:Gledder\’s diving blog…

Day 1 as cave divers! We had planned for some guided diving after the course finished - we had not planned on our guide being Chris! He was free and wanted to take the piss out of Fraser some more so would come with us for the next two days and show us some of his favourite caves.

Site 1 was Aktun Ho - the Puma Cave. We jumped in amongst snorklers and holiday makers who were somewhat surprised to see people in drysuits and doubles. First dive was upstream in to a very pretty cavern and cave - with huge rooms with tunnels you could have driven a car through. Thousands of pencil thin stalagtites like straws came down from the roof, it was awe inspiring.

Second dive we went downstream to Little Brother. Here the tunnel twisted up and down dramatically, narrowed down so that the flow was noticable for the first time this week. Thicker columns punctuated the cave so frequently in parts that it appeared like a cage.

Truly magical, flying above the halocline through dark passages, seeing the formations which have built up over thousands of years yet have not been seen by humans until recently. We negotiated a T in the mainline, each dropping a cookie to mark the exit. A second T was beyond our certification so we would have to turn the dive at this point, but as it was Al had problems with his ears so we thumbed it.

We set up kit on a second set of tanks and set off for Chack Mool. Diving in Chack Mool is all about Haloclines. We swam along between two separate levels, like swimming in a river. Chris pointed out a blind cave fish, white, sightless and seemingly alone. Dive 4 made me miss my scooter! Swimming through huge rooms, returning against the flow I was exhausted, but privileged to be there. ….. Just woken up - fell asleep writing this probably as a result of all that swimming!

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Day 5
We went to Taj Mahal today, for what would hopefully be our last day on the course.
I became a real cave diver at the moment I had to pee in the jungle, being careful not to fall down a shaft! 
Taj is a beautiful site, the breakdown area is very shallow - barely enough water to stride into.  S drills would be carried out from 12 meters distant, Valve drills would be carried out in 1 meter of water.  Doesn’t get much harder than this so we were chuffed to get it all spot on. 
First dive.  Chris pointed out that this was dive 13 - for those who were suspicous.   Al ran the reel in to the main line and we headed in past some beautiful formations. 
The halocline was very evident but beautiful nevertheless and the brown stalagtites hanging needle thin against the white limestone was awesome. 
18 minutes in my primary light failed.  No really - it actually did - not Chris this time!  But he soon turned this to his advantage.  One by one our lights failed, then Fraser had a right manifold failure which meant, shortly afterwards he ran out of gas.  Al donated and we continued our exit. 
By this time we were down to two back up lights, mine and Al’s, then Al lost his and I passed mine down the line to him so that, as tail diver he would be able to signal.  Then this last light went as well and we were in touch contact on the line.
We made good progress until Al had a erroneous right post failure and had to pass Fraser off to me before he could shut down.  It turned out Al had had a left post failure but as he still could not donate we continued our exit with Fraser on my gas.
We got to the exit, and lost masks, but to be honest we weren’t bothered - Al and Fraser deployed backup masks but I didn’t bother, we were at three meters so I linked arms with the boys and thumbed it.  We were out.
Chris professed that he was happy with our exit so invited us to change our sets and go back in to the cave for a ‘Graduation dive’. 
Fraser led in and we went for our longest penetration to date - upstream past the most beautiful formations yet.  The passage went up steeply as shallow as 1.5 meters and down again, with pencil thin formations and bright white rock which has been carved away by the salt water at the level of the halocline. 
We had travelled for 27 minutes when Fraser thumbed the dive.  We were all waiting for something to go wrong, but nothing did!
We cruised out of the cave as GUE Cave 1 divers subject to our final exam which, I’m pleased to say we did OK with too.
 

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Day 4 was back at Car Wash - but this time we were to be able to go past the sign we had stopped at on Saturday.
 
