Into the dark, cold depths of the sea

After a boring 3 hour boat trip we arrived in Picton on the south island, only to find out that someone had mistaken our cooler bag for theirs. Goodbye pans, condiments, food and more. Even though our trip on the south island didn't start off too great the weather was perfect and after a quick snack at the Dutch Bakkerij we found that the campsite was one of the best we'd been at so far and not expensive at all. After we pitched our tent we went for a stroll through the small town. I happened to have read that one of the largest diveable wrecks in the world (the Mikhail Lermontov: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Mikhail_Lermontov) was very close to Picton, so we stopped by one of the dive shops to see if the ship was within our maximum allowed depth of 18m. Turns out it wasn't. We had heard from someone we met earlier in our travels that an advanced open water course was very expensive; in excess of $1000, but still we decided to ask how much they charged for the advanced course. Surprisingly it was only $500, which was very tempting, but we decided to think about it some more before deciding anything.
As we returned to our tent we agreed that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and that we'd go for it.
The next day we booked our course and found that we could even choose to do part of our training dives at the Lermontov, which we ofcourse did. This meant however that we'd have to wait for over a week before we could begin our course, and jasper suggested that maybe we could do a couple of our training dives in the week before that. So it was settled, we'd have our Navigation and Peak performance Buoyancy dives on monday and then the rest of our dives at the lermontov during the weekend. This left us with 3 days before the first dives, which I hoped was enough to get rid of my cold. I also sauntered into a 2nd hand booksale that day and bought more books than I probably should have. . .
After watching a lot of movies on the movie channel and hanging out in the pool for days it was finally time for our first couple of dives. We were both slightly nervous, because it had been about 2 months since our last dive and I was still a bit congested (this can cause problems with clearing your ears).
After gathering our gear and loading them into the van we headed out to the harbour, where we walked into the sea with our gear on. Turns out we had nothing to be worried about, the dives were going to be shallow (only about 9m deep) and my ear wasn't clearing as easily as normal but I still didn't have any problems with it.
First we had to do our peak performance dive, which was supposed to help us increase our buoyancy control, but since we'd already done our initial training in thick wetsuits we had no trouble achieving and maintaining neutral buoyancy. It wasn't until after we had to swim through a hoop that I suddenly shot up a few meters and surfaced. This wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the fact that I was now experiencing what they call a reverse block, where the pressure in your ear canal is greater than the pressure of the surroundings and can't be released, it was very painful. I lingered at the surface for a bit thinking our instructor would come after me, but apparently she didn't see me shoot up. Eventually I spotted their bubbles and swam over to their locations before descending again.
We had so much air left in our tanks after the first dive that Andrea (our instructor) figured we'd probably be able to do the second dive off the same tank. First up we had to line up our compasses to one off the boats before descending and trying to find that ship's anchor chain. Jasper took off and Andrea followed him, my compass however showed a different direction so I was unsure whether I was supposed to go off on my own or keep following Jasper and Andrea. Eventually Andrea stopped while jasper continued, I tried to signal to her that my compass showed a different direction but I don't think she understood. Jasper eventually returned to us as well and we headed off to a different point from where we were supposed to swim in a square pattern. Jasper headed off first and I followed soon after, counting 5 fin kicks in one direction, readjusting my compass and counting 5 kicks in another direction until I'd completed the square. During the last 5 kicks I kept desperately looking for the red sponge that Andrea pointed at as the start of the course but I couldn't find it. Thinking I probably didn't pass it yet I continued to swim in the direction when i suddenly felt a tug on one of my fins. Apparently I had swam so close by Andrea that my fin hit her, but I never noticed. Together we waited for Jasper but he didn't show, so we went back to shore where we found jasper waiting. Apparently jasper hadn't seen Andrea make the square signal and thought we were just heading back to shore. So he had to do the square pattern again, and I was to be his safety buddy; unfortunately by this time our tanks had gone so empty that we no longer had enough wait to stay submerged so jasper was forced to do his square on the surface. Afterwards we had to swim 30m to determine our average distance per fin kick and our average underwater speed.
