Disaster at Sea
By Gabi. Filed in Indonesia |
On Dive day three, the Gods were not with me. My camera a Canon G9 was new this year and I am still discovering all kinds of new functions. Yes I know, they have always been there, but to me, they are new. At home I never have, or better said, I never take the time to just “play” with the camera. Then on a trip, I use the same programs again and again. I vowed it would be different this time! Due to so many people on board our boat being camera enthusiasts, I am learning so much.
So today I discovered that the camera actually has a wide screen mode. So on Dive # 3 I was excited to try out this new function. I must have clicked 30-40 pictures and our knowledgable dive master Adnan out another beautiful nudibrach specimen for me to photograph. Before I could even think about focusing, he motions to me that I should give him the camera. I thought, ok I may not be an expert here, but at least give me a chance to try it myself. I almost wildly dislodges the camera from my arm and puts it tele lens down. I still questioned his judgment, since the said nudibranch was not in that direction. Then the realization struck me, my waterproof camera housing had a leak, he saw it and acted like only a pro knew how. For the next 20 minutes of the dive I agonized about my camera.
I couldn’t understand why he didn’t just end the dive and take us all up. Did he think the camera was done for, so what the heck, there was no hope anyway. Since Lothar and I are not diving on Nitox,(yes, Carsten, we know we should get certified in Nitrox and we will, but here we were too lazy) we tend to surface before the others in our group. After our 5 minute safety stop, at the surface, I broke the news to Lothar. He hadn’t realized the situation, he thought Adnan just wanted to take some pics for me. I was totally distressed, how could I continue to dive without a camera? Taking pictures and diving go hand in hand for me. I still had 5 days of diving and a dead camera. Why did Adnan not let me take my camera to the surface with me, why did he have to continue the dive and take my camera along? Would it not be better the sooner I got it back out of the water? My mind was racing, I felt frustrated. I had had my old camera for seven years and never a mishap. At the beginning of the trip, the other divers were telling me about their previous accidents and I was counting my blessings. I was also being super careful to try to make sure that the O ring of the camera housing had silicone on it, no hairs or dust anywhere. Or so I thought!
After a quick ride in our dinghy back to the boat and another miserable 20 minutes of waiting on the rear platform of Mermaid II , Adnan finally steps out of the dinghy, unto the platform and up to the camera station with my upside down camera in its housing still in the same position. which I had last seen it in, 60 feet below the surface. He again quickly dislodged the camera, this time from its housing. Next there was endless sucking with a mini vacuum cleaner, he was hoping to suck the water out. I was thinking, what use, the damn camera has been under water, in this state, for at least half an hour. There could be no hope! Silently in my heart, I was naturally hoping, that there could be a miracle. I played that down though, because I knew how unrealistic that was. He tried to comfort me by saying Canon was really trying to make these cameras with some water resiliency. Submerged at 60 ft for half an hour? I didn’t buy that one. Next in line for the sucking process were the chip and battery. Damn, the battery I could do without, I had 4 others, but the chip, a 2GB (I was smart enough to not only have one) but I had not downloaded any of the pictures since Yogyakarta from this one.. Were they lost forever?
Another waiting game began. After an hour I was allowed to try the camera (with a new battery naturally). It made a wonderful noise of “here I am” and the picture came on the LCD and said “Canon 9G” I was ecstatic. I had another chip, I could start new again! The photo guy, Jez, on the trip, said I may as well give the old chip a try. I did. I turned on the camera and miracle number two, all the pictures were there. He also suggested I transfer them right away to the computer because who knew how long the camera or the chip might function. They had been exposed to salt water, and it is probably only a matter of time. I quickly downloaded (thank God, I did decide to bring my computer) the images and all was saved. Oh yeah, even the old battery worked!
It is now 2 days later and I am still using the camera! I can almost not believe my luck. Our boat has many different nationals on it. They come from Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, Mexico, Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland and the US. We have many different beliefs and religions but we all are working together and trying to understand each other. Maybe the “world force” or “God” is with us on this journey. I must also acknowledge Adnan’s quick action of keeping the camera as high away from the “water proof case” as possible. He knew what he was doing. I guess I’m not the first diver, who this has happened to. Even if at some point the camera stops working, in my eyes it will always seem like it was a little miracle. I really should write Canon about this story! I think I will have to be a life-long customer.
Monday, August 17th 2009 at 8:53 pm |
Wow! Lucky!!!