Scuba Diving Maldives

Princess Lara - Bad Air - How much is your life worth?

Many people ask me about what i saw in the Maldives on a recent Big Blue Trip, i reply.. well... Whale Sharks, Hammerheads, Mantas, Eagle Rays, dolphins swimming underwater, Guitar Shark.. and a shooting star. However.. there is more to the story than meets the eye, and i'll try to explain it here so you the reader can learn and hopefully never experience it.

MV Princess Lara - Sub Maldives

Princess Lara, sounds like a dream boat.. wooden interiors, brand new build, jacuzzi on the sun deck, spacious rooms. all this for around 9000rmb for the October Holiday.. meals, diving, transport.. all inclusive! how could you not jump at this right? I sold it while working at Big Blue, dream holiday..

While on the outside, it looks amazing, sleek look, glossy paint.. thats until you step inside. For a 2009 Build what could be wrong with it right? I had the opportunity to have the master suite as My girlfriend was the first one to book on the trip.. wow what a treat, huge bed, TV, Spacious, top deck just a jump away from the action, with real windows that provided great light! however.. the room had a terrible odor.. the smell of shit.. poop, toilet smells throughout.. you wake up in the morning and open the bathroom door to a smell that can only be described as dry rotting shit! as it passes the nasal passage you taste it and instantly heave or slightly throw up in your mouth.. remember.. never hold your breath while scuba diving!

Now i was a bit jealous of the people downstairs as we hit what i thought was a bit of rough weather, the night we crossed some openwater between atolls we got thrown from end to end of the bed, you space your arms and legs out just to try and keep a position.. the sound of deck chairs rolling around on the roof top just above your head.. wow.. we really did get the master suite. in the morning though looking down their hallway i could not help but notice the incredible amount of fumes filling the hallway.. this looked like someone was having a BBQ in the hallway and this is where people were sleeping! Is there not an exhaust for the engines? the stairs were not sealed allowing noxious fumes to fill the hallway outside of peoples cabins (i hope it was just outside).. with no way to push the air out.. everyone must have had a good dose of carbon monoxide each and every morning!

A quick note on Carbon monoxide

Did you know Carbon Monoxide is not ordinarily detected by our senses, it's colourless, tasteless and odorless gas! It's a silent and subtle killer. can kill in minutes or slowly over hours, depending on the concentration.. but how does it work? Carbon monoxide bonds with the hemoglobin in our bloodstream 200 times more tightly than oxygen! what does the hemoglobin do? to put it simply, it should transport oxygen to cells all over our body, through the formation of carboxyhemoglobin in the body its signs and symptoms are that of the flu or food poisoning: Headaches, dizziness, fatigue and nausea, unconsciousness, permanent neurological damage or even death.

MV Princess Lara - scuba check

As we all know each time you go diving, you're asked to present your certification card, as the "dive professional" wants to know you know what you are doing.. this is fair right? sure, however you also have the right to ask to see the dive professionals card, refusal to show it normally means they aren't a dive professional, under PADI on every professional card it has a number, their name, certification date, and photograph.. if any of these are off.. you can check online on padi.com.

Of course, when i get asked to see my card i reply and ask to see theirs.. "I'll show you mine, if you show me yours!" in this case both "DM"s could not present their card with promises to show that never came true, informed the manager and trip leader for Big Blue at this stage as i became wary.

MV Princess Lara - It's time to dive!

After waiting several hours before the dive actually happened (got up early that morning) for the first 'check out' dive, fair enough.. this is where you can tell straight off the bat what type of divers you have and work out how they react underwater to certain things, strengths, weaknesses that you can build on.

Ok so we had a very weak briefing, this is the first time you can judge the guide by how much information they put into the briefing and how much enthusiasm, some times people don't know much about the sites but can be inspirational and give you tips on spotting things, directions to swim and points of interest... this briefing lacked even the basic information such as dive times, lost buddy procedures, groupings, depths and hand signal review let alone the marine life to look for, it did have the dive site name in it, though.. verbally announced.

