We were testing the new glow-in-the-dark rope, which William had ordered for the competition. The idea is that the athletes wouldn’t need a flashlight in order to see the rope and retrieve the tag from the bottom, even when the conditions are not ideal, like now. Unfortunately Rob and Johan both reported not having seen the rope passed 60 meters. I was diving on the other side of the platform, using the old, regular rope. But for now, I am diving with shuteyes most of the time, so I do not care too much.

Since my dives during the previous 3 days felt so comfortable, I increased my target depth another 10 meters, to 90 meters. I was very happy to have reached this depth in such a short time, well ahead of my training expectations. Tonight we are invited for dinner by Ryuzo Shinomiya (JAP). He is staying at Ellen’s In, which is an apartment complex 10 minute down the road.

Hey the sun is shining now and then. The visibility in the Blue Hoe is still crap, but it feels a lot friendlier with some sun out, even though it is pitch-black at depth. Kerian Hibbs (NZL) joind us for training today, as William Trubridge (NZL) took another day off. We had a relaxed long training session al together. 80 meters was my target, which were uneventful.

Well the weather got even worse. On top of the strong winds and dark clouds, it is now raining most of the day. All the other athletes took this as a good reason for a day off from training. After all, the conditions at the Blue Hole were anything but inviting. The visibility was down to 3 meters and it was COLD! However my training plan does not consider any “days off”. Rob was selflessly offering his assistance to safety me during my training. It was a rather quick session as we both wanted to get out of the water ASAP. After a short warm-up, to avoid too much freezing I completed a successful target dive to 70 meters.