Oban

After coming back from the chainsaw course on Friday evening, we left for Oban on Sunday morning, picking Belinda up on the way. The next week was spent with the National Facility for Scientific Diving (NFSD) which is part of the Scottish Association for Marine Sciences (SAMS). Four of us (Matt – base commander, Bel – marine biologist, Peter – diving officer and I) went diving in Oban for 3 days. The three of us had to get used to the kit BAS uses (NFSD uses very similar kit) and it was good to go diving together so we could get to know each other much better. So Monday to Wednesday we did two dives each. It was pretty relaxed: the morning started with tea/coffee, eventually we went out for two dives (20-30 minutes each); then we came back to fill cylinders and have sandwiches and went out again at some point in the afternoon to do the second round of dives; by 5pm we were finished each day. One evening we had scallops which we had collected on one of the dives. I tried them for the first time in my life and unfortunately am not too fond of them... On Thursday and Friday we had chamber training which was really interesting as we learned how to operate the chamber and how to act as a chamber attendant. Just in case something happens down south, so that we can operate the chamber on site (which again will require specific training for the chamber down there). A fun week and my first time in Scotland!!