18 Aug 2007 - Whats the Latest!
As usuall y happens it all goes quiet over the Summer when everyone is off on Holiday. There has been some Diving done, Warren was out at Dunbar on Wednesday Evening and is Diving with some others this weekend with Marinequest out of Eyemouth. Have a look at my ramblings about our First Class Diver Prep weekend ....There are still spaces next Saturday 25th on the Flying Eagle out of Largs.
First Class Diver Prep Weekend 11-12 August 2007- Cumbrae.
Sue Mitchell South of Scotland Regional Coach,
Steve Anderson a National Instructor from the North East,
Warren and myself from SQSAC,
Paul Haynes from North of Scotland,
Gordon Mackie of Italia BSAC,
Wayne Murray from Martini Divers,
Ben Panter from E-Divers,
Richard Adair from Glasgow BSAC.
and on the Sunday, Dave taylor from the North East.
We met up on ta Wet Saturday Morning at Largs Marina, and loaded a sh*tload of kit onto the Flying Eagle, rebreathers twinsets, bags,buoys ropes weights and a deco trapeze! then we set off for the Beagle for the first 4 divers to Survey the wreck, after a bit of chartwork and some ropey driving we got there and found it was still shotted.
we established the Beagle lies bow North and Stern South and the size of the break in the hull and lots of other useful facts.
Next Dive was the Cuirassier which was found (thanks to the old lemonade bottle on the line left by an earlier FCD Exam) it was planned to put Paul on his Top Secret Stealth Rebreather , and Warren and I on our Inspirations in to locate the deepest part of the wreck at about 40m, followed by a pair of bubble blowers to locate the shallowest part of the wreck......Then it all went 'Pete Tong' Warren got to 9m and noticed his rebreather has switched off, so he bailed out leaving Paul and I to continue to 40m where we about turned in formation and promptly lost each other!.
After looking around I followed the seperation plan and headed back up the slope, at 35m ...I found a large bit of intact hull (by swimming into it), so sent up my DSMB....well I didnt... the bottle was empty so lots of cursing i headed up to 22m and sent it up...beep!..woops I realised i had missed a stop at 24m...and I had switched to low setpoint on the VR3, so with the missed stop, low setpoint and using a high helium mix i ended up with 17mins of stops....nice reef...saw a huge wrasse and a nice spotted dogfish...anyway finally back on the boat and off to the next dive.
This was to be the Barges below the Lighthouse but the wind had picked up and it was too rough, so we dived a nice site called Power Pole on the West Side of Little Cumbrae...nice reef and a wall lots of life...I dived with wayne and warren and my Rebreather was playing up, i lost power to one of the handsets and got low battery warning, but made it through the dive.
We dropped everyone at the WaterSports Centre and I headed back to Largs with Paul to bring across on the Ferry my other set of open circuit kit and rebreather spares, we got back just in time to get a plan together for the Sunday...this was to Locate, Survey and do a Marine Survey on and around the Barge Wreck at Skelmorlie Bank, and to also do Horizontal and Vertical Visibility throughout the day...a Tall Order!
After a Chinese Meal in Millport we headed back and then revised the Plan....finally finishing at about 23:30 when we finally staggered off to bed.
The Sunday Morning started off with a bit of sun which was nice when we were doing Dry Runs in the Carpark at 7am! after lots of playing with lines and tape measures and walking up and down we had breakfast had yet another Briefing and got all the kit on the boat on time, we had another briefing then left 20mins late...not good,
I navigated us up to the wreck perfectly with Paul on the wheel, once on site we pinged iy on the GPS an then a big oops! we shotted a 20m wreck with 50m of line...not great.
The the first Dive team secured the shot and started the Survey...for the rest of the day - apart from when we practiced dome Rescue Scenarios -we had divers in and out all day and almost made up the 20 mins lost earlier... up until another Long Dive Brief lost us the time again...
I had a real problem on my first dive when surveying a seabed of brittle stars...my Inspiration shut down with a double battery fail, so I flew it manaually and finished the dive...only to get a telling off by Steve the NI for kicking up the vis...if only he knew I was flying manually/!.
My last dive was to recover all lines and prepare the shot to be recovered, the Tide was running across the wreck, but after half inflating the Lift Bag I was confident they could get it back in the Boat......Wrong! they (no names!) got it stuck in the wreck...after lots of head scratching and the Skipper not at all happy, I pulled on my kit and jumped back in with Ben as a Buddy i sent up the weight launched DSMB (yes i had filled the air bottle) and was on the ascent 2 mins after leaving the surface!. After 3 mins of stops we were back on the Boat and heading back to Cumbrae to drop off Paul and Dave to collect their cars.
We humped Kit and pushed Trollies back and forward in the Marina till we had finally emptied the Boat, then had a de-brief in the Bar sitting in the Sun...that was nice!
