alaity47:
Hi all,
I'm making my first dive to the Yukon in a couple of weeks (non-penetration, just cruising around the outside). I'm a little nervous because I keep hearing words like "cold," "current," "swell," "surge," etc tossed around in reference to this dive! I've done fine on several difficult dives before, and I'm not worried about my abilities - it's just that I really like to know what I'm in for ahead of time (in as much detail as possible) if it's going to be a tough dive!
So, any advice for a Yukon newbie?
Do you dive Nitrox? Its a good place for that, if you do.
As usual, Kelper is on the money. A good light makes this dive much more enjoyable.
For me, its like this: This is the classic square profile dive... the boat dumps you at the top of a rope, you go down to essentially a fixed depth, you come back up.
I hate these profiles.
The best way to make this safer is to plan a long, slow ascent. It'll take some of the square out of it.
First time I went was with a group that had some newbies, and before I knew it I was getting turned around and sent back to the rope. We got a mighty 12 or 14 minutes on the thing. I was so hacked off.... I remember buddy and I getting back on the boat with, like 1700 in the can. People are all, "wasn't that great??!!" and I had to say, no, it sucked. It might have been great if I had some time on it and didn't get shut down by a bunch of hoovers. (I was pretty bitter about it... can you tell??!!)
My next few times on it, I planned my exit strategy by determining the gas I'll need to make a safe, slow ascent, added in back up for a buddy bail out and went and dove the rest. Had a wonderful time...
My point is this: first, be safe. BUT, remember, its an easy exit... up the rope and you're out. So PLAN for a safe, slow ascent, leave some emergency gas and USE THE REST. I don't know what your consumption rate is, your cylinder size, etc, etc, etc. But you do. So before you go, have more of a plan than "lets drop, look around, and come back..." Plan on how much gas you'll want to be back at the upline with, and then go dive the rest.
The thing is 338 feet or something like that... its not small. It gets deep. Its in the open, so its subject to surge, swell and all that open ocean stuff. It gets dark. But with all of that, its still an easy out... as there are uplines at both ends, and at your entry point, your boat is waiting. So plan your ascent pressure, and dive the rest.
My $.02
Enjoy!
K
PS: Remember, this isn't like the So Cal dive boats (where you get hang-out time on the way to Catalina, etc.) You board and you immediately dress, cuz you blink and you're on the wreck.
But it's only a two-tank dive, so I think I'll survive!