 A 7:30 start again, and land drills first for an hour.  Then diving!
Dive 1 was led by Al and we penetrated about 150 meters into the upstream section of the cave - taking the pathfinder reel to its end.  Fraser was unhappy with some of the tieoffs and called Al back a couple of times, the additional stress meant that gas limits were met early and the dive was called.  We experienced the usual light and valve failures on the way out - no problems. 
Chris spotted a small aligator sunning itself by the water, which certainly helped my speedy exit from the water!
Dive 2, the reel was already in place and we completed our longest penetration of the course so far, past the Chamber of Horrors and Luke’s Hope (another small cenote) and beyond to where the tunnel restricts.
On the way out, my manifold failed over a silt slope, just as my primary light went out.  I shut down my right post and isolated, switching to my back up.  Fraser swam in to check it out and we stabilised to ensure that we didn’t lose reference - but my manifold was unfixable and my right cylinder emptied completely. 
We reordered and started out again.  Al’s primary light failed and a few minutes later I ran out of gas.  I went to Al and he donated.  We stabilised and left the cave from about 150 meters - very smooth until we all lost our masks at the cave mouth - as fast as we deployed spare masks Chris stole them again until he had 5! I was the last to be able to see - through Fraser’s back up mask, so grabbed Al and Frase and guided them up.
Dive 3, I ran the reel, found the cave passage and tied off, as per instructions as we would do our lost line drill here.  One by one we were taken away from the line and had to search for it.  Al managed to find his own safety line which was both a surprise and disappointment to him but then found it, as did Fraser.  I was to go last and Chris took me off the line in darkness and dropped me on the cave floor. 
It was disconcerting but quite peaceful.  I secured my spool on a rock and started my search.  I soon found a handy secondary and feeling back was quite confident that I was running a true course. 
After a couple of minutes I started to become concerned that I hadn’t reached the line or a cave wall so must be travelling perpendicular to the line.  I was just about to retrace my steps when I found the line - I’m sure that Chris would have heard my exclamation of surprise!  I threw my cookie on the line and switched my light back on.  We exited the cave after what had been an 80 minute dive - most of which had been in darkness.
Back to Zero Gravity for lectures on emergency proceedures and navigation - and an 8pm finish - our earliest of the week.

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Day 3
 
 The day was to be at cenote X-tabay which was featured in the BBC Planet Earth series - and was accessed down a road which grounded our hire car.
Dive 1 was led by Al, we made it to the wizard’s den which is about 100 meters into the cave.  The halocline was very evident on this dive and viz deteriorated when we swam through it. 
We turned the dive and had all the usual failures, lights, valves and out of gas.
Dive 2.  Fraser led in and we got in a lot further than before.  We lost lights and valves as usual then when we were down to one backup light each Chris initiated the lost diver drill.  This went OK - Al did by far the best search but we all remembered the proceedures and were happy with the result.  The dive ended, as usual, with multiple valve failures and an air sharing exit.
Dive 3 - Chris then had us do an air sharing blind touch contact dive, in the cavern zone to practise what we would do later on for real.  It went OK. Al’s ears started playing up when we surfaced so while we waited I had to do a 15 meter out of air blind swim for donated gas - I was very pleased to reach Fraser and get gas from him!
Dive 4, I ran the reel in and we made it a long way in to the cave.  I reached a marker in the cave which was pointing towards a different exit.  As this would give misleading information in a blind/silt out situation I dropped a cookie on the exit side of the marker and signalled the team that the markers changed direction.  Al dropped a cookie as well but, at that point Fraser thumbed the dive on gas.
We picked up the cookies and exited.  We had multiple valve failures enroute and lost all lights.  The team then regrouped on the line and exited in touch contact.  It took twice as long as swimming in,  but only twice as long is not that bad actually - and we had gas to spare on exit.
Very pleased with how the day went - knackered.

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Day 2

 
The day started at 7:30 with the swim test in the cenote.  I’m not a strong swimmer and dreaded the test but this time other things would get in the way. 

The cenote is full of weed and is teeming with fish.  Whilst Al and Frase laughed that the fish were nibbling them, I hated it - hated the feeling of being touched under water and hated the leaves and other stuff on the surface as I was trying to swim. 

After about 150 yards I felt myself start to lose it.  All I could think of was get me out of here.  To be honest I don’t really know how I kept going - apart from sheer bloody mindedness, the 300 yard mark finally came up and I just kept going, climbed the ladder and got out as fast as I could.  I had made the time, way behind Al who put in another really fast time, and behind Frase who just took it in his standard laid back style.

