Up the Loch with a paddle

[Snash]

Just back from a great new year staying up at Kilmelford near Oban and I was looking for somewhere to post this and report on our experiences and was really pleased to find this newly created forum. Whilst not specifically diving, RIBing is an integral part of diving and there are lessons to be learned.

Okay, I don't really want any "back seat divers" throwing their tuppence in terms of slagging us off. I just want to put down what we learned. We were a very experienced crew – no one on the boat had less than 1000 dives and we are used to serious RIB usage eg expedition to St Kilda (before the famous BSAC expedition); diving Corryvrecken; Scotland to Rathlin Island passages and week long camping and RIBing trips to the north coast of Scotland.

The team also has more experience of stripping down and rebuilding engines and compressors than they have had hot dinners (mainly cos we can’t get an oven to work ). However we all learned some valuable lessons which I think it is important to share

We set off mid-afternoon to dive Fisherman’s Point in Loch Etive which is a cracking cliff dive. We should have known the Gods were against us as we left in a hailstorm. The dive was great although the first 20ms was in a very cold halocline with the swirly gin and tonic effect you get when fresh and salt water mix. However once you were below 20ms you popped out into the warm and toasty sea bit. Jocks and I were in the second wave and bailed out at 42ms.

Once we got back to the surface, it was starting to get dark and we were a little miffed when we were asked to swim to the RIB some 50 yards from us. It soon became clear that the engine had failed and had conked out. We have often dived this dive as a night dive given the short passage involved and the fact it is a sheltered sea loch. At this stage no real worries as we dekitted and the others tried to get it restarted. However after a few minutes it became apparent that all the usual things we tried weren’t working. We were only 50 yards from shore and 50 yards from a long line and the buoys of a mussel farm so we paddled over to the first of the buoys and attached the painter.

Lesson 1 – Call the Coastguard as soon as possible even just to put yourself on their radar and they aware of your situation. You can always cancel the call once you are sorted.

In our case the Coastguard was not appropriate as were up a sea loch (which was also upstream of the Falls Of Lora) which was only a mile wide and it was a case of which side did we need to get to, to effect our self rescue. However we delayed making the call to the rest of the trip who were back in a friend’s house in Taynuilt. By the time we had made a mobile phone call, they were well tucked into the Pimms Winter Warmer and could not drive to come and get us. If we had made that call earlier things would have been easier and we would have less to worry about and our options would have been wider.

The side that we were on would probably have entailed a taxi coming from Oban and heading up to Bonawe Quarry and a long walk for us to meet it where the road runs out or a kip under a rock until the shore-dwellers had sobered up to come and get us. The other side would have entailed a 6-mile walk home in the dark in dry suits hoping that we would meet some of the shore-dwellers en-route.

I would like to stress that if we had been out in open sea, we would have called the Coastguard immediately as self rescue would not have been an option.

After a while we decided to row the mile or so up to Bonawe Quarry and see where we went from there. Initially our progress was great as we just pulled ourselves along the 200ms of the mussel buoys

Lesson 2 – a spare engine is essential even if just to put-put your way slowly.

Our efforts rowing were very hard work and oars are really just a tool to hit yourselves over the head rather than to dig yourself out of trouble. When the wind was not blowing we would make progress but when it picked up it was very, very hard work and progress was minimal (which would have hit team morale in the long term). We also benefitted marginally from a very slight current as the tide was heading out.

We were lucky that we did get the engine going a couple of times after all sort of running repairs eg manual starting & bypassing fuel pumps but it was obvious that something was seriously wrong with it.

Lesson 3 – operate as a team.

We only really started to make headway on the rowing when we operated as a team. We took it in turns to do 40 strokes and then hand over to someone else. All the strokes were shouted out and we also sang songs (Row, Row, Row, your boat gently down the stream and We Are Sailing being 2 favourites). This kept everyone involved and motivated and ensured we did not get over tired or disengaged. We were lucky that one of our numbers is a naval officer who soon got us landlubbers into shape with only a minimal lick of the cat (although the cat wasn’t too pleased at being passed around or being licked…. ).

Eventually we managed to get the engine going for a couple of minutes which allowed us to scramble most of the way across the loch to the Taynuilt side. These 2 minutes saved us an hour of rowing but we had to kill the engine as it was overheating with no tell-tail coming out. We were worried that the engine would go bang rather than phut.

Lesson 4 – although one would think it would be easier to row with the engine up we made more progress with then engine down as it acted as a rudder and we could use it to steer our direction.

We contiuned rowing and managed to get close to the fish farm at Inverawe where we knew there was a track out to the main road. Luckily though by that time one of the shore-dwellers had sobered up enough to come and collect us thus saving us a 6 mile walk back to Taynuilt and allowed us to get back to tuck into the Pimms before it was fully polished off by the others.

As I said, I don't want this to descend into "you should have done this" type thread but I think that there are some valuable lessons which it is important to share.

Snash