:Gledder\’s diving blog…

After a weekend spent running instructors around London (the best bit was when a diver called me to ask a question abotu Fundies….I didn’t say “hang on a bit, I’ll put you on to someone else” but I was severely tempted )
the Tech 2 circus arrived in Frome on Sunday night for a lengthy introduction and theory session.

My first impression of the lectures was that the emphasis on this course would be “the thinking diver” – and Jarrod and Richard were both there to mentor us in the process of becoming more capable of making choices in the water. Few hard and fast rules here – guiding principles, experiences to learn from and informed decision making using all available sources were the basis for debate.

Day 1 at Vobster was to be stage work after a review of our Tech 1 skills. The usual S drills, Valve drills, OOAs, valve failures, blind diver yadda yadda yadda. Jarrod was happy – with a few hints on how we could all polish our performance to get to the higher standard of the course. We did three dives, spending just under three hours in the water and concentrated at the end of each on a rehearsal of the Tech 2 stage drill – more of that later.

The resident dog at Vobster has learned to fetch buoys in the water - JJ throws one and hangs on - not quite as fast as a Gavin

Descending for dive 2, I put some gas in my wing and had bubbles come out from under my arm. Must have hit one of the two stage regs there I figured – so did it again. Bubbles again. I looked down and the whole inflator had come off the corrugated hose – bugger.

So this is time to test the balanced rig then. Twin 12s with 150 bar, Pro 14 and three stage bottles – all full. I was OK actually as I made my way back to the surface horizontal until I went vertical – which was a big mistake as the water pressure vented the wing – despite my attempts to prevent this by folding the top of the hose over. I sank down a meter or so but with Al, Frase, Jarrod and Andy Kerslake around there was no big deal. Before any time at all had past, all my stages had been handed off to Al, Jarrod and Andy got me over to the side and out of the water and the wing was fixed.

Back to the hotel for exams, dive planning and sessions on deco and gas management. Learning about deco from guys who have do deco for up to 20 hours is fascinating and the wealth of experience that they bring is priceless.
They discuss various strategies - from conservative to agressive, giving us the information which will help us on our way to makign our own cost benefit analysis of the issues we will face.

Day 2 was a private day at Vobster where the staff served us well. This was to be the day of deep ascents and more drills. We were asked to shoot a bag at 24 metres, ascent to 21 and gas switch. Bring O2 bottle around from the leash and pass the bottom stage back and ascend to 9 metres where we would switch to back gas. At 6 metres we would switch to O2 and ascend where all bottles would have to be returned to their original positions ready to go again.

The last dive proved interesting – for me at least. We were on the bottom when I had a right post failure, shortly followed by my going out of gas completely. I ascended on Fraser’s long hose to the gas switch and switched to 50 per cent – struggling slightly to get going as I had of course lost the supply of gas to my wing as well. After a few minutes I realised that with all the gas sharing and diving that day my 50 per cent bottle was nearing empty. I thought about telling Fraser that I was low on gas but to avoid any confusion I just went OOG and on to his stage. I now have no back gas, no stage and can’t switch at 9 metres but we manage. I get to 6 metres and relax – I can now deploy my O2 bottle and settle down for three minutes. Which is exactly when Jarrod asks for my mask. If I ever have a real dive like that I quit but it does make you feel good that with a well trained team all of this is possible.

After more lectures on dive planning and emergency proceedures, we enjoy a very pleasant dinner with Howard and Dawn. We rise early the next day to the NADC. The logistics of getting 9 divers, 9 twinsets, 27 stages to the deep section of this quarry was made easier by David’s help – he took the pictures too.

Do GUE instructors have to travel in threes

We meet Phil Short and Jarrod, Richard and he greet each other warmly – they have been involved in projects together in the past and meet up regularly around the world on their travels. Jack Ingle is there too – whilst I say hi to Jack who I’ve met several times before, he doesn’t seem so keen to come over

A dive to 30 metres had Al run out of gas completely – most careless. The ascent went well although the deco station appeared to chase us all over the quarry. A second dive to 40 meters after a brief chat on the surface went the same way – although this time it was me out of gas again – and several deco gas failures. We were mostly running to time – a few minutes over which were lost when failures occurred but Jarrod was mostly happy with the time and asked us to concentrate on maintaining buoyancy within a tight window on each stop.