Unfortunately I had to get back in for the breath hold swim - and standing on the rocks trying to calm myself I was again very unhappy about the bites on my legs (they didn’t hurt) and could not relax at all.  Needless to say I didn’t make the distance. Another try later this week.
We dried off with land drills - following the line blind solo, and then in a team - and finally when sharing gas.

Dive 1
Al ran the reel in to the downstream section of Ponda Rosa, Fraser went second and I followed on behind.  Al did a nice job of the line and we were soon on the mainline. 

The cave again has a halocline at about 11 meters.  Following Fraser who was swimming at the merging of the waters was very confusing - as salt and fresh water combined with each kick he did, the viz vanished, to come back again a meter or so later - only to vanish again.  Eachtime this happened the line became hard to reference so I got in contact with it for a while.

We were about 400ft back when my primary light failed (surprise, surprise!) and I deployed my first backup, thumbed the dive and made my way to the middle of the team, restowing my primary on the move. 
Al and Frase both lost primary lights, then lost backups too until they had only one light each. We exited without any real issues.

Chris declared himself content, picking up one or two areas where he considered we could improve - and we were asked to do it again, this time with Fraser leading.
Dive 2
The dive start was smooth, the route taken was the same and I could feel some sense of familiarity with the cave start to develop.  20 minutes in my light fails again, then we have successive failures until Al then went out of gas.  I lead us out of the cave with him on Fraser’s long hose.  All smooth, no big issues, improvement in the areas Chris asked us to consider - and more things to think about on the next dive.

Dive 3 was a bit of fun following a line course blind underwater (so nice when you get a left post failure and get your pressure gauge clipped to the line simultaneously!).  First time solo eyes shut.  Second time mask off, third time team together.  No issues - good fun. 

Dive 4 was our first into the upstream section - I led in.  Jetlag was kicking in badly, as was the impact of 3 hours in the water, and I knew my head wasn’t in the right place for the dive. 

I couldn’t find the start of mainline, and hit 15 meters knowing I’d missed it - as it is at 12, just below the halocline.  I turned to see Al question our direction - and thought to myself “You know, I just don’t think I should be here at the moment” so thumbed the dive.  There is always another day.

We surfaced.  Chris points out where we went wrong and asks if I’m happy to try again.  I feel OK at this point so agree, happy that I can terminate it without question if I’m not happy.

This time we find the line and I’m happy with my reel work getting us to it - so set off for a swim to another cenote called Little Joe - about 600ft inside the cave.

This is a stunning dive - in and out of the halocline, up and down some reasonable depth changes, through wide bedding plains, along tighter passages - real character and diverse beauty. 

We pass a 400 ft marker and mark time and gas, and then see sunlight from Little Joe up above us. Past this point the cave clearly has a large depth change as getting a little tighter so I call it a little early rather than face hitting turn pressure in a place where turning the dive would be harder to do.

Failures come thick and fast.  Al has a left post failure which prooves to unfixable.  I then have one too - but my left post is jammed on tight and won’t budge.  I signal to Al who moves it, and estalishes that it is broken.

We reorder and continue with the exit.  Then Al loses his left post and I reorder the team with Fraser, the only diver who can now donate gas, in the middle.  Seemed sensible at the time but Chris pointed out that this means that Fraser would have to turn around to help the last diver and would have been better off at the back where he had full control.

The next failure, about the place of the 400ft marker was me - out of air. Fraser turns to assist and we reorder again and set ourselves for exit.  This was OK and we made good progress to the reel, which we left in place, and the cavern zone when Fraser lost his mask.  I guided him through deco and we surfaced - job done.

My gauge reminded me as we were on the surface that it was midnight UK time and we still had another three hours of theory to go. 
The day was 14.5 hours long and taught me so much, but I had reached my limit.  A quick bit to eat and bed - more tomorrow. 

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Horrible jet lag had me wide awake at 2am - desperately trying to go back to sleep knowing that today, the first day of the course, would be long and tiring.

