Dover TGIF 26 Jan - 11 dive in a blizzard

[Gareth J]

Ok - it wasn't quite a blizzard, well actually it was sunny & warm - but there was snow on the hills.

After the long drive from Cambridge we arrived in good time (after driving through the small snow storm). Being tired & exhausted travellers, we fortified ourselves at the cafe prior to the dive. Where upon Captain Deco & Keith arrived as we considered a second coarse. After stories of daring do we returned to the car park to see the rest of the rable arrive.

Howard was limping around the car park, Mark was looking unsypathetic & Janos arrived.
Much kit fettling & last minute maintenance & the boat was loaded & we where ready to depart.
Paul turned up with his dog, & no dive kit complaining of a bad back, as usual he recieved much sympathy for his injuries!
Howard noticed he had no fins, so I lent him a spare set - about four sizes to small but he was sure they would function. With Howards little fopar the world seemed normal.

Keith had the right gas this time (a great improvement on the last trip I attended). Mark & Janos peered curiously at their computers quering the operation & off we went.

It was a little lumpy & in the end I had to ride shot gun to my rebreather to stop it falling of the bench. Some what damp I was pleased when we finally arrived on site.

The Dive - The vis' was pants, bumbling along the bottom swiming into things was the order of the day.
I was alternatly blinded by torches or unable to see a thing. Foolishly I forgot to switch set points for the first 5 minutes & should really have changed the handset for backlight on.
Eventually we overcame our excitment & made our way back to the shot to start our ascent a little early. Decompression was uneventful, except to note that on the end of my jon line I couldn't see the shot or any other divers!

Exiting we recieved the usual hospitality of Bacon Sarnies & Cups of Tea.

Howard called the dive - think the loss of feeling in his foot was either DCI or the fins where a little small.
Enter the sweep stake - what piece of dive kit will Howard forget on the next outing of our intrepid TGIF group? Who else will sucome to the effects of old age? What will their injury be?

In summary, better than a day in the office, plenty of fresh air & sun & a little salt spray, what more could you want?

Commiserations to Paul. Thanks for orgainising the boat.

Thanks to the group, for a good day out.

Gareth

[Paul Oliver]

Nice report Gareth, pity about the Viz as we have had some cracking dives in the last month or so.

Well it was nice getting down to see everyone and Ben enjoyed meeting the divers.

Hopefully some better viz next week.

[Diving Dude]

Gareth, blame the vis on the organiser, l usually do

Oh and yoy kit bitching duties fell well below the standard of the last gig we were on!
Lending me fins doesn't quiet take up the slack.

[hotelearith]

Course not coarse... unless you were describing the company.

[trebor]

Jesus....! That was one dark trip down the shot line. I think I should used my torch abit sooner to find the wreck instead of my head.... Its was like two dives in one. 2 metres viz in torch light and a night dive with torch off..

Managed to get my fin caught up in line. Thanks to the friendly hand that came out of the darkness and freed my fin.Cheers mate...

Overall wasnt to bad max depth 38.5 25 minutes bottom time 11 Deco. The run time was cut down to 45minutes.

Regards Rob

[G wizz]

it would be totally selfish to say my primary concern was retreiving the line so i won't say it ..... I'll just think it. As for the dive, dark but good for a return visit.

irony of the day was Mr Nature conservation extremely keen to devour the crab that was going spare, hope you enjoyed it.

Thanks Paul and fingers crossed for next week.

[trebor]

[quote=G wizz]it would be totally selfish to say my primary concern was retreiving the line so i won't say it .....

Thanks G wizz your a top guy all that same..


irony of the day was Mr Nature conservation extremely keen to devour the crab that was going spare, hope you enjoyed it.


Think this was because I twated him around the head with my twins

[Mark Chase]

Yep the sun shone out but for Team Chaos the dive didnt

I had some how managed to pick up the wrong suit inflation first stage and it had an Apex fitting on it so i had to run suit inflation off my 50% stage.


In we jump and going down the shot the suit inflate isnt working. I flashed Howard and said i had to anbort and i started to go up. I checked the vlave was on and tried again and I managed a trickle of gas into the suit. Must be something to do with the AP hose conector. Anyway down i go again and I meet Howard at 6 for the bubble check. Janous is confused as to me going up or down so i tried to signal down with the hand holding the torch which didnt work too well but I was holding tight to the shot with the other

The back light timer on my unit was set to 10 seconds but i was strugling to read the numbers before the light went out. This was very frustrating and i was basicly blind except for the HUD and i normaly do cell checks on the way down the shot so i wasn't happy.

Eventualy we droped down on to what i thaught was the wreck. I couldent see a dammed think. Howards fin's were bearley visable ahead of me and i couldent even see Janos's torch ahead of that. I wanted to stop and reprogram by back light timer but it was going to be dificult to signal the others in such poor viz, so reluctantly I carried on on just the HUD.

Howard turned and thumbed the dive. I agreed and lead the way back to the shot. Howard went up and i waited to make sure Janos was OK with the reel and stuff. Janous asked if Id like to carry on with the dive but i couldent see the point and i wasn't having fun anyway.

Back on the boat and I was reely pissed off. It seemed a long wait for this dive and stupid little things had made it not hapen. The viz away from the shot was diveable aparently but I had not got far enough to see that. Janos had managed to make clearer water which was why he wanted another crack. This news was even more frustrating. I sulked for a bit but in the end I was happier that someone went up with Howard and that dispite the crap conditions there was no drama.

Role on the 9th

ATB

Mark Chase

[trebor]

Would like to return to this one. In better viz. Im guessing we hit the bow just forward of big cargo hold. Didnt go in way to dark., Creepy

Rob

[Paul Oliver]

I plan a return later this year