1 May 2019 — Nearly three dozen rebreather aficionados made the biannual trek to Ponza, Italy—a picturesque island in the Tyrrhenian Sea about a three-hour journey from Rome—for the sixth International Rebreather Meeting organized by Andrea Donato, owner of Ponza Diving Center, and his partner, Daniela Spaziani.

Usually, when going to conferences, I would go the airport, jump on a plane, fly to some other country, go through customs and immigration, then hop in a taxi and check into some business hotel close to a conference or expo facility, usually placed in some nondescript business district some distance from a city centre and certainly not close to any water or diving. The next morning, I would then make my way to some conference centre where I would sit and listen to presentations all morning, have lunch and then listen to more presentations in the afternoon.

The tank landing ship (also called LST or Landing Ship, Tank) used by the United States during WWII, had a flat bottom, a length of about 97m and a width of around 15m. The LST 349 was launched in Virginia on 7 February 1943 and was built, based on a revision of a British model, for logistical support of military operations in the Second World War for embarking and disembarking troops, military vehicles and supplies on coastal landings without harbor docks or piers.