Night Diving

Rani woke me at 1 am with a shout, "Where is the dinghy! It's gone!"

False alarm - Because we had had guests on board, I had moved our dinghy to the stern from its usual position and I told Rani so. Going aft, Rani noticed that the dinghy had its painter wrapped around our wind vane. While trying to free the line, she dropped my precious waterproof flashlight over the side. A few choice words were spoken as we leaned over the transom watching the light disappear into 40 feet of water. The visibility was quite good here and I could see it as it reached the bottom, batteries first, and stuck in the coral sand facing up at us.

While 40 feet is deeper than the 30 I normally dive to, I was not sure how long the flashlight would continue to keep the water out at one atmosphere. It would also be easier to locate it now from its beam as it shone out in the dark. So against Rani's advice, I put on flippers and mask, and jumped into the inky water. Taking several deep breathes, I kicked for the light, clearing my ears as I descended. About half way down, I had a strong urge to turn back for the surface, uncertain I could hold my breathe long enough. But I kept swimming and was surprised at how quickly the light came up at me. I grabbed it and swam for the surface taking care to swim away from Ladybug to avoid an unpleasant bump on the head. I surfaced with plenty of breathe to spare.

No harm done and as a bonus, we now know that the flashlight is really waterproof.