his air for a few minutes as I must have been breathing a lot watching what was happening as for once I wasnt deep.
We came up on a slow incline, deco ing as we went and Frank deployed his SMB and the boatman, one of the best boatmen ive ever seen was waiting for us pulling me in first then R gently with Frank and his wifes help. I couldnt do anything except keep out of the way as Frank grabbed his phone and rang the emergency clinic - I dont speak French but I know the word decompression in any language. Shit. As he was frantically talking to the hospital he was pulling oxygen out and he administed it to R as he lay on the floor of the boat in shock. In a three way convo the boatman, Frank and the hospital came up with one plan which had the boatman wheeling his boat around to head for another landing spot closer to the hotel then spinning around again and back to the pier. There was an eerie silence
on the short urgent boatride back to the pier. We all knew this could be serious. I looked at his wifes face and saw her holding the oxygen cylinder for him pale and scared but brave and composed. She was an amazing woman.
We got to the pier and Frank ran across and got his car and the boatman and I started clearing the boat to get R a clear path off the boat. They sped off to the hospital in wetsuits. I felt sick. I helped the boatman unload the boat and we went back to the dive centre and sat there in silence staring at the phone. It didnt ring for an hour. When it did ring, he was in the toilet and I couldnt work out how to answer the stupid bloody french phone even though it was a nokia. Shit. I had hoped to hear from Frank. I told the boatman the phone had rang but he couldnt work out how to call back. We waited again..eventually my stomach was screaming so I walked across the pier and asked exhaustedly for a lot of food, i was REALLY hungry. I ate a huge polynesian size
The water is transparent
Leant over the edge of the deck and snapped this beautiful wrasse. serve of Poisson Cru impressing Jeremy and all sitting at the cafe. I decided to go back to the pension and grab some clothes for Rs wife as she was still in her wetsuit and found my verandah full of cruise ship tourists. I said politely excuse me this is my bungalow and some woman drawled..Well locals like you are used to the rain it well mess mah hair!....GET OFF MY VERANDAH. NOW. ALL OF YOU. I AM NOT IN THE MOOD FOR THIS.
They left and I grabbed Marie explained what was going on and we headed for the hospital only to meet Frank head on so Rs wife could grab her credit card for evacuation to the chamber in Papeete if needed and a change of clothes. All divers should carry DAN insurance or an equivalent. A chopper was on standby at Papeete which has a state of the art chamber and dive medical team who worked with the Rangi team via telephone constantly monitoring R. Evacuation to Papeete was going to cost $7000. The day got dark and still no word, no friends, i sat with Marie feeling pretty stunned and emotionally drained sick with worry.
I just wanted R to be ok.
Marie served up a huge feed of Lobsters...I devoured three. N, enemy of many on Rangi who lodges at Marie tried to engage me in a convo about what had happened, I told him the facts and stressed it was NO ONES fault. When he realised he wasnt going to get any information but positive praise for everyones response he turned the conversation to Oh! There is going to be a War! Everyone is Scared!....what war? who actually gives a shit at this moment N..france has lost every other bloody war so good luck this time!, i mean that sincerely i said in my head having not read any news or watched tv for 10 days. I wasnt in the mood for him.
Apologies to my lovely french friends, he is not a lovely frenchman. I was about tired of his jabbering when I heard footsteps crunching on the coral about 10pm that night....there they were.....my friends, all happy smiling and healthy. Everyone looked exhausted and we hugged and words werent necessary. The relief at seeing them standing there when so much so bad could have happened was huge. We sat
Just lookin..
I could spend the rest of my life looking out here. and had drinks and cheers at being here again together under the dark but now calm sky of Rangi when he could have been lying in the chamber in Papeete or worse.
This blog is an account of what can happen when we dive. To all divers, please get dive insurance if you want to travel and dive. Its worth it. We are very very fragile down there, we dont belong there, and we cannot stay there. When you are diving in areas like this, anywhere you are diving, you are subjecting your body to unnatural breathing, atmospheric pressures and gas building up in your blood along with so many other things that can kill you.
As with all incidents in FP this was investigated by the gendarmes. I leart from my computer and the video footage of the dives that I dive way too deep a habit which stopped that day. At 42m, shooting up like a cork out of a bottle would have been fatal. I dived again two days later in Moorea. I had to.
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denidax
Deni, Dax and Ella
I was reading this blog as if it were a thriller!!... must have been sooo scary to be there. I really felt for R's wife... trying to keep calm while her husband was in danger... it can't be easy! Glad to hear that it was all good in the end :o)