Adv Nitrox and Deco - 10/11/12 June - Portland

[Garf]

The short version - long version will be posted later.

Number of times Garf asked JAG if we really had to get up at 4am - 6
Number of Times J.W. looked like he was going to cry when I told him what time we were getting up - 1
Number of Hours sleep we got - 4
Number of hours sleep we could have had if we hadn't listened to Jag - 6-7
Number of times Garf swore at Jag on the way to portland - LOTS
Number of times we arrived far too bloody early and had to wait for everyone else to arrive - 1
Number of times we laughed before we left about people who bungied themselves to rails - 2
Number of times Gizmo bungied himself to the rail -1
Number of Times J.W. laughed at Gizmo for bunging himself to the Rail - 1
Number of Times J.W. Bungied himself to the rail - 1
Number of times JAG laughed at people for Bunging themselves to the rail - 2
Number of times JAG Bungied himself to the rail - 1
Number of times Garf Laughed at everyone - 4
Number of times Garf danced around the bar grasping his leg and doing a ridicious "Cramp Dance" - 1
Number of minutes everyone laughed at Garf - 6
Number of sets of Keys issued to Garf, Jag and JW - 2
Number of minutes it took Garf to lose keys - 3
Number of Keys returned to Hotel - 1
Number of times Gizmo failed to bungie his twinset to the rail and watched it fall over, smashing the first stage out of the cylinder - 1
Number of times Gizmo looked as if he was about to cry - 1
Number of times JW convined Garf to attempt to lift a lost weightbelt with about 15kg in it - 1
Number of Bars of gas used in the 2 minute it took Garf to realise he was being a shit-for-brains even trying to do simulated deco stops holding 15 extra kg - 40
Number of Yank Bungers andd Chips ordered over weekend 16
Number of times JAG asked the barmaid for "I'd love a yank and chips please" - 2
Number of minutes the double entendre kept everyone giggling like schoolgirls - 4
Number of qualifications earned - 4
Number of times Gasmuncher was asked to Dive with Garf - 4
Number of Times Gasmuncher descended with Garf - 3
Number of times Gas muncher surfaced with Garf - 2
Number of times Gas muncher did Wreck Dive - 2
Number of Wrecks Gas Muncher saw - 1

It was a belter of a weekend, everyone passed their course, and I had a great time keeping an eye on everyone. Weather was superb, dives were superb, and we all had a bloody good laugh. Diving dooesn't get much better.

I'm sure the individual members of "the team" will be along to post proper reports soon, but I had a great time

[Bogwoppit]

Hehe excellent way of writting a report..I bet your CTRL V is buggered though.. Well done all,

[JAG]

Yeah, it was a great weekend, fantastic weather, excellent dives and a great course. Right now though I'm absolutely shattered and maybe a little shell shocked and can't remember what I had for dinner 10 mins ago let alone info about the weekend! I think Mark (Gizmo) is going to write up a report in due course and we will add to it thereafter. I would like to say that it was an absolute pleasure meeting Gizmo and Sch, and along with j.w. had a great weekend, thanks to Mark for really opening my eyes into this new world and a big thanks to Garf for his patience and guidance over the last several months whilst I switched to twins and trained specifically for this weekend, I'm sure things would have been very different if we had not.

I'm so tired I can't even be bothered to retaliate to some of the things that Garf mentioned in his first post, but I will! (Nice spidermanesque dismount from the top bunk by the way, chickenboy!)

Oh yes, no one saw me when I was still bungeed to the railing, I fessed up after we left the boat, so, technically that doesn't count..

[John Touhig]

My reputation as Wreck Finder Extraordinaire continues, having completely failed to see the 180m long, 12000 ton Zenobia I can now add the 140m long, 10000 ton Aeolian Sky to the list. Not only did I lose the wreck but I managed to lose the entire team as well, all 6 of them. However, I did see a really nice bit of sea bed before firing a bag and ascending.

Saying that I managed to blow my reputation yesterday morning by actually finding the wreck of the Ethel but I’m sure normal service will be resumed soon…

[sch]

Just wanted to add my twopenn'orth while waiting for Gizmo to start the trip report (after all, I couldn't dream of deviating from a plan after this weekend )

Thanks to Mark for sorting the course - had an excellent time, learnt a lot and had some cracking dives to boot.

