Page 22 - Wish Stream Year of 2018

The cadets with Lt. Borg
Exercise POSEIDON
OCdt Roy
The group found itself leav-
ing the United Kingdom, not
in the customary mid-April
showers, but bathed in glorious
sunshine and record-high tem-
peratures. There was an air of opti-
mism and excitement as the plane
touched down at Luqa Airport in
Malta, where we were to under-
take a week-long scuba diving course. A short taxi ride brought us to the Airbnb where we would be staying, located in the beautiful St. Julian’s Bay and just a short stroll from the dive centre. Sadly, the fine weather in which we departed did not fol- low us all the way to Malta; the bay depicted an almost apocalyptic scene as huge waves crashed against the promenade, soaking pedestrians and vehicles alike. Unlike those poor souls, however, our spirits could not be dampened.
We awoke the next day to a somewhat calmer scene and ambled down to the dive centre where we were picked up by the affable Jesús,
There was an air of optimism and excitement as the plane touched down...
one of our instructors for the week. We travelled to another location where we then met our main instruc- tor, Stuart, and the group was split into two, as four of our number had no experience and the other four had dived before. The Sports Divers went off to conduct their first dive of the week at Gozo ferry port and
the Ocean Divers settled in for a day of theory in the classroom. Eager to escape the world of PowerPoint, the Ocean Divers were relieved the next day to discover they would be enter- ing the clear Maltese waters for the first time to conduct a lesson learning the basic skills of scuba. It was, I admit, a slightly unnerving and unnatural feeling forcing oneself to take that first breath underwater, but even after one day we were all feeling much more comfortable in our aquatic skins. The Sports Divers continued their steady development and spent the day diving and learning new skills around St. Julian’s Bay. As the week hurried along both groups grew in
20 SANDHURST