Dover Hardcore2 The MV Teeswood

[Mark Chase]

Back at Dover and there were a few bruised and batted divers from the trip back but only the old farts like me and Howard looked totally screwed. Paul looked OK so i reckon he is on vicoden.

Talking of farts, my arse had gone from code red to code amber. I didn't bother getting off the boat for a big fried breakfast/lunch like the others as I felt that adding fuel to the lower intestine was a bad idea. The panty liner was no longer necessary but serious farting was out of the question for the foreseeable future.

Any how on to the diving

I seriously considered canning the next dive due to the sea state. Andyp hadn't shown up which was a surprise as i thought he would for the second trip but the message on the mobile told a sorry tail so i forgave him.

In the end i thought sod it i might as well go.

2 miles out said the skipper???? 2 Miles??? that cant be right. 2 miles out there is nothing but soup off of Dover. I know I had dived there before. OH bugger i wish i had gone home Of we trog at about 2 knots to stop the boat flipping over in the rough sea. Oh bloody great 2miles out and its still going to take an hour and its going to be a soup dive.

Dave the skipper cheered us up with the story of the two bells he took off the wreck and the massive portholes still on her. A sample of which he had in his car for all to see. Levels of excitement grew and divers started clambering for lift bags. I of course being a hard core experienced technical diver knew for a fact that a dive two miles out would be crap so i generously donated my 65kg lift bag to Paul.

Shot in and i drop down with Howard and Coliniky, who sadly has lost his buddy John Perrin to a headache. With the wreck being only two miles out i didn't blame him.

But whats this?????? VIZ!!!! oh my god I reckon 8-10m this cant be true I can still see the harbor entrance??

But it was. I rather pointlessly tied in my reel and laid line and we set off around to the right quickly finding the end of the super structure. Doubling back to the shot we quickly found the bow? Blimey i thought. This is a small wreck I clipped off the reel to the shot as it seemed a waste of effort.

We drifted up and over the side plating to the deck and Howard and i drooped inside for a look see whilst Colin held a watching brief up top. The inside of the wreck was a mountain of silt but it was fun to be there and we mooched up to the bow again before deciding to exit. Sadly we both did this at the same time through different holes. Had we got stuck it would have got interesting and I could feel Colin shaking his head at our stupidity but we made it OK so we just pretended it was easy and carried on

Back up to the super structure and Howard popped inside for a look whilst I looked at a boom that seemed to be extending out into the gloom. We followed this and in the distance I could just make out more super structure. Sure enough another big chunk of ship. This one had massive portholes with one dangling down ripe for the picking.

About now i was regretting lending Paul my lift bag

As it was a lot of wiggling and a quick survey with a trained engineers eye told me the port hole wasn't going any where soon without Semtex so we carried on to the next chunk of wreck.

Howard flashed me to let me know his historic diving equipment was showing the "stop breathing now as i am empty " warning so we begrudgingly headed back to the shot. With Colin and I on CCR I did contemplate carrying on after dropping Howard off at the shot but the tide was picking up so i decided enough was enough and its time to go.

No arguments from Colin so up we went.

Smart move as it turned out as deco was about as much fun as the diarrhea i had been suffering all morning. The up line tied into the dive boat was bouncing like a trampoline and we were riped all over the place as the tide made holding on compulsory.

The various deco schedules made it all rather interesting with divers climbing over each other to get to optimum depth and i thanked god i was on CCR and didn't care that much.

Once at 6m i am accustom to seeing my VR3 say stop for a very long time but today I was very pleased to see only 9mins showing. I almost laughed out loud.

The que on the transfer line to get on the boat lift was a PITA but i have to say i was very very pleased to be back on the boat. Unlike poor Scubajay. He was on air and suffering the full wrath of high percentage nitrogen deco. Paul took pity on him and went down and gave him a pony of 60% to speed up deco. Paul flashed loads of fingers at Jay to let him know he was on a rich mix and succeeded in scaring the crap out of him by making him think he was on 100% and deco-ing out at somewhere between 3 and 10m according to the strength of swell on the boat at that given moment.

After we had all had dinner, brandy and coffee Jay eventually got on the boat to rapturous applause and shouts of "buy some Nitrox you tight git" and we headed home.

A truly stunning second dive in conditions which we all agreed were amazing being only 2 miles out. John and Paul waxed lyrical about the time back in 1947 when we last had viz like that so close in and the rest of us just thanked our respective dive gods that we were there this day to witness it.