Thanks to Garf for keeping an eye on us, keeping us in duct tape and helping out. Oh and providing the entertainment on Saturday night

Finally thanks to Gizmo, JAG & JW for helping make the course more manageable Cheers guys!!

[Gizmo]

A long time ago in a puddle far far away.......................
Mark Powell agreed to take a relative newbie diver on an assessment of his diving to see if he could cope with the strenure and rigour of a June Weekend in Portland.
So off I trundled to Wraysbury to demonstrate my grasp of single 12 & pony diving........ two dives and a lot of advice and discussion of kit (and gentle piss taking of hose routing from Daz) and it was agreed that I would enroll for the course and practise lots, hence Wraysbury Wednesday Wanders was born.......

Speed forward to Thursday 9th June, 8pm, Car is packed, bag is packed, I'm ready to go.... Oh I'll throw in the book I'm reading at the moment (Long Way Round Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman), should make for good R & R at the end of the day....... Oh how I underestimated that......

Friday 10th June.

Woke to glorious sunshine, so primed the dive chariot for Sunshine mode and left the house at 6.30... Arrived to greet Garf, JAG & JW, looking slightly bleary eyed, (guys why did you leave at 4 )... Starting unloading and Sch arrived, also sporting a dive chariot with his twins as front seat passenger.
Shortly after Simon A and Janos arrived to join the boat and enjoy our grief then Mark arrived and greeted us with a knowing grin............

Paul the Skipper introduced himself and declared the battery dead, and a replacement boat had been arranged. We had some time as the military were using the firing range so we were able to sort out kit, fill out disclaimer, and dump the cars, so that we did.....

Onto the boat and off we went.... On the way out Mark discussed kit and configuration with us, damn being the nearest to him, so mine was used as the demo....... I like my sticky up air integration thingy I said ....(oh how I would rue that comment by the end of the weekend). Mark then explained the dive to us and the sort of drills we were to be expecting.
JAG & JW went in as a pair, Sch and I in second. Doh initial mistake made.....

Dive 1 Black Hawk: 16.6m 37mins 11deg Viz 5-8m
We descended the shot, JAG leading the way followed closely by JW then Sch and myself. The shot was in the middle of a large debris field of the bow section of Black Hawk, from the shot we started off exploring, almost immediately Mark signalled me to perform a shut down drill.... ouch, first up... so I went for my manifold, first with my right hand, got my air integration valve, ok try left eventually reached it thinking I had torn every ligament in my shoulder, then remembered the tips Mark had given us on the surface, all of sudden much easier. Sorted my isolator and proceeded with the rest of the drill in what seemed a lifetime with bouyancy all over the place...... not a good start.
Once completed we had lost JAG and JW, and there was our "teams" first mistake. Things were a lot different by the end of the weekend Garf had continued on with JAG and JW but Sch and I kept Mark for company!!!!
We carried on and started to have a nose around the wreck, not much of a nose though as I certainly had an eye on Mark as to what was coming next.

We completed OOA drills on each other, Sch lost his mask and needed his spare and I had somehow lost my main SMB, sometime during the shutdown drill I understand, it was funny though Mark had a spare that looked just like mine which he kindly gave to me as compensation for losing mine so early in the weekend...
Deployed Spare SMB, felt quite confident, so thanks Gledders for the practice opportunites.

Decent slow ascent to 9m for our first stop and then onto 6m for second stop.

Back onto the boat for Surface interval, debrief and general discussion and then lunch.... hot dinner supplied by skipper, spot on....... even doughnuts...



Dive 2 The Dredger: S:I 1hr 50min. 7.7m 41mins 13deg. Vis 8m (until we kicked it up a bit )

This time I was to lead, Sch 2 then JW & JAG. Our lesson from the first dive had been learned.. we were diving as a team not two buddy pairs. It was better but we still had a way to go.
The dredger is not a particular large area and being my first time on the wreck I stayed in area of where the shot landed and close to the pole sticking up out of the sand which was to be the focal point for our drills.

