Falmouth Deep Weekend 11/12 Aug '07

[Okeanos]

Firstly thanks to Gary for organising the trip.

The weekend was originally planned on Autumn Dream, but due to circumstances he arranged for us to be on Gary Fox's 'Cornish Pussy'. We left Falmouth at a reasonable tine of 10:30 and headed out to the first days site, the HMS Eskdale, an 80m long Hunt Class destroyer sunk in 1942. It was an hour out so plenty of time to get ready in the glorious sunshine and on flat seas. A mixture of CCR and OC divers with varying run times completed their pre-dive routines, mine was eating the chocolate digestives Gary (Fox) had put out for us By the time we got there slack water was just about to start and in went the divers. I reached a maximum depth of 69.1m, I only had a short run time of 28 minutes, I really don't like deco. I made my way around part of the wreck which had loads of Congers, including one just lying outside the wreck. I didn't see any lobsters, apart from a langoustine, 2 other divers sent them for a ride. There were shoals of Bib and a few Pollack, the was a lot more before we got there but some local fishermen was pulling them out for a pastime! There were several things of interest including a large collection of anti-aircraft shells. There were also some bigger shells spotted at the bow. The visibility wasn't the best at around 6-7m but it was quite bright, torches allowed us to see stuff but you could see without them. The wreck is quite broken but still has lots of bits standing 5-6m tall. As it was just coming off of neap tides we all bagged off, while floating around I came across another diver. Something to watch, especially entertaining when I saw him trying to inflate a Lions Man Jelly Fish when it got a bit close Once again Gary served Cadburys

Day 2 saw us leave 1/2 an hour laterm the wreck was a little further out, but we made good time and waited close-by for a little while. I'd remembered my sandwiches today so didn't do the nicking biscuit routine. Todays dive was the Lydie, a 95m long cargo ship sunk in 1918. A couple of divers managed to kit up whilst still tied to the boat One CCR diver had a cell failure on their descent and called their dive. Another jumped in before being told to and had to be relocated to the shot line. A good start to the days dive. The vis today wasn't as good as yesterday, 4-5m at most, and it was a lot darker. Swimming around I found a small porthole that I decided had to be cleaned up and a compass gimble with its lead bottom. My maximum depth was 66.7m and I used the same dive slate as yesterday. The wreck was quite tall in places, 61m at the top and there were places you could swim into, by accident if you weren't looking. A few crabs, one conger, loads of Bib and a single Pollack were all the life around there. I headed back to the shot, ascended to my first stop then bagged off. No others divers for me to watch today, luckliy I had my MP3 player loaded with a load of rap music! It had it one when I bought it, pressing the 'next' button kept me busy during deco.

Back on the boat there was a helm from the boat, it was an iron helm but at least it had a brass centre to the wheel and a brass top plate. Another diver already back aboard managed to leave the shot on their descent and missed the wreck! While diver were appearing it also turned out that one couldn't work their dive computer, 7% for a deco gas isn't breathable at 6m and it wasn't happy. Although he did say he had a pipefish come over to him to take the piss out of him.

Gary handed out the chocolate again and we all went home with our new found sun tans.

A good weekend

[warmwaterdiver]

yeap another great weekend

good to catch up with old friends and as well as meet some new faces

very little spare time but I think I caught up with everyone at sometime over the weekend

[Lou]

Originally Posted by Okeanos

...... I'd remembered my sandwiches today so didn't do the nicking biscuit routine. .......A couple of divers managed to kit up whilst still tied to the boat ....... Another jumped in before being told to and had to be relocated to the shot line. ........Another diver already back aboard managed to leave the shot on their descent and missed the wreck!.........While diver were appearing it also turned out that one couldn't work their dive computer, 7% for a deco gas isn't breathable at 6m and it wasn't happy. Although he did say he had a pipefish come over to him to take the piss out of him.

.

Titter....




Sounds like a grand day or two out, however. At least the weather held. Did you see the baskers that Gary told us about on Friday though? Forget all that metal rubbish

[Okeanos]

Originally Posted by Lou

Did you see the baskers that Gary told us about on Friday though? Forget all that metal rubbish

No baskers, we weren't far enough around. No life of any interest at all really apart from the Langoustine.

Metal rubbish! It wasn't all rubbish!

[JasonP]

Originally Posted by Okeanos

! While diver were appearing it also turned out that one couldn't work their dive computer, 7% for a deco gas isn't breathable at 6m and it wasn't happy. Although he did say he had a pipefish come over to him to take the piss out of him.

No 7% at 6m is fine. It was only when I got to 3m that it really got the arse. You have to stop but your mix is hypoxic. There's a lot to be said fr memorising your deco schedule when the masking tape floats off your wrist. Still it livened the day up. Newquay was scary on Sunday night and I was partically impressed by the guy in the B&B who brought his pint of Magmers to breakfast at 8.45 on Monday morning. Waves were gnarly. Dooooooooooooooooooooode.

Jason

[Okeanos]

Originally Posted by JasonP

No 7% at 6m is fine. It was only when I got to 3m that it really got the arse. You have to stop but your mix is hypoxic.

I'm glad I don't use a Cochran for working out my PPO, 7% at 12m is hypoxic!!

Did the Magners still have the ice in it? It's only Bulmers without the ice.

Hang ten Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude....................