Bucket Manoeuvre (Old Post)

[milldog]

I posted this a while back but i still get asked about my dark distant past so here for everyone this is the Bucket Dive and not what you should be doing

but before i do I’ll give you a bit of diving background i had done about 350 - 400 dives previously in both the army and makeshift kit including a length of gas hose on a tyre compressor for a gravel pit dive searching for carp rods pulled in by the fish, weight belt was made from a seatbelt and track pins, after moving to Devon parachuting was out as the wind called most of it off, i i turned to diving and the legal side, i did the PADI course at Aquanauts with Simon and found it more enjoyable with the right kit and training. i now have clocked up about another 400+ dives since then with the last 60 -70 dives below 50 meters, with about 12 below 75 meters so now its time to move on to the rebreather and go deeper

It started with a Friday pint i had finished my PADI open water course and was looking forward to diving legal, i had to now i had a family to think of so insurance was a must. so back to the dive, a friend of mine had dropped his engine a Honda 45 of the back of his boat whilst kicking crap out of it because it wouldn’t start.

now he had marked the point and was looking for a way to get it back…. so came the question after a few beers “Graham would you get my engine for me?” reply “Yea go on then it will cost you a beer or two… where is it?”

my mate explained it was in a hole off the North Devon coast in about 28-30 meters a hole used by locals to catch congers and crabs. OK so the plan was hatched,

now i had limited kit so the dive would have to be planned around what kit i had which was
one set of regs for a single cylinder
two cylinders
and the usual kit mask BCD etc

Not alot for embarking on this, the problem was how do i change cylinders at the bottom

I got hold of a black bucket and strapped lines and weights to it to hold it to the seabed, the idea was to place the top of the cylinder inside fill with air and remove the valve drop the cylinder place the new one in and refit the valve, great idea but i took to long to refit the valve and ran out of air …..so now i cut the bottom of the bucket off and place a clear plastic bag inside and secure withe an inner-tube cut from a truck tyre. now i can see what i am doing and the time increases so i can now do it quickly, tests done and practise sorted I’m off to sea!! i must admit people did give me funny looks in the pool stages of this plan.

we get to the location and i kitted up and in the spare cylinder is sent down the shot line so it is ready at the bottom, when i get there i tie off a line and start searching for the motor, i eventually find it and after some grunting get a line on it and send the line to the surface for collection by my mate, now because i am new to this malarkey I’m nearly out of air about 25bar so back to the line and carry out the bucket drill as its now known (in Plymouth). cylinder changed and kit secured I’m off up the line to the boat and some serious beers …. now half way up i start thinking about deco as i told about DCS i stop for 10 at 20m then 5 at 10m and finally 6 at 5meters total dive time 49 minutes and on hell of a headache.

now i tried to work this out for the log book dive number 7 and cant so i ring Dougie in Plymouth and ask for some help working it out, after i told him the dive he said pop in Thursday and he’ll do the log for me

Thursday comes i go around to Dougie to get a slap across the head and a three hour lecture on DCS and theory’s i didn’t know or even heard of …safe to say that i now plan dives and deco and follow all the details on the plan and the kit i now dive is setup so I’ll never have to do the bucket manoeuvre again “a manoeuvre i am not proud to be known by” but i was a good idea at the time ……………..soldiers do anything for a beer!!

remember learn from this but don't copy it, it was a stupid thing to do but you are talking to someone who has exited a herc from the pilots escape hatch at 9000 feet

[uwila]

b*gger me! I got scared just reading it. I'm glad nowt went wrong though.

[Finless]

Absolute class ........ but only because you did it and survived ..........

Bucket me! I've just realised that the more I learn about diving the more scared I have become!!

[applepie]

Thanks that was a very interesting story. Glad to hear it turned out alright.

Nice idea the bucket thingy! I'm impressed, I have previously toyed with a similar idea but never tried it in the pool.

[Andy Phillips]

Quality, if you had done the deco the other way aroung you would have been about right.

Andrew

[Madfish]

Originally Posted by milldog

I got hold of a black bucket and strapped lines and weights to it to hold it to the seabed,

Clearly you were planning this as a DIR dive then........

Dianne

[Sparky750]

Nuts mate but it was for a beer though

[divingniknaks]

Fantastic ya mad bast*rd !

Still I guess it was good practice for diving with Gary


.

[David Pye]

I'm sure I read somewhere that it was OK at a push to change first stages on cylinders underwater. Not to say that the first stage wouldn't need a servicing asap afterwards, but that it would work.

Is this the case?

[reef hook]

This is theory only but:

On removing the 1st stage from the empty cyclinder it would be open to the water.Any air in the stage would be replaced with water which,subject to time open infiltrate into the secondary hoses.On re-connection there would be a very high chance of hydrolock, at best resulting in no air (pretty bad) or at worst irreparable damage to the regutors (1st&2nd).