Delta Diaries 15/16 August

[Padowan]

Day 1.

It was an unfriendly hour at 4am when I left home for the drive down to Littlehempton to meet the Delta gang for another 2-day trip out into the channel diving seldom or undived marks. I got to the dockside at about 6:15am unloaded the kit, and made myself a well needed cup of coffee. John and Liz had driven down the previous evening, but I think that the rest (Darren, Graham and Trevor) all drove down in the morning.

We left on time, heading for an unknown mark about 4hours from port and settled into the journey with the usual scattering of camping beds, chairs and other items to help the time pass. Soon enough, the engines powered down as we arrived on site and skipper Paul started scanning the seabed for the ping that would be our target for the day. While this was going on, the rest of us started getting our kit on, prepping our breathers and getting ready for the signal that the shot was in, and that we could go and see what we'd found. Darren and I were the first pair in, with the job of tying in the shotline, we made a slow descent, not helped by the current which was still running, and the shotline which seemed a little on the long side.

At about 60m or so we could start to make out the outline of a wreck, and as we approached our target depth we started to get a feel for the orientation in the 15-20m viz before setting our strobes on the line and tying it in with the waster. There was sufficient ambient light at depth not to require a torch, but we both used them anyway.

We turned right, with Darren leading, and me following behind laying line, Darren took the port side of the wreck, while I surveyed the starboard tying off the line at regular intervals. There were a few interesting pieces of brass lying around the place, including a porthole, but as it had no glass I decided I'd wait for a better specimen.

Soon enough we reached the bow and both had a little look off the wreck on the seabed at close to 70m to see if there was much debris around, at that moment my unit let off a double "beep-beep". Usually that would indicate a slave controller promotion probably due to a low battery, but I'd not long ago put frech ones in the unit, so when I looked at the handsets I was not sure what I could expect to see. I glanced my usual master and it read:
MASTER 1.3
1.3 1.3 1.3

"Oh!" I thought, "that's strange, why the double beep if there's no error and no promotion?" So I looked at the other handset:
MASTER 1.3
1.3 1.3 1.3

"Oh, that's still on too. But hang on" I double taked "Did I read that right? Master, Master?" I checked again, and sure enough I had 2 master handsets. That's not normal, and also not good at 65m, 15 minutes into our planned 30 of bottom time.

"I know" I thought. "I'll power down the 'slave' reboot it, and let it resume its status as slave" So I switched the switch on the slave, turned it back on expecting it to go through the boot up sequence and go into Dive Mode as slave. But, after the unit beeped to turn on I get the message "RESET OTHER HANDSET"

Eek! So now I've gone from 2x Masters to one master, and the master I'm left with perhaps has a power problem as this is what usually triggers a slave promotion. I have read too many stories of other Inspo divers switching off handsets underwater and the unit not allowing them to get back into Dive Mode so there was no way I was gonna do as it suggested and reset my only working method of PPO2 display. At this point I thumbed the dive to Darren and started making my way back to the shotline performing some dil flushes to confirm that at least the one handset I had was giving me good information and controlling correctly, which it appeared to be doing. So there was no need to bail out to OC or SCR, and I stayed on the loop as I made my ascent on my own (Darren remained on the wreck) keeping an eagle eye on the single handset.

I got to the station and was met a few minutes later by a startled Bernie, who was very unaccustomed to anyone else being on the station when he arrives being on OC! I counted down my deco, and was met by Darren maybe 20 minutes later while the current started to pick up. Soon after that there was peace and quiet as the station was unclipped from below by the last pair and we started to drift with the current. At this point, having both hands available, I decided that I could do some more diagnostics on my unit. I was at 6m so there was no need for the PPO2 displays, I could run the unit manually and blind if so needed, so I powered down both handsets, rebooted them in sequence, and sure enough both handsets started up properly, one as slave and one as master, so I was none the wiser, but at least I knew my unit was working again.

After burning off the last of the deco, and being back on the boat nearly first, it was very pleasant to sit down, with all that space, in the peace and quiet before the mad rush of divers filled the boat. As the others surfaced and we picked them up, we shared stories of what we'd seen down there, and whether we felt it would be worth another visit, and I think that the consensus was that we would another day.

