Always, for me. Some wouldn’t bother.
Where did you solo dive today?
- Thread starter shoredivr
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
Today’s dive on the Cunard liner Alaunia, sunk by a mine in 1916 was interesting and enjoyable, but definitely not for everyone. She’s a large ship, 158m/520ft long and 13,500 tons lying in 35m/115ft of the tidal English Channel south of Eastbourne.
The challenge with diving this time of year is the poor visibility caused by the spring algal bloom, aka “The May rot” which is particularly strong this year. The visibility isn't cloudy, it's clear but full of clumps of algal matter. If you look past the snot, you can see a couple of metres (6ft) with a torch if you hold it to the side otherwise the backscatter is a bit annoying.
I jumped in first off the boat with the current still running. Had to go hand over hand down the shot line through the murky water. Had a bit of a tussle with my umbilical torch which had caught itself on my chest D-ring. Needing both hands for the shot, I continued down into the dark which was pitch black when I felt the grapnel. Freed off the light and saw it was pretty poor visibility around 1m/3ft. Another braille dive.
Settling down, checking the kit, checking for bubbles and bungeeing back the two bailout cylinders, I set out along the underside of the hull to get out of the way of the other divers who would be dropping in shortly. Came across some damage and ascended to more twisted metal. It’s hard to make out the bigger picture when the visibility is low, but there was plenty to keep me amused with lots of life in all the nooks and crannies. The spider crabs most definitely out en masse, along with the usual variety of crustaceans, congers and other fish.
Being a shallowish dive, spent 80 minutes on the wreck and 40 minutes of decompression. Last up to the boat too.
Am loving the new BZ400 heated undersuit. The sea is 11 degrees C now (51F) and that undersuit meant I could easily have dived for much longer. Also happy with the Santi 11mm hood. Definitely warmer.
Not sure if that dive would be everybody’s cup of tea given the visibility and black overhead-like conditions. Didn’t meet a single other diver on that wreck during that dive.
Being solo made that dive far more pleasurable because there’s nobody else to consider nor watch over. I’m more than happy to mooch around playing with the crabs and trying to guess what bit of metal I’m looking at.
Good start to the diving year.
The challenge with diving this time of year is the poor visibility caused by the spring algal bloom, aka “The May rot” which is particularly strong this year. The visibility isn't cloudy, it's clear but full of clumps of algal matter. If you look past the snot, you can see a couple of metres (6ft) with a torch if you hold it to the side otherwise the backscatter is a bit annoying.
I jumped in first off the boat with the current still running. Had to go hand over hand down the shot line through the murky water. Had a bit of a tussle with my umbilical torch which had caught itself on my chest D-ring. Needing both hands for the shot, I continued down into the dark which was pitch black when I felt the grapnel. Freed off the light and saw it was pretty poor visibility around 1m/3ft. Another braille dive.
Settling down, checking the kit, checking for bubbles and bungeeing back the two bailout cylinders, I set out along the underside of the hull to get out of the way of the other divers who would be dropping in shortly. Came across some damage and ascended to more twisted metal. It’s hard to make out the bigger picture when the visibility is low, but there was plenty to keep me amused with lots of life in all the nooks and crannies. The spider crabs most definitely out en masse, along with the usual variety of crustaceans, congers and other fish.
Being a shallowish dive, spent 80 minutes on the wreck and 40 minutes of decompression. Last up to the boat too.
Am loving the new BZ400 heated undersuit. The sea is 11 degrees C now (51F) and that undersuit meant I could easily have dived for much longer. Also happy with the Santi 11mm hood. Definitely warmer.
Not sure if that dive would be everybody’s cup of tea given the visibility and black overhead-like conditions. Didn’t meet a single other diver on that wreck during that dive.
Being solo made that dive far more pleasurable because there’s nobody else to consider nor watch over. I’m more than happy to mooch around playing with the crabs and trying to guess what bit of metal I’m looking at.
Good start to the diving year.
Saturday - first local quarry dive of the season. First time on my newish rebreather since December (finished training in early Oct). Had a nice one hour dive working on knocking the rust off. 49F water. 5ft viz.
Cthippo
Contributor
Wildcat Cove, Larrabee State Park.
This day was something of a... well, lets say a challenge. I was loading my gear this morning when we popped an aid call, so that pushed everything back. High tide was 1500 and the plan was to splash then, but,,,life and so we got out there at 1600...
And discovered I didn't have a wetsuit with me.
Turn around, go home, get wetsuit, come back, now 1730ish getting in the water. I was out with one of my partners who just bought snorkeling gear, so I was diving while she was snorkeling and sort of following my bubbles. We started out snorkeling in 4-5 feet of water near the boat launch out to the first rock, then I swam out to the second one and descended. In the process of clearing my ears I dislodged by own reg and had a bit of a faff about trying to find it and shove it back in my pie hole, during which time I rather abruptly landed on the bottom at about 15 feet. Once I got myself sorted out I set off on a compass bearing for a wreck that I have hit with the drop cam previously, but vis was about 18 inches and I never found anything but muck and sea lettuce. I turned back at about 1300 PSI and tried to follow a reciprocal bearing, but got it a little wrong and so when I finally surfaced I was outside the bay and probably 50 yards down the shore. And then my leg decided to cramp. Whatever, life sucks, keep going. Came back around the point, collected my partner, swam to shore, and mostly walked back to the launch. Out of the water at 1930.