During the swim around and around and around the wreck we all had to perform shutdowns, this time I was much better, remembering the tips from Mark and the whole thing went a lot smoother. As JAG and JW had missed the company of Mark on the first dive they were slightly picked on and had to complete a couple more shutdowns and drills than Sch and I.
Although on the ascent, Sch got the no mask ascent for which I had to guide him.... a really difficult task I felt, communication became very difficult. JAG & JW got the OOA ascent to the gas change.
At this point our near perfect team skills fell to pieces each buddy pair concentrating on their problem and we split up. More learning required.

Back on the boat, more debrief, dekit ready for fills and back to the harbour.

Once back on shore we retired to the hotel for our class session, did we eat, or yes we were able to get a mouthful of food inbetween discussions and theory from Mark..... at 10pm we reached our last lesson, dive planning, and looking at planning tools, tables etc.... I don't know how well JAG & JW were coping, I had only been up since 5.30. I could see that Mark was talking but couldn't quite make out all he was saying. A couple of visual aids and using the laptop and I was awake again. We called it a day around 10.30 ish and we made our way to our respective beds....

needless to say I didn''t pick up that book by Ewan and Charley, I sunk into my bed and was gone........

next thing I knew I could hear the bathroom door next door closing, it was 7am and the next day...

[JAG]

Don't keep us in suspenders! Wheres the rest
Good report so far though!

[Gizmo]

Originally Posted by JAG

Don't keep us in suspenders!

I'm saying nothing !!!!

[Gizmo]

Saturday 11th June

......7am already I thought...... I had set my alarm for 7.45, I'm staying in bed I thought, what seemed like a minute or two later but was actually 7.30 and I heard a breakfast bowl being taken from the cupboard. Ummm breakfast I thought, that got me out of bed.

The plan was to meet at Aqua Hotel at 9am to do an hour of classroom before heading over to Weymouth to pick up the tanks and load the boat. Again the military were firing so our slack time today would be around 1.30pm.

We were joined in the morning by DanE and others (sorry didn't catch everyones name) including John (Gasmuncher) who were there for pleasure and our pain, methinks.... it helped knowing Dan had been through it all before....and in slightly colder circumstances.

Dive 1 Aeolien Skye max depth 28.5m time 38mins temp 12 deg Vis 8-10m (and we didn't kick up the crap)

This time we had a plan, a proper plan, including, deeper, longer, deeper & longer, and Lost Gas. This time we felt a lot more prepared. JW was leading the dive, I was 2nd JAG 3rd and Sch 4th. We were determined this dive to do things together as a team.

{Adrian Kelland has posted a trip report also of killer prawns trip also on Skye that morning so I will refer to there for the details of what it is like to dive when not doing a course. http://www.yorkshire-divers.co.uk/fo...ad.php?t=21535}

From my perspective it was a lot of time watching and team watching, as a result my concentration was not really on the wreck but I am definitely going to go back and do this wreck properly. It looks like an excellent dive, and ours was also.

After a bubble check at 6m we continued down to the wreck at about 25m.... we moved off the wreck and around the hull, performing drills as we were directed by Mark. JW had just turned to me and given me the OK to which I replied and turned back when Mark told me I was OOA, ok I thought and spat out my reg... I signalled JW with the torch but he couldn't see me, damn good viz eh!!! So I turned looking for JAG, now the vis wasn't that good that JAG could see the reg out of my mouth,and I waited, then I realised of course he hasn't seen my OOA signal as I was facing the other way, with a little more urgency I give him the OOA and within a moment he is there with his primary in my mouth, top finning!!!!! Even Sch behind him was ready... the team was working....

We continued around the hull and doubled back over the wreck, 2 minutes before the end of our planned time we send up the SMBs and begin our ascent. This time I am too slow ascending and we are a little late to the first stop. This is where having a designated leader kicks in. J.W. is watching the time and the depths and makes sure we all do the requisite stops. Our overall dive time is extended but we complete the stops.
However mysteriously at 9m I lose my mask, supposedly kicked by a fin.... funny I didn't see any fins just Marks glove. Again the team sprung into action. Sch directly opposite me reached out and took my arm, steadying me as J.W. took care of my reel. I could see a blur that was JAG to my right out of the corner of my eye, as a result there was no panic and I could ensure my bouyancy was right, take my spare and sort myself out.

J.W. handed me back my reel and we carried on, it was that simple.

