The Padi Advanced Open Water Certification Course consists of five dives. Two of those must be a Deep Dive and a Navigation Dive. Then you choose three adventure dives from a variety of dives, depending on availability at your dive centre, location and sea conditions. I was preparing for my Navigation dive and in all honesty, nervous. I had never used a compass and had to shoot a heading underwater that day!

The thing with a compass is this. Usually it is only a navigational aid and natural navigation, using surface orientation, key point references, water motion, sun direction, objects and natural formations, bottom contours, plants and animals and even sound assist in navigating. However, on this day I had to show that I understand how compass navigation works and how to shoot a heading. “Feel the fear, but do it anyway“. Truly walking my talk!

I realise that in life I have, on occasion, shot a heading and ignored all the natural navigational aids. Not noticing signs that should have been as visible as waving red flags! I am here now, actually because I was ignoring a closed door. I do not this time regret the result of my limited navigational skill set through life, but underwater I will do it differently. Perhaps in the future I will even be more aware of the orientation and reference points around me in normal life too. It will be interesting to see where that leads me! 

What a relief then when I was told that I had to navigate a square underwater, but that we would do it on land first. It ended up being much simpler than I anticipated as you just turn 90˚ (adding or subtracting it to your set direction, depending on which way you turn). In getting a proper square the challenge is in getting the length of each side of the square to be approximately the same distance, usually by counting kick cycles! 

We set off to Anemone Garden in the Bay of Mahebourg. We reached the dive site with my Lion Mountain looking very moody in the darkening sky. We descended to 18m and on the sandy bottom plotted out a square using the compass. I was very relaxed as I found the simplicity completely fascinating and loved every moment of the practical.

The other thing with navigation is that you cannot just watch your compass, you have to look up and see what is happening around you, as well as assess the direction that you are swimming in. So when I looked up, there would be a Blue Parrotfish (an adored favourite, if this is the first time you read one of my blogs) next to me or in front of me to my left or right. I developed the keen sense that I was being escorted through the dive by my glittering, mermaid coloured Parrot Fish!

We logged a 50 min dive because we did find treasure ! An interesting diverse ecosystem on Anemone Garden. I was seeing all my fishy family members again. Apart from the Blue Parrotfish, my Moorish Idols were there too. One of the most memorable moments was when I followed the beam of my instructor’s torch, looked down and realised that the rock below me, was not a rock, but a Scorpion Fish in perfect camouflage!

Back on the boat the other dive party surfaced elated about how many Blue Parrot Fish there were! That blew my escort theory out of the water! But that was all good, as it was great to know that there are many of these lovelies swimming on the Anemone Garden reef.

by Lynette Gerber-Lochenkov