2 days down - 2 days to go ........

[Pyromaniac]

Just off out to join the boat for day 1 of the open water dives, thanks for the support folks and good luck to all those others starting today. Going down on the Dredger just outside of the harbour today, 10m unaffected by currents and sand bottom for us bouyancy challenged

 

[Pyromaniac]

Well, now its 3 days down and 1 to go, I wont get too excited just yet though until I have finished.

We dived the Dredger today, in the morning we descended in pairs, intructor leading with one pair and me descending next with the DM, spooky ! vis was around 3 - 4 metres, sea temp was 17 degrees, of course we dont have our bouyancy dialled in just yet, but managed to gently come to the bottom and not embed ourselves into it ! The bottom was at 10 metres.

This mornings dive was nothing too demanding, basically getting us used to the ocean and not the pool, (we did our bouyancy checks before the descent by the way) we did partially flooded mask clearing, my favourite subject - I cannot for the life of me partially flood my mask, particularly wearing gloves, for me its all or nothing if trying to flood it myself !! so I had to try a couple of times, but got there eventually. Fin pivots, all of this went well. This was pretty much it for dive 1 of the OW dives, the rest of the time was spent finning around in our buddy pairs ( me being buddied with the DM ) and of course we all got introduced to the concept of stirred up bottoms and silting, it was fun though, lots or Wrasse around, and Spider crabs galore.

One thing I couldnt get my head around at first was finning along fine - then suddenly I would be rising - or falling, so of course I adjusted my wing to compensate, what a numbskull - the bottom of the sea is not a pool, it goes up and down ............ no wonder I would suddenly be heading for the seabed or the surface after wrecking my fin pivot bouyancy ! too busy thinking newbie thoughts, it wasnt until the DM told me what was going on that I realised my disorientation.

Talking of DM - he had an LP hose failure during this dive, it was the hose to his drysuit (we were all wet) and it parted company with the connector at the suit end, the fitting on the hose just about came off completely. So we both did an impromptu surface to replace the hose and then went back down. As to surfacing I am quite proud of myself today, every ascent (including with the DM and his burst hose) I managed to come up really slow, finning gently from the bottom and venting the wing as we neared the surface to keep it that way. We did have the shot line for visual reference though.

2nd dive was the same wreck, same temp' and near enough the same depth, this time round we got through bouyancy checks again before descending, descending the shot line but not touching it, more fin pivots, and OOA / Alternate air sharing, the OOA and alternate air we did with the instructor watching of course, but when that excercise was complete we did it again - signalling OOA to the instructor, who then shared air with us, and so linked together with the instructor we then ascended the shot line as an alternate air ascent. This was quite good fun, we managed to get hung up on the shot line, the Instructors primary hose (reg in my mougth) getting fouled, but as we were not rocketing to the surface I managed to keep the reg in place and she freed it in a few seconds. Big OK's on the surface for that one - then she went back down for the next one, leaving me on a safety line running out the back of the boat.

When we all got back up we hung off of the boat for a minute or 2 - so everyone could relax and then we did the surface skills - cramp removal, tired diver tows using 2 methods, and switching from reg to snorkel on the surface while swimming between two bouys. Then it was back into the boat and back we went, end of day two.

I cant remember what my air use was yesterday as my logbook is in the classroom, but this morning I started with 220 bar, dive time was 34 minutes and I ended with 90 bar.

The 2nd dive this afternoon, I started with 220 bar, dive time was 47 minutes and I ended with a hair over 100 bar.

Tomorrow to go, fingers crossed it will be ok, Dredger in the morning, in the afternoon we go down on the Countess of Erne

Countess of Erne Depth 10–14m. Small wreck lying upright, easy to navigate around but can get silty. Dive at any time

Details on Portland Harbour dive sites here..............

http://www.cgsac.supanet.com/weymouth.htm

 

[Jon-boi]

Hey - glad its going well for you. Sounds like you had a budle of fun today!
So tomorrow is the last of the check out dives....have you started looking at the next club dive in your area...?

Best of luck tomorrow!

 

[Pyromaniac]

Certainly have ............ we get discounted membership here...

http://www.mdd-uk.com/index.html?reload

 

[Quero]

Am enjoying your journal here, Pyromaniac. I found it very interesting that you had a claustrophobic reaction to the black mask skirt. I had heard that happens to some people, and your description of the anxiety you had until you switched is enlightening. What did you learn about your finning, by the way?

 

[ScubaStarwatcher]

Hey Pyro, thanks for putting together a great account.

