It’s never too late to learn.

MKSAC Newsletter June 2000

This article relates to a couple of dives the Club performed in late April. For those who don’t know me, I am an Advanced Diver, Advanced Instructor with a certain "been there, done that, got the T-shirt" attitude. I have nearly nine hundred dives in my logbook and, on being offered a long weekend diving out of Weymouth thought "why not, should be fun, what can go wrong?" Still, it’s never too late to learn….

The first dive went according to plan. Buddy check, off the boat and down to the wreck 32 metres below. Wonderful dive, saw the mast, looked through the bridge windows, found the name on the stern and so on. Failed to find the shot (as usual) so deployed delayed SMB, ascended and got back on the boat. Time for a cup of coffee, lunch and some ZZZ’s.

The second dive was a drift dive. The skipper asked (unusually for me, but see the morals below) that we descend with an SMB rather than send a delayed up from the bottom. "Well I thought, I’ve not done it like this before but I’m sure we’ll cope". Then another member asked me if I had any spare weight. All that I had was my ankle weights that I wear in the sea but not in fresh water. Again, "I should be able to cope" and off we go.

Into the sea, inflate the SMB, descend, SMB deflates. Ascend, re-inflate, descend, same thing happens. Eventually descend to 3 metres, send the SMB up and continue with dive. Far too buoyant and current much stronger than expected. Do not enjoy next half hour despite seeing 14 inch shell (explosive variety), Gurnard walking across sea bed and lot’s of Scallops. Find it difficult with SMB to return to anything interesting against current. As cylinder gets lighter, squeeze rest of air out of suit thereby getting cold, wet and bruised. At one point, octopus catches on bit of wreckage and is almost torn off before buddy pulls me back against drift. Eventually signal to buddy to surface (to her disgust).

Morals

	Never mind what the makers say, a delayed SMB is not easy to deploy from the surface. It delayed our descent and, by using the octopus on the surface, nearly finished my weekends diving. I’m going to buy a proper SMB to keep in the dive bag (the same reel will do). (The skipper explained that he had had previous experience of divers going to the bottom and failing to deploy the SMB properly. He then has to try and follow bubbles for forty minutes. See the next dive)
	No matter what grade of diver you are, you can’t beat the laws of physics. If you need a certain amount of weight then that’s what you need. Being selfish and hiding spare weight in your kit bag is one thing. Giving away weight that you need and spoiling your own dive is another.
	There is no such thing as "nearly" a drift dive. Either it is or it isn’t. If the current is that strong, stick together and watch the scenery go by. You can’t stop and ferret about!
	On all dives, but particularly on wreck or drift (or both!), keep yourself tidy with no kit hanging loose. The trailing hose that in the Bluey is a bit of a joke could have lost my octopus, followed by all my air.

Enough of the lecture. Back to shore, a quick shower and a night on the town. Fish and chips, two pints of Pedigree and bed by eleven o’clock. Ready for the first dive of Sunday which was the Salsette.

Those who know the Salsette know that it is a pretty deep and serious dive (42 metres or so). As we were diving in a threesome, I give my (less experienced) buddies a more through briefing than usual. Included in this was "if an doubt abandon the dive" and "Plan the dive, dive the plan", both of which I always stress when giving the adventurous deep diving lecture. In view of the depth and the probable need for deco-stops I also insisted on no more than ten minutes deco (we were all on computers) on the shot line or five if we were on the delayed SMB.

Went down the shot line, beautiful dive. Swam across the wreck at 41 metres, capstans, deck fittings and the remains of the wooden decking. After about four minutes swam past another shot which I made a mental note of. After six minutes ascend to the topside of the ship (about 37 metres) and turn round to swim back to the shot. Can’t find either of them. Spend more time than I should looking for them and finally indicate to buddy to get the delayed SMB out. By this time we already have three minutes of deco shown. Buddy struggles to get SMB out of my pocket. Feel panic start to set in. At last deploy SMB and start to ascend.

Not so bad I thought, it seemed like a long time to get moving but my computer still only says five minutes deco. Get to six metres, one of my buddies indicates her computer says twelve minutes. Look at her contents gauge (which had well over a hundred bar last time I looked), quick mental calculation, should just make it with fifty bar.

That twelve minutes at six metres with three of us on one SMB was the longest few minutes of my diving history. I seriously though of giving up diving at that point. Anyway, twelve minutes up, let’s get back on the boat. Two buddies smile and say, "That was brilliant".

Morals

	It’s no good telling everybody else the rules (especially as an Instructor) and then not sticking to them yourself. I should have given up looking for the shot earlier.
	That B*&%£#Y octopus was in the way again! We weren’t the only ones to have equipment problems, another pair on this dive deployed their SMB from 40 metres then met it coming down again at about 27 metres!
	Be very careful when planning dives with deco stops when you and your buddy are on different makes of computer. I have been caught with this before and should know better. (For the technically minded, some computers rely on a continuous slow ascent, others on a rapid initial ascent followed by a longer pause near the surface: Put the two together and the slow ascent for one computer means a much longer stop on the other).
	Confidence is infectious; so is panic and anxiety. Part of the reason for my buddies increased air consumption was them sensing that I was not happy.

After all that, we went ahead with the fourth dive (the last for me that weekend) and really enjoyed it. Ten or twelve dogfish, a playful pipefish and the largest and most colourful Cuttlefish I have ever seen.

Adrian