On the 6m stop the line from my SMB got mysteriously tangled around my sticky up air integration thingy.. which I love so dearly.... wonder how that happened Mark? In his words "... the temptation was too much...." repeat after me.... I must learn more self control.. no I didn't think so.

Back to the surface, onto the boat, it was getting a little cloudier but we were ready for skippers food, more pizza, chicken nuggets and doughnuts.

Then disaster struck...... contrary to Garfs, initial post I had bungied my twins on the bench just not very well, lesson in knot tying required. With horror I watched as my twinset dived off the bench onto my so dearly beloved sticky up air integration thingy and bashed my 1st stage. Lots of hissing escaping air and a shutdown was required on the boat.
Upon inspection the thread on my 1st stage was gone..... completely shreaded and jammed in the right post. There was to be no more diving for me that day, maybe not even that weekend.

I shall leave the next dive report to someone else, I think Sch is up next as I didn't make it onto that one...

Dive 2 Depth 0m time about 40mins,17deg Viz about 4-5 miles. Conditions slightly cloudy
From the surface though, JAG's main SMB was snagged on a buoy as they started their drift so Skipper and I rescued it unfortunately not the reel... should be on it's way back to you JAG sometime in the next little while.. alledgely! Paul (skipper) did a fantastic job of getting my 1st stage out of the right post and miraclously no damage was done to the tank thread. We tried my other reg to be sure and sure enough it sealed no problems. I breathed a huge sigh of relief, now all I needed to do was sort out either a repair for my 1st stage or sort out another. In the end a loan stage reg from Mark and a rearrangement of my stage reg (a DST) to work as my right post reg and things would be right as rain. Even got to keep my sticky up air integration thingy but this time being on a DST wasn't sticky up anymore!!!

My understanding of the drift is that is wasn't particular exciting well that's what they told me, if it was don't tell me otherwise eh!!!!

We were back to harbour by 6ish, cylinders in again the Old Harbour dive shop for air top offs and we were off to the pub.............................................
..............for more deco theory.... we didn't even get a drink!!!!

Back to the shop pick up our cylinders, load them into Mark's and J.Ws car and back to the hotels, half an hour to get sorted and then back to the aqua for dinner and more theory session.
Unfortunately Sch and I hadn't counted on being locked out of our B&B, so a call to Mark to say we were going to be late and a call to the custodian and waited to be let in and the lock repaired. Quick shower and change and straight back down to the Aqua to find them all finishing off their meals.

We ordered ours and settled down for another evening of instruction. I think it was starting to pay off and that day the dives had gone quite well. There had been improvements from Friday but there was still much to take in.

Mark was kind to us that evening and the theory session finished at 10pm. He headed off and just missed Garf's cramp dance.... it has to be witnessed to be believed, PMSL, oh yes we did. Especially when we got a repeat performance a few minutes later... sorry Garf no sympathy there.....

We parted company not long after that and that good book I brought to read never made it out of my rucksack, I was asleep before my head hit the pillow that evening.

Rightly so... because they next thing I heard was Sch banging on the door at 5.30am shouting Mark Are you awake??? I am now was the reply Sunday morning was here already......

[sch]

and now for number 2 ... apologies for lack of profiles, not been able to download my profiles yet

[edit] - ah well, Mark beat me to the Skye, but I'll leave it in as my version of events [/edit]

Originally Posted by Gizmo

next thing I knew I could hear the bathroom door next door closing, it was 7am and the next day...

and I'm wandering around the YMCA trying not to wake Mark up while sorting his brekkie and looking out of the windows at the clear blue skies and a forecast for another excellent day.



Saturday 11th June

We were due to board at 11 ready to dive the Aeolian Skye (divernet wreck tour here ) and so we'd agreed to meet up with the other at the Breakwater at 9 for a quick blast of theory. Thankfully everyone seemed a bit more alert than when we'd left the previous evening, and soon enough it was time to head down to Weymouth to board Kyarratoo (http://www.kyarratoo.com/home.htm). We'd managed to scare away Simon A & Janos who'd been with us on Friday and were joined by DanE and friends.

After steaming out over almost flat blue seas, we were onsite with only a rib to keep us company. This soon changed and by the time we were ready to enter it looked like every dive boat from the surrounding area was converging on the wreck, all dropping shots and waiting for slack to arrive.