I'm doing my last confined water dive this week and then heading for open water, so appreciate good and honest reports like yours. Nice one.

Cheers,

Mark

 

[Pyromaniac]

Well - a little late - meant to post this yesterday but was away last night after the final OW dive. Very sad end to the day as I now have the pleasure of doing this all again but well out of pocket - I passed................



To recount the day, in the morning we had planned to dive on the Countess of Erne, but due to the fact there was technical training going on down there and it was quite silty we headed back over to the Dredger so we did not interfere with each others training. the mornings dive lasted 48 minutes for me, we did a lot of the dive as a buddy team of 3 - with the Instructor and DM 'hovering' nearby to keep an eye on us, we chose to do this line abreast with the leader in the centre. Descent was as the buddy team, all keeping together and following the shot line down only holding it if we had to ie if any one of us had ear issues, then we would all stop and ascend together or whatever until it was resolved. We had no such issues and all touched down gently on the bottom (we were asked to touch down as we had skills to do) after touching down we did fin pivots by oral inflation of the wing, then each in turn demonstrated hovering at a 6m depth, which was surprisingly easy after the shallow pool attempts. This was followed by partial mask flooding and clearing. I found it very hard this time to stay on the bottom after dumping all air from the wing, and every breath lifted me up until I exhaled, so for the skill sessions I was given extra weight just to keep me there while the instructor could watch me do the skill.
This was followed by underwater navigation away from the wreck and back to it using kick cycles to count off the distance out and back, quite hard I thought but practice will make it better. We then did a 3 man buddy team tour of the wreck following the DM and with the Instructor hovering over us to monitor how we did as a team, this went off with no problems at all, we then ascended as our team using the shot line for reference only. End of the mornings dive. 45 minutes long, depth 9m,water temp 17 C and surface temp 31 !! starting pressure 220bar ending pressure 70bar.
During lunch we took down our gear and got new tanks, we used Nitrox (32%) for the afternoons dives and analysed our own tanks. This was not a Nitrox course, but just for us to try it out, we dived using the air tables.

Afternoons dive, again on the Dredger, we descended as our buddy team again, and formed up on the bottom, this time we first of all took turns to do CESA's with the instructor following us up, this went off fine, so easy compared to trying it in the pool! we did this ascent from 8m and then waited on the shot line at the surface until we were all back up, then descended again. Now we did mask removal and replace, what a game that was for me, my hood had filled with air, and upon removing the mask the strap got caught in the hood and pulled the hood off, not such a huge problem in itself, but I managed to get my hood on with my eyes shut (seawater is blinding for me - very sensitive eyes) and I then signalled hold for maybe 20 seconds while I got myself together again, still blind at this point, I signalled ok and put on my mask, pulled the strap down and cleared it, it refilled, I cleared it, it refilled partially, I cleared it again, every time I cleared it the mask would re fill. I started to get frustrated at this point as I couldnt figure out what was wrong with my eys shut, and by feel everything seemed ok, you probably wonder where the instructor was at this time - she was about 6" away from my face staring at me the whole time waiting for a panic to start. I did snort a load of water at one point and felt her hold my harness which was reassuring, but I coughed it out of the reg. Eventually she took pity on me, and when I managed to get a partially cleared mask she signed to remove it again, it was taken off me and I got her spare in return, this cleared fine and fit ok for the rest of the dive. We found the skirt on mine had split along one side somehow when it caught up in my hood and I pulled it away. I passed this skill - must have been clearing non stop for several minutes !

We carried on to do another buddy team tour of the wreck, lots of Spider crabs and Wrasse again, and then ascended as a team of 3. This time we did have to go back down and up a few feet due to one member having a small reverse block, but we stuck together until it cleared and we were all ok at the surface. Before our ascent (which was for 'fun' not as a skill,) we each recieved our badges underwater and lined up for a photo down there, I dont have this yet it will be emailed to me, so we were very happy when we got to the surface.

We should have taken more time on the way up - my log for this dive was 10m 17C temperature, bottom time 59 minutes............................. Starting pressure 220bar ending pressure 80bar.

Underwater Explorers shop

Me with Nina the instructor after our last dive and back onboard knowing we all passed. The 2 seated were my buddies also on the course.

 

[Pyromaniac]

Dont know how to get my pics smaller - sorry !!

 

[victor]

:wave-smil
Congratulations from here on in it just gets better and better.
Well done on the flooding mask, calm and steady is the way to go.

 

[ScubaStarwatcher]

Yet another good account.

Congrats on passing your course and handling the tricky bits so well. The only way now is down

Cheers,

Mark