Scenario Description: Four friends decide to go scuba diving together one Saturday in the Cayman Islands just south of Cuba. All four are open-water divers certified to go down to 130 feet (40 meters). They have just arrived at the beach where their dive boat is preparing to leave. Scuba is an acronym (SCUBA) that stands for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. (You may watch a video at https://www.padi.com/padi-courses/open-water-diver )
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| Role | Dialog |
| Narrator | Four friends decide to go scuba diving together one Saturday in the Cayman Islands just south of Cuba. All four are open-water divers certified to go down to 130 feet (40 meters). They have just arrived at the beach where their dive boat is preparing to leave. Scuba is an acronym (SCUBA) that stands for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. (You may watch a video at https://www.padi.com/padi-courses/open-water-diver ) |
| Jean | Here’s our boat. Let’s get our equipment loaded on. |
| Kyle | Sounds good. |
| Lily | (Jumps up on the boat deck) Everyone, hand your gear to me and I’ll stow it under this bench. |
| Mike | Here’s mine. |
| Guide | Welcome aboard, everyone! It looks like we’re all here now. Stow your gear. We’ll be getting underway shortly. I’ll brief you on our dive once we’re underway. |
| Narrator | The pilot guns the engines in reverse, and the boat backs off the beach. Once the boat is far enough away from the shore, the pilot turns the boat around and begins heading seaward. |
| Jean | What a beautiful day for diving! Look at those blue skies. |
| Kyle | Yep, perfect diving weather. We’d better put on our sunscreen though. We’ll be out here for several hours and there’s no shade on this boat. |
| Lily | There’s a nice sea breeze blowing, at least as long as the boat’s moving at a nice speed. |
| Mike | This’ll be the first time I’ve dived in a year. I hope my diving skills aren’t too rusty. |
| Guide | Okay, folks, if I could have your attention for a minute. For this morning’s dive, we’ll be heading out to a dive site called the Christ of the Abyss. It’s a miniature replica of the Christ the Redeemer statue located on a mountain overlooking Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, except that this one’s underwater. The underwater area has low current and a clear sandy bottom. There are several beautiful coral reef formations down there, so feel free to look but don’t touch. The reefs are very fragile and just touching them can cause them to begin dying. |
| Mike | Sir, what’s the maximum depth and how long will we be able to stay down? |
| Guide | The maximum depth is about 75 feet, so you’ll have about 45 minutes of bottom time. Please watch your time and be ready to ascend up the mooring line at the stern of the boat at the proper time. |
| Narrator | Soon the boat slows, the crew tie the boat’s stern rope to a mooring buoy, and the engine dies. |
| Guide | Okay, folks, the dive site is just off the starboard bow. Buddy up with a partner and dive in when ready. We’ll be waiting here for your return. Remember, you have a maximum of 45 minutes on the bottom at this depth. You will ascend up the mooring buoy line at the stern of the boat to get back on board. Any questions? (There were no questions.) Okay, have fun! |
| Jean | Kyle, you and I will pair off, and, Lily, you and Mike will be dive buddies. If no one has any objections, I’ll lead and everyone follow at your own pace, but stay within sight distance of each other. (Kyle, Lily, and Mike all nod their heads.) |
| Jean | Okay, here we go. |
| Narrator | Jean puts her regulator in her mouth, pulls her mask down over her face, holds the regulator with one hand and her mask with the other hand, and jumps into the water feet first. Splash! The other three do the same. Splash, splash, splash! Once all four of them are hovering vertically and comfortably about 20 feet underwater and looking around, Jean motions them to follow her. |
| Jean | (talking to herself) There’s the Christ of the Abyss statue about 30 feet down and to the right…swimming downward towards it…stop 10 feet away, pull out underwater camera, snap a few shots. |
| Narrator | Kyle, Lily, and Mike all swim over in front of the statue and turn around to pose for a picture. Jean snaps a few pictures of them with the statue in the background. Then they proceed to follow Jean as she gracefully swims a few feet above the bottom just over the top of the colorful coral formations. |
| Jean | (talking to herself) Look at that beautiful coral. I see some brain coral, staghorn coral, some barrel sponges, and some reef fish. |
| Kyle | (identifying some of the fish to himself) Wow! Look at all those colorful fish! Queen Angelfish, Rock Beauty, French Angelfish, Four-eyed Butterflyfish, Blue Tang, Banded Butterflyfish Scrawled Cowfish, Porkfish, Clownfish. |
| Narrator | Jean glances at her waterproof watch, notices that their bottom time has almost expired, and motions for everyone to follow her back to the boat. Kyle, Mike, and Lily follow Jean back to the mooring line underneath the boat. They slowly ascend upwards until their depth gauges read about 20 feet deep, then they hover there and wait for five minutes for the nitrogen gas in their bloodstreams to diffuse out of their lungs. Then they proceed up to the surface and climb out of the water and up onto the diving platform at the stern of the boat. |
| Mike | Wow, that was cool! There were so many colorful fish on this reef! Did anyone see a barracuda or a shark? (everyone shook their heads) |
| Lily | I saw a moray eel peeking out of a hole in the coral! Eww! Creepy-looking. |
| Narrator | They hear the engines roar to life as the boat begins its trek back to shore. |