Lessons learned?
I can get away with the 3/2mm wetsuit in the bay, but it's not the most pleasant experience
First time trying the Mares fins I bought last year. I think I think I like them more than my Atomics
Just because the vis is crap doesn't mean the dive is pointless. We actually saw a fair bit of cool stuff, just very close up.
Long surface swims suck. Probably better to bring the boat, even if I plan to shore dive. I can pull it up on the beach and go from there
With the crappy vis in the bay, I need to locate the wreck with sonar and then either dive off the boat or swim out to it.
Despite my best efforts I managed to keep not dying, so I guess I need to try again next time
Probably 35 minutes actual dive time, plus a lot of snorkeling
Main tank was 2280 PSI start and 550 finish (I used it a lot on the surface swim back)
Pony 3000 PSI start and finish
Max depth 22 feet
This day was something of a... well, lets say a challenge. I was loading my gear this morning when we popped an aid call, so that pushed everything back. High tide was 1500 and the plan was to splash then, but,,,life and so we got out there at 1600...
And discovered I didn't have a wetsuit with me.
Turn around, go home, get wetsuit, come back, now 1730ish getting in the water. I was out with one of my partners who just bought snorkeling gear, so I was diving while she was snorkeling and sort of following my bubbles. We started out snorkeling in 4-5 feet of water near the boat launch out to the first rock, then I swam out to the second one and descended. In the process of clearing my ears I dislodged by own reg and had a bit of a faff about trying to find it and shove it back in my pie hole, during which time I rather abruptly landed on the bottom at about 15 feet. Once I got myself sorted out I set off on a compass bearing for a wreck that I have hit with the drop cam previously, but vis was about 18 inches and I never found anything but muck and sea lettuce. I turned back at about 1300 PSI and tried to follow a reciprocal bearing, but got it a little wrong and so when I finally surfaced I was outside the bay and probably 50 yards down the shore. And then my leg decided to cramp. Whatever, life sucks, keep going. Came back around the point, collected my partner, swam to shore, and mostly walked back to the launch. Out of the water at 1930.
Lessons learned?
I can get away with the 3/2mm wetsuit in the bay, but it's not the most pleasant experience
First time trying the Mares fins I bought last year. I think I think I like them more than my Atomics
Just because the vis is crap doesn't mean the dive is pointless. We actually saw a fair bit of cool stuff, just very close up.
Long surface swims suck. Probably better to bring the boat, even if I plan to shore dive. I can pull it up on the beach and go from there
With the crappy vis in the bay, I need to locate the wreck with sonar and then either dive off the boat or swim out to it.
Despite my best efforts I managed to keep not dying, so I guess I need to try again next time
Probably 35 minutes actual dive time, plus a lot of snorkeling
Main tank was 2280 PSI start and 550 finish (I used it a lot on the surface swim back)
Pony 3000 PSI start and finish
Max depth 22 feet
Cthippo
Contributor
Boulevard Park, Bellingham Bay
I was playing another game of "Wreck or Rock", trying to confirm if a mark on the bathymetry data is in fact a thing or not. This seems like it should be so easy and it keeps being so not easy. Visibility was horrible, 18 inches at best. There were times my sling mounted pony bottle was dragging in mud I couldn't see, and times when I could't read my computer.
Coming back was when the fun started. I used a 10lb cannonball weight on a 10 meter line to anchor the flag buoy, and bring that back with me was all kinds of challenging. An extra 10 lbs of lead made surfacing and swimming trickier, and I managed to get tangled up in the line, then lose a fin in the 100 feet from the dive site to the shore. Even then, it was another 600' of crawling along riprap in the water to get back to the beach carrying this stupid ball and dragging a flag.
Don't get me wrong, I am still enjoying my dives, but I also realize I am pushing further with what I am trying to accomplish on each dive and possibly biting off more than I can easily chew. This is the struggle portion of the learning process, and I am riding that struggle bus hard at times. I probably need to find a (relatively) clear water fun dive net week and get a win in while I work on putting the boat in service.
20-25 minutes
Main tank start 2200, end 1150
Pony 3000/3000
Max depth 22 feet.
I was playing another game of "Wreck or Rock", trying to confirm if a mark on the bathymetry data is in fact a thing or not. This seems like it should be so easy and it keeps being so not easy. Visibility was horrible, 18 inches at best. There were times my sling mounted pony bottle was dragging in mud I couldn't see, and times when I could't read my computer.
Coming back was when the fun started. I used a 10lb cannonball weight on a 10 meter line to anchor the flag buoy, and bring that back with me was all kinds of challenging. An extra 10 lbs of lead made surfacing and swimming trickier, and I managed to get tangled up in the line, then lose a fin in the 100 feet from the dive site to the shore. Even then, it was another 600' of crawling along riprap in the water to get back to the beach carrying this stupid ball and dragging a flag.
Don't get me wrong, I am still enjoying my dives, but I also realize I am pushing further with what I am trying to accomplish on each dive and possibly biting off more than I can easily chew. This is the struggle portion of the learning process, and I am riding that struggle bus hard at times. I probably need to find a (relatively) clear water fun dive net week and get a win in while I work on putting the boat in service.
20-25 minutes
Main tank start 2200, end 1150
Pony 3000/3000
Max depth 22 feet.
Boarderguy
Chief Narctopus Wrangler
Did a nice dive to the old water intakes in Lake Zurich, Switzerland.
Similar threads
