Funny incident at stony cove on dolphin

[christmas tree]

Was diving in stony cove Saturday for anyone that does not know what stony cove is like after lunch time on a bank holiday weekend I will describe it to you:
Water was a nice 10`C in the old quarry but Vis is down to about 1 meter because of the hundreds of open water students kicking up all the silt I am diving a dolphin semiclosed my buddy was on OC After a hour or so of messing about finding all the junk they have sunk for our entertainment, my buddy and I were doing a safety stop at 5M I was watching a crayfish in a secluded weedy area that most student don’t go anywhere near as it’s a bit of a swim, but vis is a bit better my buddy was a few meters away in front of me bothering another small crustation
I was then aware that a large party of open water students were passing close by (mainly by the large array of fish swimming in the opposite direction and the sudden drop in Vis). Next thing I knew it someone was trying to pull my mouth piece and teeth out with it, at the same time an octopus was thrust into my face
The culprit had mistaken me for one of her student that was not moving or breathing just hanging motionless about 50cm from the bottom, the look of horror on her face as she realized that not only was I breathing and not a demised student of hers, but also she I was on a rebreather and more than a little pissed off to have a mouth full of water. After some hand gestures and a note on my slate she stopped her rescue attempt, and went on her way herding her flock of what looked like sick goldfish behind her, on her mask strap was proudly printed “instructor”

I somehow managed to keep the mouthpiece in through out the struggle however got a good mouthful of water
I was at the spit or swallow point, tried to swallow but my body’s reaction to the fluid was to get it out as fast as possible into the loop – my next few breaths were tentative had a bit of gurgling did a tilt to the side and the gurgling went away
By then the mood had gone and could still taste sick so aborted the dive


The risk was low as I had no deco and was in shallow water, I plenty of bailout gas but did not need to bail out
I cant blame the instructor to much it was low Vis diving and must have given her a fright to see a diver hanging motionless with no bubbles coming from mouth my vented gas could be mistaken for the last few bubbles coming out of a cylinder after a 1st stage was ripped off

What I would have done differently –

As soon as I had tasted the water should have closed the loop and switched to OC and not tried to swallow

Maybe I need a sign on the top and back of my mask “semi closed rebreather not many bubbles”