Aeolian Skye

max depth: 30m, bottom time: 20min, total divetime: TBC

Vis: 8-10m, water temp 13 deg

After a brief stop at 6m for a bubble check, we descended the shotline to be greeted by good vis and one very big wreck. The Skye is absolutely massive, probably the biggest wreck I've ever dived – I've been on her 4 or 5 times and still not seen all of her. After quick shuffling and adjustments from everyone readying themselves for the expected shutdown drills, we were away with JW leading, Gizmo in 2nd, then JAG with myself coming up from the rear (ooh err missus!!). This gave me an excellent grandstand seat for the surprisingly high number of problems that seemed to beset everyone except Mark P and Garf. Shutdowns had to be carried out several times, then to top it all Gizmo managed to have an ooh problem. Luckily he made it to JAG who donated his primary and we were off again only to find that miraculously Gizmo's twins had managed to fill themselves u/w and he could switch back to his own set. By this stage I was feeling slightly apprehensive as I'd managed to get this far without any problems, when surprisingly enough I managed to snag my reel and smb on some wreckage – it must have been that and it must have been well snagged, because it felt just like someone was pulling at it until it mysteriously vanished (luckily Mark must have seen it fall off because he presented it back to me when we got to the surface).

Time flew and soon enough we were at the time we'd agreed that we'd deploy our reels (of course having lost mine, I'd switched up to my backup plan to deploy my spool on one of the stops). Just as we'd deployed the SMBs, one of our lucky troop managed to suffer the second ooa of the dive and again, long hoses were deployed and we were ready for the ascent. Other than one of our number being out of air, the ascent went reasonably well – but unfortunately we were keeping nowhere near the planned runtimes and by the time we'd made our gas switches, deployed my backup spool and made it to the 6m stop we were well behind our runtime (although we'd missed no stops). At this point, our team communications fell apart again with myself and JAG switching to one of the backup plans and JW and gizmo just extending the runtime by the required amount – luckily enough this ended the dive with both plans finishing at almost the same time.



Back on board we dekitted, sorted ourselves out and were settling down to enjoy the surface interval when there was a sudden loud bang, a rush of escaping gas and everyone turned round to see what happens when Gizmo's first stage decided to act as a brake to stop his twins hitting the floor as they came off the kitting up bench. It was generally agreed that first stages weren't supposed to be bent skywards in the manner we could see, and Gizmo looked slightly upset to say the least. Unfortunately this meant that he now had to sit out the next dive.

After consuming an excellent lunch of pizza, sausages, roast potato, onion rings, chicken nuggets *and* do-nuts, all supplied by the skipper it was time to get ready for the 2nd dive. Mark graciously agreed that since Gizmo couldn't join us this would just be a dive to check out communications, trim etc.

Lulworth Banks:
Profile details to follow
Given this was planned to be a drift, it was agreed that we'd make a free descent to the seabed and deploy smbs from there. For this dive I'd be leading with Jag being in 2nd place and JW providing the rearguard. We'd agreed a divetime of 20 minutes, with the option to extend by a further 5 minutes if everyone was ok with gas. No deco was required, but we'd agreed a simulated stop of 5 minutes at 6m.

Generally there were few incidents on this one, but being slightly paranoid by now I found myself checking I could reach the valves every 5 minutes or so, just in case .

Unfortunately the dive itself was fairly sparse, not much in the way of marine life – mind you I blame that on the monster crab we found which had obviously eaten everything else within a couple of miles other than one poor lonely dogfish.

However, we weren't going to escape completely free – at some point JW managed to snag his SMB on a pot line and it was lost. Luckily being well prepared by now, a 2nd was deployed and we continued on our way – only for JW to be hit by his finstrap managing to come undone which led onto a very impressive display of finstrap threading whilst drifting along in a knot or so of current while trying to hold an SMB.

Once this was sorted, we continued our drift along a very flat sandy seabed until it was time to ascend to 6m and then onto carry out our deco.



At this point, a minor problem occurred which I obviously take responsibility for as team leader on this dive but I'll leave it to the others on the dive to decide if we admit to it



At this point I'll pass over to either JW or JAG to continue.



Simon