Cave DPV Day 2
Today was even worse. We started the day off with a scoot up and down the run, just to see how I like the stage, it felt fine, so we switched over to it. The plan was to enter the cave at the Ear, run to the insulation room do that circuit, then do drills on the way back.
Well the stage rode fine so we switched over to the stage, and scoot over to the ear. I get to the ear and I see a line run from the buoy to the chain. It was run right straight, not to the ground. The lady at EE suggested that perhaps it might have come loose, but it was pretty taut. I drop down to the log to take a closer look and thought "I think I can make it".
Narrator: "He did not make it" I get caught in the line in the worst area of the cave. I tried to get loose, but that didn't work, I use the scooter to pull myself into an area with less flow, but that didn't help. So I sort of turn myself around, and signaled Chris, he cut the line. I tried to turn around, but that wasn't happening. So I work my way out, and get stabilized. I looked around and saw he entered the cave, so I zoomed down and entered, even with a scooter it was surprisingly difficult.
The gallery through the lips could be better, but it wasn't as bad as yesterday. We get though the Keyhole, which felt more natural than yesterday. But on the other side I encountered another team, and was a bit too much in a hurry thinking that he was behind me sooner, and signaled if he was ok. Chris very clearly told me to slow down.
Around the Maple Leaf I hit my drop pressure on my stage due to all the screwing around in the ear. He didn't like my original drop point and pointed me toward so better rocks, and during the debrief I found that apparently on DPVs he seems to be more keen on further apart drop points than I would be used to swimming.
After this went ok, until my BT started just dying giving a number 1 and one or two bars. After this happened three times I turned the dive, and we nursed the scooter home. From the Keyhole to the deco spot was a struggle managing the stage, scooter, and eventually the deco bottle as well.
Getting out of the water I opened my BT up, and found water, pouring up at least a cup. I decided that I would just rent a baby Suex for the final two days of the class. We also decided to do day three slick, so I can get trigger time on just managing just the scooter and deco bottle. We may reintroduce a stage bottle on day four.
Also if you are going to wear your base layer shirt to the dive site, remember to bring a back up shirt.