Chris met us at the apartment at 8am and we made our way to Zero Gravity for classroom work.  Here we discussed the limits for Cave 1 and why they are set that way, as well as a few basic line protocols.  Then we set off for Ponda Rosa, a pretty cenote with a cavern area, a nice place for our first dive.

After a few dry land runs with the reel (well wet land runs really as the heavens opened whilst we were doing this and Chris just kept going!), we kitted up and jumped in. 

Valve drills first.  All went smoothly even though we were in only 2 meters of water.  Al’s right post bubbled quite dramatically during his drill when itame unseated but I signalled him and moved in to tighten it up - no dramas.  We surfaced to debrief where Chris pronounced that our skills were acceptable so ‘Let’s go diving!’

We then moved in to the cavern area with Chris, for the only time this week, diving as one of the team - running the reel.  This cavern is a wide tunnel which joins two open water areas together, perhaps 150 meters apart.  One particularly noteworthy thing was the halocline which we encountered part way through, where salt water mixes with fresh and does really weird things to the viz - bending light and making everything go out of focus.

We stopped about 20 minutes in and demonstrated each of the 5 kicks, frog, flutter, modified flutter, helicopter turn and back kick.  Again no problems, Chris was happy enough. 

On the way out, I found myself looking for the landmarks I had noted on the way in, and was confident that all was OK.  When we came to the reel, as I was ahead of Chris, I assisted him in the recovery by pulling the ties off, and picking up any resultant slack.  A fun dive, just as the first dive on any course should be, instructor and students getting to know each other to see where the journey they will take together is likely to go.

We stayed in the water for the debrief - which was positive - and then headed back in, this time on our own.  Well not, actually, but with Chris hanging batlike above us, light off and silent, we may as well have been.
I ran the reel in - and chewed through an amazing amount of gas worried that I wouldn’t find the main line.  I struggled to find a suitable secondary tie off but Al highlighted one which worked well and soon we arrived at the main line.  I secured the reel and led off, flow checking and marking time and gas on the move. 

It was awesome - being first, no light in front of me bar my own, signals from Al and Frase clear.  I relaxed and used less gas on the 15 minute swim in than I had used on the 5 minutes it took me to run the reel.  The glow from the distant cenote was beautiful, the cavern was perhaps eight meters wide at this point, and four meters high, with an arched roof and clear layers of rock. 

This time I was first through the halocline, and noticed that for one instant, despite 30 odd meters viz, the cave line which was less than half a meter below me vanished as the light danced between the water layers.  Most disconcerting - but cool too!

The dive was brought to an end when Fraser’s primary light failed - right in the halocline!  He deployed a back up, we reordered so Fraser was in the middle of the team, and thumbed it.

We had travelled perhaps 50 meters when I got a tap on the head from our friendly bat - “You - out of gas”  Ok…here we go….I signalled to Frase who turned and deployed his longhose.  Unfortunately he had clipped his failed light in a way which trapped the longhose from full deployment - but no big deal - we sorted it out whilst Al kept station on the line.

We got underway again and covered perhaps 150 meters back to our reel, which we left in place - out of gas diver being more important than reel retrival.  Team position was a bit shoddy here and needs more thought in future but we exited the cave with no dramas and Chris followed on, bringing the reel out for us - it was his after all!
The debrief brought up a few pointers on how we can improve but, overall, Chris was happy.  So tomorrow we go straight to cave, rather than do more cavern work, which means we are happy too…
…but then never trust a GUE instructor….

Exhausted after an 11 hour day we head off, but I find that I have left my primary light at Zero Gravity so I can’t charge it overnight.  “Never mind”, says Chris - “I have a feeling you won’t be needing it much tomorrow”

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The journey was long, 20 hours door to door, and Al, Frase and I arrived fit for nothing, collapsing asleep at the apartment almost as soon as we got there - only to wake up with a combination of jetlag and excitement at 3:00am.  Cave 1, in Mexico with Chris le Maillot, was the plan and finally we were here and ready to go.