After updating our diver logs we agreed to do the knowledge reviews the next day, so that evening we had some studying to do. The next day we met one of the people going with us to the lermontov lodge over the weekend, a polish man named Marek; He'd just finished his advanced open water the week before and was going for his master scuba diver. After completing the knowledge reviews we were free to do whatever we wanted for the next 4 days, which included a lot of TV and hanging out at the pool. We did meet some nice girls that day, starting with the youngest one whom we engaged in a fierce battle with foam pool toys. Afterwards we met her older sisters whom were both very nice, we even got the oldest one to join in on our water based battle-royale.
Then the day had come, we packed our tent and headed off to the dive shop where, due to a small misunderstanding, we had to gather all our gear once more.
The other people driving up to the lodge with us that day were Marek, a dutch guy everyone called 'Nine' (he was actually called Sjoerd) and an irish guy.
The road up to the lodge was very windy and took about 3 hours, by the time we got to the lodge the sun was going down. The lodge itself was surprisingly well maintained and luxurious, though the beds were just standard bunk beds, there were comfy couches and a tv. After a nice dinner we quickly discussed what we were going to do the next day and headed to bed.
After sleeping on cold hard matts for months you'd expect one to be able to sleep well in a proper bed, but I couldn't get myself to fall asleep. Still, the next the nerves made sure I was wide awake and ready for my dives.
After a short boat ride we reached the lermontov, or well the location where it sank. It was in the middle of a fairly shallow inlet only about 40 meters deep, from the surface it was hard to believe that a ship so big could be hidden in the water here, but apparently on some days when the water is exceptionally clear you can see it lying there from the surface. After kitting up and doing our buddy checks me, Jasper, Marek and Andrea jumped in the water and we slowly descended down the mooring line that was attached to the front of the ship. Our first was to be our "Deep Dive", our first dive deeper than 18 meters. We would first do some excersise, which weren't more than simple observations of change in colour and water temperature. Then we would receive a tour along the outside of the ship, going past cranes, the bridge, the radio antennas, the exhaust funnel and some of the windows on the side of the ship. Because the ship was on it's side and the visibility was poor I found it very hard to recognise any of these features. Andrea had also warned us that Marek was a bit reckless and annoying while diving, and during this first dive we noticed this for ourselves; he would stay annoyingly close to you so that you'd keep hitting him with your fins and he'd swim all over the place (including over you) at one point knocking my regulator (the thing with which you breathe) out of my mouth. He also kicked up silt and destroyed the visibility where-ever he went.
After we surfaced we headed back to the lodge for some hot dogs and bread. We discussed what we saw and what we were going to do for our next dive. Initially we were going to penetrate the wreck on this dive, but it seemed Andrea wasn't comfortable with Marek just yet and so we agreed to just do an exterior dive.
After descending along the mooring line once more Marek did an excersise for one of his advanced courses which was supposed to determine if he was suffering from Nitrogen Narcosis or not. This is a condition which sometimes occurs during deeper dives and is comparable to being slightly drunk. He had to do the same excersise on the surface and compare the time it took him to complete it, it took him 3 times longer underwater so it's safe to say he was slightly narced. After a tour along the windows on the side of the ship, past a bar and an arcade hall we headed back to the bridge. Here it seemed Andrea had decided to take us for a short trip inside the ship as she asked everyone if we were comfortable going inside. After we confirmed we were she signalled that she was going in first, then Jasper, then me and finally Marek. After she had gone through the small window Jasper tried to follow but Marek tried to follow at the same time causing them to bump into each other and into the window. After backing up jasper managed to get in without interference from Marek and as I was about to go through I noticed that Marek was getting ready to go in as well, so I signalled to him that it was in fact my turn and went in. Inside it was pitch black and it wasn't until after a second or two that your eyes adapted to the light enough to be able to see anything. Inside there were still consoles standing and control boards hanging from the wall behind them. After a few seconds we emerged from the top (or rather the side) of the bridge and headed back to the mooring line.
