28/29 June 2008 + possible Monday

[Dave_S]

yep - i figured i was going to get some shit for that one -

what can i say if i haden't done something stupid you'll have had to take the piss out of each other!

one of the best weekends ever having had some crap diving of late and most of last year blown out i'd just about decided to sell most of my kit and just concentrate on blue water holiday diving then along came this weekend.

Totness Castle budded with Ian one of my bestest dives ever at 43m it was outside outside my comfort zone but well worth the effort slightly rough boat ride out but no real problem easy descent down a well placed shot 2m off the side of the wreck - 25mins on the bottom on 25% acrewing a fair amount of deco in the process but well worth it. i didn't remember from the las time but the wreck is complete but collapsed you can follow the layout of the hull the bows stand proud but the stern is collapsed you can follow it's shape but nothing more. lots of swim throughs but at 43m not for me. Dr Kev was buddied with Dave Crampton and stated his intention to join team starbutst [ well they managed to loose each other and made sepperate ascents]
43.5m max, 23.8 ave, 12.4c, 51mins, 26% & 70% deco.

fort dive - it was just too rough outside we could have dived one of the wrecks a push but the risk of someone being injured trying to get back on the boat just made it not worthwhile

day two

ELK always one of my favourite dives again a boat shaped wreck loads of life as always buddied with Ian & Dr Kev [prospective member of team starburst] couldn't find the shot for the ascent so Dr Kev produced his gucci ap valuves self inflating DSMB seemingly they only work if you've first charged the mini bottle [which he hadn't] so ian filled for him and we made an uneventful ascent and deco stop
31.6 max, 22.6 ave, 12.2c, 45mins, 32% & 70% deco.

JEL what can i say one of the best we saw the best of the wreck descent onto the bow there was a bit of a current running so we descended within the hull which is still obviously boat shaped but collapsing quite quickly now [more of that l8r] and made our way though the stucture to the stern of the discernable hull then out to the stern which seems to have suffered some trauma since i was last there then back into the hull. Where to my horror i watched someone swim under a piece of hanging structure which was swinging back and forward in the current beware of hanging metal. Dr Kev then made a concerted attempt to join Team Starbutst [we lost him] Ian and I had a quick look around but there was no sign so we made our way towards the bow only to find Kev purched on the structure with his DSMB out again [still don't think he'd filled the bottle tho] we collected him on the way past made our way back to the bow & shot line quick safety stop and back onto the boat for tea and medals.
22.9 max, 15.6 ave, 12.3c, 47mins, 32%

a few thanks i need to add
Ian - for organising a great weekend.
Ian - for the loan of a fin strap.
Martin - for a tiny O ring within my Oceanic 1st stage which gave up the ghost as we prepared to dive.
Ian, Dr Kev, Dave Crampton, Martin, Simon, Neil, Mark, Danny & Sally, Josie for their company.

dave

[Dave Crampton]

It was great to meet some of you for the first time an I hope not the last. I only manged one day as we had a long drive today and I wanted to get here in resonable time.

My first time on the Totnes Castle. Its a really nice little wreck, complete with partial paddle wheel and Bow. In the bow we saw any Enormous Lobster, spotted by Dr Kev. As usual, my bloody HID wasn't charged so I had to make do with the Backup. Also we saw a Huge Conger hiding in the plates at the stern. It was half out when we swap into it, and impressed me. Later we saw it again and then it swam free behind a couple of others, and Flip me it was BIG!! and quite scarey!

After half an hour Kev signaled up, so he got out his DSMB and started to assend. Unfortunately I couldn;t follow as fast getting a stop HAND on my VR£ so I broke away and decided to put up my own DSMB @29m. Frigging with my old wreck reel I nearly let go of it at one point trying to tie the dsmb to the reel. I wish I'd not lost my trusty Kent Tooling reel for the second time... .. any way at 6m I caught sight of a couple of others in our party so swam over to buddy up the the last few mins. I was glad to see Kev surface safe and sound.

Dave C