I’m surrounded by blue gloves - and we are not saying “cheese” - another phrase was substituted all week - but you had to be there - didn’t you Richard

A long but enjoyable day became longer when we had to pack up 18 twinsets and 56 stage bottles and head down to Plymouth. Exhaustion was starting to set in big time. The kit was dropped off a Deep Blue where Richie and Shaun were waiting to get filling in time for the following day.

Day 4 was to be the Medoc which we would dive twice. In we go to find sea bed, a lobster and a lone jetfin which we wonder is the only thing left of the other team. I am concerned that we may have pulled the shot off the wreck but on surfacing find that the first team in found sand too.

After the most expensive sea bed dive I have ever done we ascend and wait for Jarrod to start to play again. He’s been busy on the dive, stages have been depressurised and loosened so that they fizz when deployed and Fraser goes out of gas so has to be helped through back gas switches. Starting to become familiar territory really and the debrief tells us that we do well as a team.

Brian has enough stage bottles….

Dive 2 and the Skipper is determined to get us on to the wreck – and he does. I have a horrible descent – I feel fuzzy headed and consider thumbing it but find myself OK to continue once I have signalled Al and Fraser to slow down a bit. We come across a conger which is caught in fishing line. Now I am frightened of congers but can’t stand the idea of this poor creature stuck there so get out my knife and cut it free. Course or no course, at least it can go die in its hole.

I keep kicking Jarrod and get really rattled and uncomfortable – which no doubt adds to my getting through my gas at an amazing rate. I switch off the bottom stage. Al switches a little later, followed by Fraser. As Fraser switches I check my gas and pop my gauge back on my D ring – to immediately realise that I have snapped it right over my leash. I ask Al to check this out just as Jarrod pulls a right post failure on him so the dive gets thumbed.

After the gas switch I realise that with my gauge and leash still firmly stuck together I can’t juggle the bottles around. I get Al to have another look but they are firmly stuck and I have no option but to find another way of moving the bottles. I take of my 80 and send it up the bag line – always enjoy doing that – which leave me free to deploy my O2 bottle. The ascent is interrupted by the most painful cramp I’ve ever had underwater at the 6 metre stop – but with Fraser’s assistance I manage to switch and maintain depth. Issues on this dive have made the ascent messy. We did OK but know that we can do much better and get out in poor spirits. Everyone is exhausted and opts for a quick take out dinner and early bed.

Day 5 is to be the East Point in about 67 meters. An early start should allow us time to finish up and do the swim test and the remaining lectures.

Me and Al

Jarrod will leave us alone on this dive and we can take the chance to show him how we can perform as a team… or at least that was the plan.

Unfortunately, at the bottom of the shot line I do a flow check and realise that my O2 stage has become disconnected from the leash halfway down the shot line. It was there on the boat, it was there after the bubble check at 6 but it is not there now. Bugger.

My deepest dive to date over with less than 2 minutes bottom time. Had it not been a course I would have been happy to look around for a bit for the stage but don’t feel that entering decompression knowing that I don’t have the planned gas is the correct thing to do – despite knowing that we have contingencies for such events. I run a minimum deco ascent we head back to the surface. We see a minky whale on the surface checking out the other team – but it doesn’t raise our mood too much.

Swim tests are a little longer than we expected – turns out that Jarrod is considering a new Tech 2 standard of 650 metres – which is hard going but achievable with a dose of extreme bloody mindedness after a hard week. Then back to Aquanauts for exams, final theory sessions on O2 use and the experimental work that GUE has done to look at the effects of O2 use in deco. Then finally dinner and debriefs.