I finally got home at about 8pm exhausted.
My Rebreather is working great after a battery Box adjustment and Fresh Batteries - Warrens is back to the Factory...again...so next stop the Exam in 2 weeks time!
Stevie
Sue Mitchell South of Scotland Regional Coach,
Steve Anderson a National Instructor from the North East,
Warren and myself from SQSAC,
Paul Haynes from North of Scotland,
Gordon Mackie of Italia BSAC,
Wayne Murray from Martini Divers,
Ben Panter from E-Divers,
Richard Adair from Glasgow BSAC.
and on the Sunday, Dave taylor from the North East.
We met up on ta Wet Saturday Morning at Largs Marina, and loaded a sh*tload of kit onto the Flying Eagle, rebreathers twinsets, bags,buoys ropes weights and a deco trapeze! then we set off for the Beagle for the first 4 divers to Survey the wreck, after a bit of chartwork and some ropey driving we got there and found it was still shotted.
we established the Beagle lies bow North and Stern South and the size of the break in the hull and lots of other useful facts.
Next Dive was the Cuirassier which was found (thanks to the old lemonade bottle on the line left by an earlier FCD Exam) it was planned to put Paul on his Top Secret Stealth Rebreather , and Warren and I on our Inspirations in to locate the deepest part of the wreck at about 40m, followed by a pair of bubble blowers to locate the shallowest part of the wreck......Then it all went 'Pete Tong' Warren got to 9m and noticed his rebreather has switched off, so he bailed out leaving Paul and I to continue to 40m where we about turned in formation and promptly lost each other!.
After looking around I followed the seperation plan and headed back up the slope, at 35m ...I found a large bit of intact hull (by swimming into it), so sent up my DSMB....well I didnt... the bottle was empty so lots of cursing i headed up to 22m and sent it up...beep!..woops I realised i had missed a stop at 24m...and I had switched to low setpoint on the VR3, so with the missed stop, low setpoint and using a high helium mix i ended up with 17mins of stops....nice reef...saw a huge wrasse and a nice spotted dogfish...anyway finally back on the boat and off to the next dive.
This was to be the Barges below the Lighthouse but the wind had picked up and it was too rough, so we dived a nice site called Power Pole on the West Side of Little Cumbrae...nice reef and a wall lots of life...I dived with wayne and warren and my Rebreather was playing up, i lost power to one of the handsets and got low battery warning, but made it through the dive.
We dropped everyone at the WaterSports Centre and I headed back to Largs with Paul to bring across on the Ferry my other set of open circuit kit and rebreather spares, we got back just in time to get a plan together for the Sunday...this was to Locate, Survey and do a Marine Survey on and around the Barge Wreck at Skelmorlie Bank, and to also do Horizontal and Vertical Visibility throughout the day...a Tall Order!
After a Chinese Meal in Millport we headed back and then revised the Plan....finally finishing at about 23:30 when we finally staggered off to bed.
The Sunday Morning started off with a bit of sun which was nice when we were doing Dry Runs in the Carpark at 7am! after lots of playing with lines and tape measures and walking up and down we had breakfast had yet another Briefing and got all the kit on the boat on time, we had another briefing then left 20mins late...not good,
I navigated us up to the wreck perfectly with Paul on the wheel, once on site we pinged iy on the GPS an then a big oops! we shotted a 20m wreck with 50m of line...not great.
The the first Dive team secured the shot and started the Survey...for the rest of the day - apart from when we practiced dome Rescue Scenarios -we had divers in and out all day and almost made up the 20 mins lost earlier... up until another Long Dive Brief lost us the time again...
I had a real problem on my first dive when surveying a seabed of brittle stars...my Inspiration shut down with a double battery fail, so I flew it manaually and finished the dive...only to get a telling off by Steve the NI for kicking up the vis...if only he knew I was flying manually/!.
My last dive was to recover all lines and prepare the shot to be recovered, the Tide was running across the wreck, but after half inflating the Lift Bag I was confident they could get it back in the Boat......Wrong! they (no names!) got it stuck in the wreck...after lots of head scratching and the Skipper not at all happy, I pulled on my kit and jumped back in with Ben as a Buddy i sent up the weight launched DSMB (yes i had filled the air bottle) and was on the ascent 2 mins after leaving the surface!. After 3 mins of stops we were back on the Boat and heading back to Cumbrae to drop off Paul and Dave to collect their cars.
We humped Kit and pushed Trollies back and forward in the Marina till we had finally emptied the Boat, then had a de-brief in the Bar sitting in the Sun...that was nice!
I finally got home at about 8pm exhausted.
My Rebreather is working great after a battery Box adjustment and Fresh Batteries - Warrens is back to the Factory...again...so next stop the Exam in 2 weeks time!
Stevie