To yellow blob or not?

[stevechesh]

Location Central Lyme Bay

Date - 30th May 2008.

Depth 65m

wreck of The Siren.:


Iron, full rigged ship. 1555 GRT. Built 1881. 75.59 X 11.58m.
Owned by A and JH Carmichael and Co.
Voyage Sydney to London with general cargo.
Lost in collision with HMS Landrail 11 07 1896.
Identified by small corroded bell 1998.



Arrived in Exmouth this morning, to a hazy day, but with the prospect of some good weather.....

Boat was loaded and we commenced the long trek out to the wreck. The Siren, is 33 miles offshore, so it took a fair old time, but the sea was flat calm and the haze was being burnt off by the sun....Plenty of chat on the way out and everyone seemed nice and relaxed. This was a particular surprise and shock to us all, especially as Warmwaterdiver was at the helm for this trip We had some new faces on board, and also some familar names and faces from the Southwestmafia Tossers divers, which was good to see. . . . .

Arrived on site at 12:30 ish, with everyone was just about ready to jump in.....The colour of the water looked promising, but unfortunately there was plankton on the whole 65 metre descent to the wreck. Once past the 45 metre mark, it started to get a bit dark,( i cried like a girl, then managed to pull myself together), but soon enough the wreck came into view....

It was very hard to orientate to the wreck layout as the vis was about 2 metres at best, but i eventually found a mast and a few other bits and bobs and started making my way to the bow (the main bell is still to be recovered)....There was absolutely nothing on the wreck even worthy of looking at lifting despite her carrying a general cargo. I didn't even see any bottles, but there was a fair bit of coal about, probably for the steam winch supply. Plenty of large oak barrels full of tallow are evident all around the bow area though.

22 mins on the bottom, and it was time to leave. Couldn't find the shot, despite reeling off, so bagged off from the wreck (everyone had the choice of bagging off or coming up the shot)....

Started my deep stops, and eventually go to the 38 metre mark...looked down and noticed my mate seemed to be taking a bit of time.....popped down to 45m and see if everything was ok, but for some reason he was having a bit of trouble. Nothing too serious, just a bit worn out, which we put down to dive fitness afterwards....

We eventually got to our shallow stops and had incured a massive deco penalty, but we just chilled out and tried to get on with it......So, the ascent phase hadn't gone to plan and I was coming close to the end of my deco after a 92 minute runtime. We had only planned on a 90 minute run time and he still had 40 minutes of stops left. We left it another 5 minutes or so to see how we were doing (gas wise) and although we had "enough" gas between us, it would have been cutting it a bit fine and we had gone over our total runtime. We decided to shoot a yellow bag to let everyone topside know that there was a bit of a problem, and soon enough the drop tank (that we supplied) came down (Cheers Gary ). So yellow bag = drop tank dropped = potential problem solved long before a minor problem became a major problem.

I completed my deco and stayed down for a bit. I heard the boat above, so popped up to let the skipper know what was going on.....I popped back down again, told my mate, then buggered off up top for a brew and the chance to nick his bar of chocolate before he noticed, cos i'm good like that

So, all in all a good day out - no major snags and everyone got out nice and clean. Me and my mate had a chat about what happened, which basically came down to lack of dive fitness and wrong gas choice for the rich deco mix. The perils of trying to save a few quid and use a deco gas (that wasn't used for a previously planned shallower dive after it was cancelled), but there you go. It's done and dusted now and a swift kick up the backside in this diving game doesn't do any harm now and again! Top tip.....don't wait until you really need the gas. Make the decision and send up a blob LONG before you need it, because the system works and people don't actually mind!

I've got my ready

[TerryH]

Dont think there was anything wrong with sending up the blob. Good call
and better to have more than you need. Only comment i'd make is why you
went up to tell the skipper?

You had a buddy that was of concern enough for you to go back down
during the dive and then you leave him not once, but twice near the end.

I'd have stayed put till we were both clear, then up together.

[stevechesh]

fair point Terry, but it's not often we stay together on a dive anyway. Only reason we were together in the 1st place was because our SMB's got wrapped up a bit!

Gas problem was sorted, and i'll be buggered if i'm going to freeze my tits off for an extra 40 minutes. I was cold enough as it was

[GLOC]

I've got my ready

Thanks for posting this Steve. Just what this sub-forum is all about.

Any stone throwing gets dealt with so no worries about your popcorn getting used up.

The important thing came out from your debrief with your buddy, you realised the issues and talked about how to stop it again.

[stevechesh]

Thanks for posting this Steve. Just what this sub-forum is all about.

Any stone throwing gets dealt with so no worries about your popcorn getting used up.

The important thing came out from your debrief with your buddy, you realised the issues and talked about how to stop it again.

Not worried about stone throwing at all really. What is important is to identify what went wrong and how we rectify it. We both new in water what went wrong and why.

As you say, a quick debrief and p*ss taking on the boat sooned cleared it up, so no great dramas really. Just wanted to post up because i know some people think there is a stigma in asking for more gas. No point taking a drop bottle along if you're too scared to ask for it......and remember to ask for it with plenty of time to spare!

[GLOC]

......and remember to ask for it with plenty of time to spare!

This is very important in my view. It could take a skipper, if he is already getting a buddy pair onto the boat, 5-10mins to get over to you and get the cylinder down the shot.

You posted the popcorn!!

[stevechesh]

You posted the popcorn!!

BTW, cheers for the little message.....I'll buy you one for you to hide in your pocket

[Gary K]

I was going to make you wait but Rich said it was unprofessional towards the customer, especially as you hadnt paid at that point

[stevechesh]

I was going to make you wait but Rich said it was unprofessional towards the customer, especially as you hadnt paid at that point

I was half expecting a credit card machine to come down first...

"Please verify the amount, and enter your PIN number. When your account has been debited, your gas will be lowered to you"

[ratcliffe]

May I ask a really dumb question at this point ?

Thanks...

You had a regular red blob up, and you send up a second yellow one to signal the problem/potential problem. That I understand. But how do you do it, as a second reel and line would be a nightmare. Do you clip it to the original line with something like a doubleender, and then inflate it and let it go up the line freely ?

As I said, probably a numpty question, but I'm not afraid to ask