Jarrod is satisfied with our safety, planning and problem solving ability and believes that the best way forward is more diving with three stages in this depth range – with an eye to maintaining sensible levels of deco whilst experience is accumulated. Each of us is given an idea of how to progress from this point and asked how we feel about the result.

I can only speak for myself.

Whilst I am obviously disappointed not to get the full pass that I wanted I cannot fault Jarrod’s decision based on the time that we spent with him.

If I am to support GUE in its view that certification is earned by consistent and reliable skills, then how can I possibly cry foul when this same measure is applied to my diving. Tech 2 is perhaps a bigger cert than I realised when I went forward for it and the level of polish required by Jarrod to give this certification is, without doubt, a worthy goal to aim for. His additional demands are not that great a burden on any of us and if pursuing the road map he has given me makes me a safer, more capable diver who can enjoy challenging dives safely then it is a route worth following indeed.

Richard and Jarrod were so generous with their time, encouragement and advice this week that I sit here now – very tired – but more passionate about my diving than ever before. Roll on Donegal in two weeks time – it’s going to be a blast.

Thanks to all that helped organise the course especially David, Howard, Dianne, Paul Harris, Martin Burnard, Little Pete, Mark Emery and Iain.

But my most heartfelt thanks go to Al and Frase - it’s been a long journey my friends - and one which has had its ups and downs. One constant thing in it though has been the pleasure of diving with two capable divers who have become two of my closest friends. It is an honour to dive with you and I look forward to many more.

Going to bed now – it’s been a long, long week.

We always have a lot of laughs on these trips. This time it started early when, still in the harbour Bob gets on the lift fully clothed to help Al weight his scooter – with Andy Kerslake in charge of the lift buttons…… well you can guess what happened next.

Day 1 – Merchant Royal.

The Merchant Royal is a large British cargo ship of 5000 tons lying South of Portland sunk as the result of a collision. Standing 11M high with her centre castle area largely intact she is still a recognisable ship with her bows broken off and amid ship and stern listing Starboard. It is possible to go below seabed depth and reach 60M where there are apparently copper ingots that were missed by the salvage men. More realistic max depth is 56m to the seabed.

Al and I decided to make the most of the conditions, which were pretty nice, to scooter the wreck. My stress levels which were already rising slightly at the prospect of my first multi gas scooter dive went into orbit when we were given the shout to kit up and I realised that my argon reg was not only not fitted to the cylinder but was at home in the shed (after removing it for a trip to Ireland). I resigned myself to not diving but then realised that I had a spare stage reg that I could attack and make do. Within two minutes work with a spanner and a donated blanking plug from Greg, I had a workable set up (albeit with a very large gauge for an argon bottle) and carried on kitting up.

On reflection, I should have asked for our team to move down the running order as I was now very hot and bothered and breathing heavily. But we kept our slot and jumped in – thankful of the cold water. I was leading and enjoying the fact that we did not have to use the shot – just scootering forward to keep it in sight and descend.

I got to about 30 metres and realised that I had quite a fuzzy head – given that I was diving 18/45 it was unlikely to be nitrogen narcosis and was more likely to be caused by CO2 from my rushing around on the surface. I carried on the descent concentrating on keeping my breathing relaxed and, at the bottom, signalled to Al that we should keep it slow and steady. I’ve been affected before and it usually clears quite quickly and after a while I felt a bit better so we both went on the trigger and went off around the wreck.

We came across Brian and John Kendall in the water, John appeared to be videoing a large lobster. We headed up towards the bow and Al who was one at this point came off the trigger saying ‘woah’ I looked up and instantly did the same – the wreck at this point was intact and loomed up ahead of us in very dramatic style.

We headed round the bow and came off the trigger again to hang and look at it (always a favourite part of the dive for me) but this time we started moving backwards instantly as fast as we had been moving forwards – the current had picked up big time but whilst on the scooters we hadn’t really noticed. I realised that I was still not 100 per cent and turned to Al to thumb the dive but his thumb was already up – time to go. Deco was uneventful apart from the fact that current and tide combination meant that Graeme the skipper had a hard job keeping all the teams in sight on deco – almost 1.5 miles from the wreck when finished.

