My introduction to Narcosis, and other cockup's !

[BobK]

This is going back quite a while (late 80's), but it was my first incident, and I can
recall it vividly.

I had just qualified as a BSAC Sports Diver. Most of my dives up to that point had been freshwater in Coniston, and a few
salty ones at St Abbs. Nothing to deep, in fact probably nothing deeper than 25m.

I was on my clubs annual 'big' trip to Oban. We were diving from an inflatable (not a RIB), a proper squidgy with no echo-sounder or radio. As we were staying at Benderloch, the wreck of the Breda, was only a few minutes boat ride away.

I was using a 7mm wetsuit and an old style BC (an ABLJ) with a 10 litre cylinder a depth gauge and a watch. We had done several dives on the wreck of the Breda, dropping down a permanent buoy line attached to the wreck at about 11m at the bow. We never got to the stern, on these dives, so it was decided to have a dive on the stern of the Breda.

As we had no sounder, it was decided to use a 'conveniently' placed bouy at what was presumed to be the stern of the wreck. I believe somebody had checked this with a 'local' diver.

Four of us splashed into the water, Gary who I had trained with, dived with Alan a Dive Leader, and I dived with Andy a BSAC 3rd class diver. From memory Alan and Gary were in front, going down the line. It got 'dark' quite quickly
and by the time we hit 27m which was the maximum we expected to hit the wreck at it was very dark. There was no wreck, so we pressed on to 35m. At which point we were either on the wreck of a very large aircraft carrier (it was flat !) or we had hit the seabed. Guess which ?

What happened next has fogged over somewhat, but I can clearly remember Alan pulling on what was thought to be the shot line, and pulling in lots and lots of 'slack'. This reduced the visibility 'somewhat' with lots of 'silt' being stirred up, and as it was already dark, it now got pitch black ! This we later decided was probably a lobster pot line.

The next thing that I remember is Alan miming 'where is Gary ?'. There was no sign of Gary, so Alan set off for the surface on his own. Meanwhile Andy and myself had lost the shot line, and after a few minutes in the very poor visibility, gave up looking for it and decided to ascend. You have to remember that this
was probably my first encounter with narcosis, and I was not very experienced, and I had never been this deep before !

We squirted a bit of air into our BC's and started finning up. So this was a vertical mid-water ascent with no line. After we had been finning for what felt like a minute I picked up my console mounted depth gauge to check our depth. 'Sh1t, that cannot be right we are still at 34m'. Even now years later, I can remember that feeling.

I decided to pump a 'lot' more air into my BC, and suddenly we were off the bottom, and emerged from the 'pitch black' vis into just 'dark', but still below 30m. The look on Andy's face is still with me, his eyes were out on stalks, and he was finning like crazy. I thought I was calm and under control, as I indicated he should inflate his BC. But I vividly remember thinking "Why are my bubbles going that way, up is in this direction", which was about 45 degrees different (still up mind you !). We eventually reached the surface, with not a lot of air left, and there thankfully were Gary and Andy, safe and well. The surface cover in the boat got quite a shock when Gary had literally done a 'Polaris' out of the water up to his waist.

Lesson's Learnt:-
1) Today I would never have splashed, unless I was certain of the depth,
and that it was on the wreck. (Yes I can say that, I did it 2 months ago
when 3 other divers had a 38m dive on a shot line, that did not reach the wreck
or seabed).

2) I was not used to doing 'vertical' descents and ascents, as this was my
first real go at 'wreck' diving. My previous dives had all been relatively easy
bimbles down a slope and back, and I do not think I had the concept of just
how much air was needed to inflate my BC from 30m+.

3) Narcosis, can be a killer. When gaining experience build up your depth slowly.
I better say that again:-
When gaining experience build up your depth slowly.

Narcosis can be a 'buzz' when everything is going right, but when the 'shit'
hits the fan, its not the same !

4) Today I would have a dsmb and computer! But the only person with a
computer then was the DO, and nobody had heard of a DSMB.

I am sure there are a few more ! But I have just re-lived this and
am not thinking straight !

Bob