It was another cracking dive.

Thanks Paul your a star.

Thanks also to Dave Bachelor and his fantastic boat Neptune. That boy really knows his stuff.

ATB

Mark Chase

[Paul Oliver]

Great stuff and a great second dive, as good as they get



Jay gave a perfect example of why 21% is crap On dive 1 he had 21% to my 30% and got an extra 10 min of Deco about 35min to my 25 min.

On dive two i had 34% to his 21% and had about 7 min of stops, which as they cleared i looked at his puter to see 29 min we thought at first his 'puter was knackered but then he noticed the 34% showing on mine.

My 3L Pony is normally a stage so had a rich mix, i started to tell him it was 60% but lost count, unfortunately the tape with the percentage had washed off, damn cheap B&Q tape I was quite impressed at the stage bottle handover while bouncing around on the shot (Droptankdiver please note ).

I was trying to tell him to stay a bit shallower as SUUNTO's like this, but only caused confusion knowing he had Mix 2 set to 48%i figured getting him to switch to this would speed up the process and the extra % would help with the bouncy profile. I left for the surface once he was OK and i had run my tank below 50 Bar.

[Diving Dude]

Mark. l'm getting fed up with greening your for trip reports, so this time it might have to be a red.

As others have said, it was a great day, with suprisingly good vis, especially on this second dive and as Chasey says, so close to the harbour.

l kick myself for not bringing my scrubber, although l had two great dives, l would have almost doubled the bottom time if l was on the Pikey box, although as Mark says, deco on the line would have been interesting.

Although this is extremely hard for me to say, thanks Olly for arranging the day and picking the wrecks.

The wrecks out of Dover really are superb when you get the vis.

As for the Skipper Dave Batchelor, top guy for lending me his historic diving equipment, although on the first dive to 40 m, l was thinking on my way down the shot, that maybe it wasn't too clever using unfamiliar equipment on a 40m dive, but this uncertaintly disappeared about the same time the wreck appeared.

Today was the first time l'd used 100% on a deco dive and it will be the last. On a dive where you HAVE TO return to the shot line (diving inside shipping lanes) and you find the whole world seems to be camped at between 5-7 mtrs it would be much easier to have 80%, change at 9m and just wait at 7-8 mtrs.

On both dives l made sure l was out of the water, for you Steve S that's Whaater, before Yds very own 'lift breaker'. Care to guess who that is?

[Paul Oliver]

We were watching you on the way down to see if you were ok with this unfamiliar kit but soon forgot about that and you once we could see the wreck

[onthetrain]

Originally Posted by Diving Dude

, l was thinking on my way down the shot, that maybe it wasn't too clever using unfamiliar equipment on a 40m dive, but this uncertaintly disappeared about the same time the wreck appeared.
.

After your performance in 5m at scapa on OC I think I know why you may have thought this.......

40M, suppose you must have been in twin 18's?????

[Diving Dude]

Originally Posted by onthetrain

......you must have been in twin 18's?????

l wish.

Oh, you mean cylinders?

[onthetrain]

Originally Posted by Diving Dude

l wish.

Oh, you mean cylinders?

Nice one mate. have a green

PS sorry it has to be a virtual until I spread some love around....

[Diving Dude]

Originally Posted by onthetrain

After your performance in 5m at scapa on OC I think I know why you may have thought this.......

40M, suppose you must have been in twin 18's?????

For those that are wondering what Alan means above.......on our recent Scapa gig, Chris (Alans mate) wanted a try dive on the pikey box, so l donned his twin 12s and off we went for a 5 mtr dive in the harbour.
He stopped about a mtr off the silt whilst l coudn't find the inflator(unfamiliar kit) on his historic gear and by the time l hit the suit inflate l'd ploughed into the silt.
Then l'm on the way to the surface, dump and in the silt again, all the time Chris is hovering at 4mtrs. So at the end of a 30min 5m dive l'd used about 60 bar out of twin 12s of course this is usually not a problemo on the Pikey box.

[Paul Oliver]

Originally Posted by Diving Dude

l'd ploughed into the silt,
dump and in the silt again, So at the end of a 30min 5m dive l'd used about 60 bar out of twin 12s and ploughed a furrow across the Harbour in the silt, of course this is usually not a problemo on the Pikey box as i can spend hours in the silt and still have some gas left.

So back to your old OC tricks then, hmmmm i seem to remember the same tricks on the Pikey Death Box as well