So all diving is done on a small boat named a dhoni.. i believe there might be a law preventing large boats from getting in too close and bottoming out. Before diving, we done a white cloth test on the tanks and had a good sniff at the air.. looked great smelt ok.. a quick visual around the compressors, both Bauer compressors one with 4 filling hose one with two - unfortunately both petrol engines. they did have snorkels that they hang outside for the air intake, one compressor had some external wear and tare and a buildup of rust, noted.. rental equipment came out, most only had a pressure gauge, was a mix and match, some second stages free flowed, requested those be changed and not used.. to be honest, rental equipment is a good indicator how much your life is worth.. different brands normally indicates they picked up bits and pieces on the cheap, faulty or malfunctioning equipment should not be used, however the common reply to novice divers "is this OK?" unfortunately meets the reply "yeah it'll be fine, dont worry about that." sorry for this you really need to be direct and request it to be changed, especially when you see the needle drop when you do a purge test on an alternate, or if mouth pieces are broken, if hoses are fizzling, if parts free flow during your setup, or if they don't work... best way to avoid this is to own your own if you can and have them serviced by professionals.

Ok, so now its time to drop down and go for a dive, entry technique from the boat was any way you like. i met everyone under the water as i was attending to weights for people that didn't have enough.. i must have given away 4kg.. praying that everyone else has enough as i would give up my weights for someone to have a dive.. i could always skip the check out dive.

Ok so people came up at the end of the dive, rather quiet and not excited about their first dive in the maldives or the first dive on the trip, to me again i made a mental note, if people arn't feeling to well or fatigued then they arn't going to be screaming and shouting with joy.. once out the water, people out their gear, 10-15minutes later we're back at the boat and people were starting to talk, some admitting to a headache.. the thought goes through the back of your mind.. am i really looking for problems, is this a valid problem? so i decided to see how the next dive goes keeping my observations to myself, the rest of the day seemed fine, some people quickly retiring to their rooms after each dive, still not that excitement buzz that you normally have.

An Incident

On Day two we went out just like before.. a lacking briefing followed by plenty of questions.. so from remembering the dive site we descended with one of the guides on the boat, we must have been swimming for about 10 minutes without seeing anything that we should have. i'm even swimming out in the blue looking for pinnacles.. something just isn't right.. i turn to the group and i see the dive guide on one of our divers alternate.. I'm sorry but if you have problems, you go up you dont continue the dive! so i swam over to intervene, putting my alternate in his mouth, signaling to the others to carry on with the dive.. i noticed the dive guide wasnt all to there.. like a space caddette, or a zombie.. a bit concerned i took him up to the surface slowly, kept an eye on him but nothing was changing, it was like he had no care in the world.. safety stop.. he didn't even bother checking his guages.. i kept a close eye on mine.. especially with someone i'm not too familiar with on my alternate. on the surface i inflated his BCD with the boat a fair distance away, this was with my smb on the surface the entire way up.. whistles didn't get attention, waving not even! what the! ok, so.. do i have a mirror.. nope.. ah ha, i have a flash on my camera.. ok lets blast that a few times.. hopefully it'll catch some attention.. great.. here we go.

exiting the water he seemed weak.. i helped him up and out.. quickly as i got on board the other group came up.. ok.. gotta help them quickly to get some spare hands as he seemed to just be so so, ok so my dad was on the trip, also a professional instructor, i quickly give him a hand signal as he's getting out to let him know something is up.. he whips off his equipment and immediately approaches the dive guide on the back of the boat as he's leaning over the side wanting to hurl.. a few more minutes pass before he was convinced to go on the oxygen, complained of a tight chest and wanting to vomit.. not a good mix, also what didn't help was the other dive guide with a huge ego (lets name him Ali so we dont get confused) telling us to discontinue the O2 because he doesn't need it, also making a stance that he's in charge and he decides the rules.. ok dude! This is the one that couldn't present a dive certificate, lets not worry about you and focus on the diver in need.

