Do pumpkins grow underwater? Do they 'eck!

[SilvaFish]

Tonight was to be my first time at the NDAC. Who says that it isn't a good idea to dive a new place at night?

Arrived for half four, no drama, except for car deciding it was going to be a bad hair day. Anyway, had a quick look around and spotted how far away the water was from the carpark, and got my bearings for the place. Kitted up and was almost done when my buddies for the night, Bruce (RovingShark) and Pat arrived, along with wife and daughter.

Anyway, Bruce had knackered some seals on his suit in the Anglesey gig, so bought along another suit, which is black, thank god He hadn't worn it for a while and the neck seal was tight, so with faffing around with a pair of scissors, we managed to eventually get it sorted. So all eventually kitted up and waited for the first van to take us to the floating pontoon at the far side of the quarry, and by this time it was dark, but they had a few floodlights about.

Dive plan was to jump in, bimble and try to find some pumpkins (aka prizes). We did a free descent to what I was expecting 10 to low teens. It winded up straight down to 25m! I wondered why it took so long! My mask decided to misbehave all through the descent and dive, it kept flooding and I kept snorting water, so had to hold on to it on the descent. Was fine even though I could not look at my computer; I just thought, follow the light below. Got to the bottom and noticed that Pat was missing; eventually found out that he had equalisation problems and by the time he managed to descend, we weren't to be seen. Anyway, since I haven't dived to depth regular enough and after my long break from proper diving, and it was dark, the narcosis started to set in. Me and Bruce were bimbling at 27m, when I thought I saw a pumpkin - it turned out to be an orange sleeve from a ladies' drysuit! I just hope that I didn't dazzle her too badly with my torch; but she looked in a worse state than I felt, but her buddy was close by.

During the dive, we saw a missile (which I giggled at), a 'pumpkin', a couple of tunnels to swim through (we didn't), and a gnome garden (after I got entangled on an underwater line; wondered why my fins weren't working, as Bruce swam further away. Eventually, I followed the line with my hand to the back of my head and sorted it) at the 20m shelf.

I was fine so long I could see rocks at the bottom, but we came across a bit of silty bottom and I got very disorientated. Around this point, I signalled that I wanted to go shallower, firstly as the narcosis just wasn't going, and secondly, my gas was shooting down as I didn't feel comfortable for the first 15 minutes of the dive. Eventually found a cliff face and ascended to 16m, and I think we swam to where it drops of to the infamous deeper bits, so turned around and swam back, whilst ascending further to 9m or so. On the 9m shelf, apart from a pile of tyres and another gnome garden with 2 gnomes and a bowl, I also found a string bag full of gnomes! Ok, at first I thought of lifting it, but I didn't think my smb would have coped

Safety stop at 3m, got out (horrible ladders!) and a nice, bumpy ride back to the carpark later, my right arm was wringing wet. Must have caught undersuit in wrist seal somehow. All in all, a good dive, shame that Pat couldn't make it down, but educational all the same. Time for some more kit fettling! And it's amazing to realise how dependent I am on my computer.

Stats
14 degrees, 27m, 50 minutes, pitch black.

Cheers,
Lou

[Rovingshark]

All things considered, I've done dives that have gone better. An unfamiliar suit on a night dive isn't a great start- that feeling of being garrotted is one I don't intend being accustomed to. An injured coccyx didn't entirely help either.

I watched the first of the threesome (Pat) make his way back to the surface at the beginning of the dive and decided it was going to be one of those dives I'd just have to endure. Conditions weren't exactly Sharm-like and so we stayed shoulder-to-shoulder for most of the dive; although it possibly seemed further, we were never more than about 3 metres apart.

Lost? Only about 50-60% of the time. In the dark, one rock looks pretty much like another and I decided that if in doubt head northeast; try following a compass course whilst searching for pumpkins by torchlight! Having said that, there were places where the floodlights illuminated up to 15m down to the extent that I didn't need my torch- I was both surprised and impressed.

For the exit at the ladders Silvafish (Lou) had a few cramp issues and I had visions of needing a block & tackle but a little help from the staff had it all sorted.

The verdict? An interesting experience and educational as to how to do better next time.

[Mark Griffith]

So did you find any pumpkins and what were the prizes? sounds like you had fun.
We got blown out yesterday
cheers
Mark

[Buoyant Babe]

Nice report Lou!

Hx

[SilvaFish]

Originally Posted by Mark Griffith

So did you find any pumpkins and what were the prizes? sounds like you had fun.
We got blown out yesterday
cheers
Mark

Nah, the only pumpkin we found was the on on the surface which Pat's daughter had carved. Somehow I think we were diving too deep for them. No matter what, had fun all the same, but would like to do NDAC during the day though

And yep, it started to rain during the post dive BBQ platter!

[SilvaFish]

Originally Posted by Buoyant Babe

Nice report Lou!

Hx

Cheers H, and I think can say now the Fish is back!

[Madfish]

Sounds like fun - Steve & I must have just missed you yesterday - we left NDAC around 4pm and the staff had been working hard all day with the preparations for the Halloween Night dive.

Di