Hi Hugh
So sorry to hear of your delayed op. I had two ops last year .One in Spain and one in the UK. The first was an emergency but waiting for the second one here in the UK ( 3 months) was awful .
Learning to scuba dive at 66 yrs is awesome ! Well done . Life in the old dog yet
When I was a young engineer in the late sixties , one of the guys I was working with , was an ex British Royal Navy Frogman. He had served with Lionel "Buster" Crabb , just before Buster was recruited by MI6 to dive in Portsmouth Harbour and investigate the propeller of the Soviet Cruiser "Ordzhonikdze" . If you rember ,the ship carried Nikita Krushev & Nikolai Buganin to a conference in the UK.
Buster disappeared . A headless, handless body was found about 16 months later which was said to be his body ( no DNA then
This guy I worked with lent me the American Navy divers manual . A whole section was about "shark attacks" .Where, when why etc.
Time of day ,water temperature etc.
It must have effected me reading all these accounts because whenever I swam in the sea in places like Florida , west indies , far east etc. I was very nervous. So , swim with the sharks ....no thanks .... I'll have a glass of red wine and relax on the sunbed and watch the "beautiful people" stroll by !