After a short trip back to the lodge to fill up our empty tanks we headed back out again to do our photography dive. First we went into the Nevski bar where I took a picture of one of the stools, the rest of the bar was too dark and murky to make decent pictures of. Afterwards Andrea took us to somewhere on the stern of the ship, while she and Marek headed off to do a navigation excersise, where we could take pictures and do what we pleased for a while. Only a second after they left they came back however and Andrea took us to a different spot, we didn't understand why but later she told us that marek had kicked up so much silt that it would have been impossible for us to take clear pictures. We took turns taking pictures of each other and of fish, not always as succesful as we'd like to have been. Due to the poor light conditions it was very hard to take clear pictures underwater and because the fish swam around so much it was hard to capture them. At one point Jasper posed with what looked like an underwater spore pod, and afterwards signalled for me to do the same so he could take a picture of me. At this point I decided it would be fun to have a picture without that ever present regulator in my mouth, so I took it out as jasper was aiming the camera. Since the camera has to allow for more time to let enough light in it takes a few seconds for it to take a picture and I remember thinking "Hurry up. . . Hurry up!!" After the picture was taken I quickly popped my regulator back in my mouth and breather that lovely air, jasper laughed and signalled I was crazy, I laughed as well and looked at the picture. After a while longer we had run out of things to take pictures of and we starting to run short on air, we decided to wait a bit longer before we'd make our way to the surface alone and after jasper did a salto I saw Andrea and Marek approaching. With minimal air reserves we made it back to the boat.
The next day Andrea was to clean the hut and so couldn't escort us around the wreck, fortunately Nine offered to take us on a tour. After landing on the boat he swiftly took us to the stern and led us into the covered pool, which was pitch black, and past the bar. He then led us through the wintergarden, which was essentially a corridor with a lot of glass windows now, the way the light reflected off the algae stained windows was magical. After we went up a set of stairs we reached one of the balconies and were in open water once more. He took us past the funnel (this time I did recognise it) and through the bridge (all the way through the bridge this time), he then pointed us to the mooring line before heading off on his own treasure hunt.
The next dive was just going to be me, Jasper and Marek. Because Marek had the best computer it was decided he was going in the lead, after hearing this Andrea and Brent, the owner of the dive shop, got very nervous and brent told Marek to be very careful and that "Their life is in your hands!", all very confidence inspiring. We were just going to head to the gash that sank the ship and maybe, if we had enough air, to the propellors. After we landed on the ship marek proceeded to head in the wrong direction and I had to stop him and turn him the right way. As we followed the side of the ship down deeper and deeper visibility dropped to a meter max, we could see each other and the side of the ship and that was about all. the damage we were told, was at about 27 meters deep, but marek simply plummited down the ship and soon ended up at about 32 meters deep. After I signalled to him that he was too deep and we went back up to 27m we checked our air supplies; I had almost used up half my tank through stressing out so much, and that despite the fact that I had a ridiculously well filled tank. As we were asking each other how much air we had left I suddenly noticed that the ship was gone, I couldn't see it anymore! I signalled this to the others and swiftly headed back where I'd last seen it, one fin kick later and I almost crashed head first into it, just to give you an idea of what the visibility was like. We levelled at 27 meters and starting heading towards the stern of the ship, when we passed under un arch (I think it was a supporting strut) I looked back to find that I couldn't see jasper anymore and in the second it took me to stop and look back I found that I almost couldn't see marek anymore either. I quickly caught up to marek and together we headed back; fortunately jasper had borrowed a light from Nine for the penetration dive we did earlier and we soon spotted him again. After swimming back a bit more I suddenly noticed a black shadow under me, the gash. Ofcourse Marek didn't notice it and swam past it at his murderous tempo; we pulled him back and checked out the hole. Afterwards we decided it was a good time to head back to the surface and abandon all attempts to find the propellors. When we got a bit higher up the visibility increased dramatically and we could see where we were again. Marek seemed a bit lost however and as we reached the roof of the bridge he stopped and almost seemed to want to go a few divers we saw swimming a bit deeper to ask for directions. After I indicated we had to go over the side of the ship he followed me and soon we found the mooring line and made our ascent. The dive only took about 20 minutes but it felt like an eternity and we had all used up far more air than we should have for so short a dive.
With this last stressful dive survived we could look back on a succesful dive trip and could proudly claim that we were now Advanced Open Water Divers.