[londonsean69]

Sunday 20 March - On Defiant out of Littlehampton

This is to be dive no 2 on my EDO-04, and it was the wreck of the Shirala.
I had planned for a bottom time of 45-60 Min.s, cold permitting (I only had 3mm gloves).

Everything is going perfectly, the unit is making all the right noises and feels good. Gas consumption is excellent.

Bang on 40 Mins. I hear gas escaping, and lots of it!! I quickly determine it is the right post so shut it down. By now, the adrenaline is going, and the bowels are twitching! I switch to OC on my KISS DSV to send up my SMB. I turn the right post back on and everything seems OK now. I switch back to SCR and begin my ascent.

At 16m, my Suunto Vyper beeps, reverts back to air, and tells me I have 147 minutes of stops!!! Good job I carry a d-timer and tables, OH BUGGER, lent the d-timer to Frank on the boat as his Aladdin died when he turned it on. I still had my watch, and have a knot at 6m in my SMB line, so no bother, slow reeled up then hung for 8 @ 6m.

Back on the boat, my (empty) electronics housings have flooded and the suunto is in a major sulk. Still, dive No. 2 beckons, The Mulberries.

I checked pressures, 160 Bar left in the L/H 7l (190 starting), didn't check the right (leaking) cylinder (TWAT!), couldn't find the source of the leak, so decided to dive the mulberries on my (reclaimed) D-timer. Dive went without a hitch, but I seemed to be using loads of gas.

Slowly, after 3/4 of an hour, I realised why. I thought I was just using a lot in my suit because of the up and down profile on the mulberries. What was actually happening, was the leaky cylinder was empty, so I was breathing out of 1 7l, instead of 2. I still had 80 bar in the remaining 7l so just sent up the bag and did a safety stop.

The leak from the right post was caused by my inhalation hose pulling against the din 1st stage, and unscrewing it. The flooded PPO2 housing was caused by my shabby workmanship, and the computer crapped out because of the cold and a low battery.

Solutions;
Fit some 90 degree adaptors to the first stages to allow cleaner hose routing. Also, play with the positioning of the cylinders on the SCR.
Fit SPG to right cylinder.
Build better housings!!
Fit new computer battery.

The good news is, the SCR is doing a brilliant job of gas extension, on the Shirala, I had an SAC of 3l/min, this included suit inflation and OC!! On the Mulberries, this was more like 5l/min, probably due to the amount of gas in the suit with the up and down profile.