Day 1 was to be kit familisation, as none of us had dived twin ali 80s in dry suits before and wanted to get comfortable and correctly weighted before the course.  Alex, a NACD cave instructor, was our guide and we would go with him to two cenotes to dive in the cavern zone.
Dive 1 was to be ‘Car wash’ a cenote which got its name from the fact that Mexican taxi drivers used to wash their cars in the water there.  We pulled in and could immediately see that we would be parked right next to the water.  The lush tropical growth which surrounded it was humming with birds and butterflies, a large terrapin swam across the surface and whilst fish were evident in abundance there were no other divers - we had the place to ourselves.  “Blimey,” said Al it’s better than Vobster!”
Wow!
This was to be Al’s first cavern dive.  The difference between cavern and cave is that you can always see daylight in a cavern, although with good visibility and large cave entrances you can still go in a reasonable way.  We would go about 150 ft into Car Wash.
Dropped in, did checks and descended.  The surface water was warm but with bad viz caused by run off.  But only a couple of meters down this cleared as the water temperature dropped and viz went up to about 30 meters.
S drills and valve drills complete we headed in as  Alex ran the reel.  The cave mouth was wide and easily navigated with no perceptible flow, a nice gentle start for us all.  It is not a highly decorated cave but as I haven’t seen stalactites before I was suitably impressed.    We came to a sign which said “Stop if you are not cave trained” Alex highlighted the sign but then swam past it.  I signalled my intention not to follow and he came back…teasing us afterwards that we had passed his “little test”. 
I assisted Alex with one or two extra placements but mainly just enjoyed the dive which, all too soon was over. 
We exited into open water and relaxed at 5 meters, watching a pair of large terrapins - then surfaced and Al said “Wow!” 
Did you like it? We asked. 
“Wow!” said Al.  This was about all he said for the rest of the day…
We threw the sets in the back of Alex’s van and got in the car in drysuits (thank God for air conditioning!) and headed to the next site.

Grand Cenote.
This was a more commercial site with swimmers and snorkelers - who appeared amused and intrigued by four sweaty divers turning up!
It was immediately apparent that this would be different.  The mouth of the cenote is huge, with bats and birds nesting in the roof.  The water appeared gin clear and we could see massive columns and highly decorated sections from the surface.
“Wow!” said Al.
We dropped in (like proper cave divers, fins in hand!) and found water so clear it really felt like flying.  There is a permanent cavern line here, so no reel to run.  We did s drills and then headed in - Fraser led and Alex took my camera.
I have never seen any natural thing as beautiful as this - and if I never get a better dive than this one, I’ll still count myself as fortunate as one can be.  Imagine diving in a cathedral, one as decorative, delicate as you have ever seen - and it’s better than that.
As I watched Al swim between two columns, changing his kicks so as not to touch them, I knew all our training to this point had been worth it, as we could relax and enjoy it.  He turned to me, flashed his light and signalled by spelling out letters…
W…
O…
W…
Sums it up really

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Me
We had two divers with us who were doing their Tech 1 experience dives with Andy Kerslake so this would limit the dives to 48 metres, but the choice was down to Graham. We settled on the Iolanthe - and ropes off would be at 9 am.

Slight problem was Iain, who had dived with us the day before, as was doing his Tech 1 dives today, was still waiting for a fill at Breakwater who had a problem with their panel. When he eventually arrived his car was attacked by about ten divers and his kit made it on to the boat in about thirty seconds.

The trip out was a bit rough and several were slightly unwell by the time we got to the site. This lead our team to decide to leave scooters on the boat.

We jumped in and descended finding the wreck in about 5-7 metres of viz. The Iolanthe was sunk by a torpedo from UB-75 in January 1918. She was carrying a cargo of railway trucks and hay, she is known locally as the railway wreck. The wreck was generally at about 40m with the scour at the stern being 45m and the scour at the bow being 49m.

We meandered around as a team and Fraser found what he thought was a face mirror on the seabed. He and Al weren’t that interested in ‘girlie spidge’ so rejected it but I took a fancy to it and carried it round for the rest of the dive.

We had a good dive. There were congers and a few wrasse about - one or two respeldent in their mating colours and lots of bits of wreck to hunt in and out of. I thumbed the dive when I started to get cold, knowing that there was a fair bit of time to the surface.