Backing down Ali finally decides perhaps its a good idea to send his work buddy off to see a doc ASAP.. and off he went. Amongst the professional crowd of Dad and i we pull together everything we've noticed over the last day and discuss it privately. Several hours later the dhoni comes back. we see all the tanks laying at the back of the boat and compressors positioned in a different way.. hmm strange.. lets go and have a chat with the guy since he's back on the boat.. "so whats the doc say" in a non confrontational manner.. Ali butts in and says the guy just needs some sleep, from getting up too early in the morning, i chuckled from this lame answer and confront Ali that this is not a case of being tired and also asked why all the tanks are laying on the back of the boat along with the compressors being moved.. he couldn't answer while the dive guide that did get injured looked away in disappointment.. i walked off as i found i was not getting a straight answer from this guy.

The Saga continues.. only day 2 and we have had confrontations! - night dive

The next dive was the night dive.. did i mention my girl friend was on this trip also? i advised her to skip the night dive as something was up. i sat out on the small boat along with my dad while people went diving, a group of 4 people didn't want to do that dive as they complained of an obnoxious headache since the last dive..ooh that wasn't good to hear all 4 had a crazy headache.. once everyone jumped in i spoke to the little boat captain and asked to see his compressor logs to see if they kept them and if so when the last filter change was done.. no log book but i wasn't surprised, but he did pull out the cartridges for the filter change he has just done.. all too coincidental don't you think?

Divers all make it back.. now since i sat out i made quite an impression and an expression, management was not happy, but as a certified diver and a dive professional.. i dont care if i've paid, am being paid or forced to at the risk of loosing my job.. no way am i putting my life on the line and risk serious injury. After that night dive, management wanted a meeting, sure no problem.. even my dad was invited.. wow fun for him.. so the meeting starts they ask for suggestions, so i stated that i want everyone to know about the bad air, one lunatic wanted to reassure everyone that it is safe to continue diving.. i'm sorry but these are certified divers they can make their own informed decision, the other thing is i would not support something that had no credible claim.. how can you reassure everyone that the air is fine? do you have your air analysis kit in your back pocket.. are you even trained in that area? the solution for management was to check the air in the morning, my question was "and if its not?" to no answer.

The Deciding day

So i got up early to act on the previous nights meeting, the professionals get onto the Dhoni before everyone, we start sniffing air tanks.. remember.. what colour is carbon monoxide? what odor does it have? and how does it taste?.. but still worth checking as minerals could make it into the tanks. We pulled off 9 tanks that had a bad odor, i informed management with no response but he let people go onto the boat. my dad sat out in a refusal to dive. i went and done it.. it was a deep dive this time for hammerheads.. no way was i taking my camera or going deep, i was just support for those that might experience problems.

Upon returning to the boat, one diver complained of being sea sick.. it was flat and calm! ok so the problem is still there.. what to do.. ok so lets drain down that tank to prevent them from topping it up, Egotistical Ali pulled my hand off the tank and said "if you dont want to dive dont dive!" and turnt the tank off.. i lost it with him, i have a long fuse and am patient, but if you burn it.. it'll burn instantly, so it got a bit loud on the little boat, i wanted to slap him around for endangering the lives and acting recklessness. i choose to turn to management, however management at this stage seemed to just want to brush things under the carpet.. good times are rolling.. i requested that Ali be removed from the boat.. the response was that myself, my dad and my girlfriend were being moved to another boat.. sure its a kick in the balls and they were going to inform all the customers about the problems.. great two problems solved, if i couldn't not prevent problems, at least people would be informed to decide for themselves, also i am no longer responsible in the event of an emergency.

No announcement were made during the briefing, so i started to ask around, no one knew of the problems, so i started to inform them.. i confronted management on the way off the boat who assured me people were informed, wow.. now i was getting fed bull.. how rich was this. It was obvious that people were aware of problems, but they just moved it to the back of their mind, through a third party i found out they were completely dissatisfied. Divers are a special breed of people and personalities, they will make the bad into the best, they will smile when most frown, they will hold back their disappointment but not return.

Southern Cross - Sub Maldives - experiences

Sub Maldives - one day i will finish this write up on them, however.. still mickey mouse

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