Tom at Breakwater does us proud with fills - a whole boat of trimix and 20 odd stages takes time and we don’t get to the centre until 6pm but he stays on happily and gets all the mixes spot on - well done!

Day 2 – unknown.

Plans for diving this day were changed when the weather deteriorated and Graeme felt that he would get us a smoother ride out in a different direction than expected. The payback was getting to dive an unidentified wreck which has a great deal of potential for research in future if we are ever to work out how and why she came to rest there.

We came equipped for most eventualities

Fraser had joined us by this stage and we jumped in without scooters – the brief for this dive was to seek some form of identification and scooters would only hinder this aim. John Kendall was to take video and the rest of us would rummage.

I really enjoyed this dive. We do know from artefacts already recovered (in association with the R.O.W) that the ship is likely to date from 1867 and she was a very large ocean going sail ship loaded to the gunnels with supplies. Fire bricks, pottery, buckles and musket balls, barrels of dynamite, millstones, bottles – many still with corks in – were in abundance. I found a perfect large white china bowl with a Staffordshire stamp but it was buried and removing it would have taken rather too long at 54 metres if I were to be careful enough not to damage it so I left it there for someone with more time.

I was leading and took us over a bit of the wreck which stood perhaps two meters proud. As I did so I noticed the largest conger eel I have ever seen, below me but looking straight at Al and Frase. I heard Fraser squeal (he said it was the helium ) and Al laugh at this but noticed that Al changed course as well.

The viz on this dive was stunning – the rocky bottom ensuring that we could see other teams working on distant areas of the wreck which was clearly large. We never found the anchors although Bob and Greg did – or the bell which has never been found. I, for one, would be very happy to go back to this one. She clearly has a tale to tell.

Conditions on deco were interesting and out came the wetnotes where I asked to pad deco at 6 fearful that we would not be able to do the slow ascent that is normally had built in to the O2 stop. Al and Frase agreed but as it was, conditions were OK up to about 1.5 metres and we were able to complete it without issue.

Day 3

The weather deteriorated further but Graeme was able to give us a smooth ride out (in what was a force 5/6) by choosing his direction carefully to use the tide to our advantage. We were to dive the Warrior II.

This was an armed luxury steam yacht which had been built in 1904 and had already survived World War One. The 1,120 ton vessel was dive-bombed and machine-gunned and finally went down about ten miles south-east of Grove Point.

Fraser and I dived the Warrior II a couple of weeks ago but really enjoyed the dive and were happy to return with Al. We dropped in roughly in the middle of the wreck and Al led off down towards the bow where I got to do my ‘hang off the wreck in mid water and soak up the atmosphere’ bit.

There are so many large congers, lobsters and crabs on this wreck you almost become blasé when you spot yet another but the sight of an edible crab bigger than a large dinner plate wobbling along on legs which looked like they would snap under the weight of the shell was funny. Colourful wrasse helped brighten up the wreck which was dark – but with good viz.

We headed back towards the swimming pools and mosaics but, swimming against the current, turned it before we got there and drifted gently back down the wreck. The boiler on the Warrior II is the biggest I have ever seen anywhere and stands a good four or five metres proud – I saw a tail sticking out and don’t even want to think how big that conger was!

Back on board, I’m tying my kit down when Bob comes on board. His argon bottle catches in the pleat of my drysuit and he pulls me round with him as he walks. I grab hold of the handrail to steady myself and am fine – until he sits down on my hand with his twin 15s Owwwwwwww!

Tom the handsome and helpful deck hand offers to avenge me with a boat hook but I guess karma comes into force when Bob then topples over on to the deck and is pinned (unhurt) by his set to the deck….

Day 4 – nothing to report. Despite Graeme working miracles all weekend there is an end to the guy’s ability to pull a rabbit out of the hat every day and the weather had cut off all available options. Pub lunch and home.

Doesn’t get any better - lots of laughs and good diving….hope you all had good weekends too.