Graham the skipper asks for one bag per diver so that he knows that all are off the wreck before he pulls the shot out. I deployed the main bag and then took smaller bags from Al and Frase - but the current had pulled my line out by at least an additional ten metres and the small bags took the line up in a loop - nearly pulling the spool from me. Other teams lost theirs in the same way.

Uneventful deco run by Al and a trip back took us to Weymouth in time to get fills. Unfortunately, when all twelve divers turned up at Breakwater ready to order £600 of gas to find that the centre had no helium and the fill station guy was intending to go home early. So a quick trip back to Weymouth took us teh the Old Harbour Dive Centre wheer they were more than happy to help - taking care of the sets until the following day so we didn’t have to wait.

Sunday

Sunday was to be a good day for diving weatherwise. Driving over the causeway from the island, I always look for the windsock to see what is in store - but today I nearly missed it - it was hanging like a dishcloth - not a breath of wind

We would push out a long way - to the Empress of India - a one and a half hour journey which was very pleasant indeed. Graham gets us there in good time and with flat seas the kit up process is smooth and trouble free. We decide to take scooters…

Al

Fraser

Jump in, bubble check - no problems. Descend to about 9 metres and the lights go out, and the viz disappears. Close in to the shot line (we had been scootering down it) and get close hoping that the viz will improve - it doesn’t and when we get to the wreck at about 40 metres it is clear that scootering is going to be impossible - and swiming won’t be much fun either.

There are always three choices at the bottom of a shot line - right, left or up. We chose the latter - saving our gas for another day.

A minimum deco ascent found us back on the boat - shortly to be followed by the second scooter team of John Kendall and Mark Emery who thumbed it at the bottom of the shot as well.

Oh well, - they can’t all be fun - and there will always be another day.

Iain and Owen passed though - the dives were certainly ‘an experience’

Owen and Iain- new Tech 1 divers.

General consensus of opinion though was a good weekend… especially for me as my ‘mirror’ which I clutched all the way round the dive and held on to as I deployed three bags on deco is actually a complete brass bridge compass holder on a dolphin mount - and will restore really nicely.

What a lovely memento of my first DIR UK dive - girlie spidge indeed

On the boat:

Andy Kerslake
John Grogan
Rich Walker
Bob Cooper
Andy Carroll
John Kendall
Mark Emery
Alastair Pooley
Fraser Jordan
Clare Gledhill
Iain Smith
Owen Petchy

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The M2

One of only three M (Monitor) Class submarines ever built and originally designed as the K19 the M2 was launched in 1919 at Vickers Yard at Barrow. She was designed with two twelve -cylinder diesel engines allowing a maximum speed on the surface was 15.5 knots. Her main armament was a 12-inch gun taken from an obsolete battleship as well as the normal torpedo tubes. On the 12th of November 1925 the M2’s sister ship the M1 was tragically sunk in a collision with the freighter Vidar. All hands on board were lost. Following public outcry the M2 and M3 were retired from active duty and assigned to an experimental flotilla. Here the M2 was converted to the first and only British submarine aircraft carrierIt is not known exactly why or how the M2 sank on the 26th January 1932

It was a great day – lots of p!ss taking on the surface and a great dive too.SML (Simon), DDC (Dianne) and Howard joined us on the boats (although Simon ended up booked on the wrong boat which was going to the same site). They would dive together as a three as Al and I wanted a slightly longer time on the bottom.

Al, Dianne and Howard (or should that be the Xerotherm triplets )

Simon and Diving Dude (Howard)Al and I have wanted to do the M2 for a while but Fraser who we normally dive with has refused classing it as ‘boring’ – as does Kerslake and a few others, so we’ve never booked it. A day on our own gave us the opportunity.

Al and I jumped in first and for a few minutes had the wreck (which is very small) to ourselves. I took a shot of Al swimming past the conning tower….

and he took one of me…and then the camera declared memory full – which is less disappointing now I’ve seen them as they are not great – but nice to have a memento. We covered the sub which is very small thoroughly – and were very glad that we heeded AK’s no scooters advice. It was nice though in the excellent viz to dive something small scale (it is about 90meters from end to end) and see it all laid out in front of me.
 

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