A long steam back into port followed, with me dismantling my unit to try and ascertain what the problem was, there was nothing obviousl no water or cracks in my handsets, and although I had a meter and could check my batteries, I needed a bit of wire in order to test them under load, so that would have to wait unti we were ashore. Once docked and partially unloaded we headed off to the campsite for a few beers and snacks, unit preparation and a bit of CCR problem diagnosis for me, before getting showered up for the pub.

Day 2.

A similarly early start entailing striking camp, popping to Tescos for cash, breakfast and lunch and arrival back at the boat at about 7am. Liz was feeling poorly with a headache, so John and her decided not to come out today, and the weather was looking slightly worse today, so we discussed the options, and whether it made sense to punch out another 4 hours with closing weather in the afternoon, so the initial discussion was to dive the Duke of Buccleugh, this later changed to doing another unknown mark that was a little closer in at about 3 hours.

A similar lazy run out to site and frantic kitting up ensued as the later start, and the mid-trip decision to dive yet another different mark (due to the viz looking shite at the first site) meant that we were arriving with not much time to spare.

Darren and I were again first in, and we dropped down into the deep blue, light was penetrating all the way down to the wreck at 68m and once tied in, and strobes set, we again turned right, and headed along the seabed, peering into the wreckage lying on its side next to us. I was laying line again, and was also wondering if my unit would behave today. We swam past lots of little holes with all sorts of interesting stuff inside, we found a porthole, and as it looked complete I bagged it up, and felt quite smug as my desire for a complete porthole with glass now seemed to be met. We continued forward until we ran out of line, then tied off, cut the reel off, and returned back the way we came. I took a slightly higher route, and as such passed the boilers which appeared to be hanging precariously from the ceiling. Next to the boiler was a large opening, so I went i and had a little look round hoping that there would be something interesting in the engine room. Time was ticking on, so I cut my internal exploration short, and exited to find Darren with his head in a hole looking at something. Once back at the shot, we checked out bottom time, which was reading 26 minutes, and agreed to spend another 4 minutes looking around before ascending on our planned 30 minutes. I spotted another large opening, and again went inside, there was brass piping, and other interesting things in there, and as I looked forward, I could see a green glow, indicating that this was in fact a long swim through, probably 20m from end to end. I didn't feel that I could get to the end, find a way out, and get back in the time allowed, so I turned and retreated the way I came in, to meet Darren collecting his strobes, while I did the same.

The current had started to pick up again, and the shot was pulling quite strongly against the wreck, so the ascent was rather current assisted! I had my deep stops on the VR3 to do, and Darren leapfrogged me, as he headed for his shallower stops prompted on his Vision Electronics. By the 6m stop, I had caught up again, and we settled into approximately 45mins on the station before surfacing very pleased with another great dive.

On the boat, the spidge was examined, and much to my dismay, it turned out to be an iron backed porthole, so some work with the hammer and chisel to dispose of the rubbish, and I was left with a nice brass window with glass. The receiver will be notified shortly before anyone gets stroppy. The run back in was wonderful, I don't know where the force 6 gusting 7's that I'd heard on the radio were, but we had pretty much flat seas, and glorious sunshine - so much so that when I arrived back home I found out that I'd sunburnt my tummy!

All in all, a great 2 days out, looking forward to the next one later in the year. Mark was not with me this time, due to school holiday commitments, which was a shame as it would have been nice to let him return the favour with my unit problems!!



Me Darren and what was left of my porthole...

[Paul Oliver]

Great report mate Really enjoyed that

[Darren A]

Thanks for taking the time to post, great report.

[divegyrl]

Great report,
another one to write in my 'things YBODS do to kill you' notebook!

sounds great fun, I'll be there, one day........
have a green one................!

xx

[Diving Dude]

And you lot call me a Pikey.

At least l don't collect scrap from the seabed.

Good report Si.

[Mark Chase]

Great write up M8, wish i could have been there.

Looking forward to the 31st already.


ATB

Mark Chase

[milldog]

fantastic report

i'd love to be diving unkowns

Graham

[The Doctor]

N