Lost inside a wreck at 45m (again) :D

[Steve S]

Originally Posted by nickb

Which is just as well, 'cos Tootricky and I had to rely on yours when we found ourselves inside the Sky last Easter

I bought myself a Pathfinder after that little episode

Aye, if in doubt I always reel out

Safe diving,
Steve

[NotDeadYet]

What was that post about should wreck divers have to do a course for cave diving or something like that?

[Woz]

Did, at any time during the dive, you have A Bit Of A Cry?

[Diving Dude]

Originally Posted by Woz

Did, at any time during the dive, you have A Bit Of A Cry?

l think it was when he realized that l wasn't coming out to play.

He's a big softy really.

[Drmike]

Originally Posted by Mark Chase

Following the gales and near hurricanes of Monday, Tuesday I had thought the possibility of getting on the Moldavia to be right up there with the chances of the wife whole heartedly embracing the 14th March Steak and BJ event and getting that Nurses outfit we (I) had discussed..

But wait????? No it cant be true??? Yes were going diving.


Having discovered this at about lunchtime on a busy Thursday i was left a bit short because the unit was literally in bits and my tanks were empty. Much fafing around later and i am in bed trying to run through a mental check list of what i needed for the UK diving thing i used to do ages ago.

At 2am I lept out of bed and went to the garage to find my back up SMB

At an absolutely horrible 4:30 am the alarm goes off and I am sitting on the side of the bed wondering what pleasure a winter dive on the Moldavia could possibly bring that makes feeling as crap as this worth it.

5am and i am off in the general direction of Oxted to collect Janos.

We pitch up at 6:30am Brighton time and meet and greet with Nigel, ScubaJay, JP Taylor and wait???? whooooooosssss this????

YES its AndyP

And he's alllllllmost early and I believe he loaded all his own dive kit.

Once the nurse had revived me with smelling salts we set off an an oily sea with only a lazy Atlantic style swell to spoil the ride.

Shot in kit on and Janos leads the way with AndyP in the middle and me bringing up the rear.

Sadly the decent didn't go to well. Janos had a free flow on the Paragon Bov Andyp was struggling to turn his suit inflation bottle on and i was struggling to clear my ears after the ear infection in Mexico. Then Janos is bailing to Open Circuit and showing me a dead Shearwater Display.

I thought this was a bit of a drastic way of not diving with AndyP but I gave him the OK and made sure he was on the right gas to ascend.

Slowly but surely Andrew and I made it to the wreck at 47m and we were greeted with 2m viz. The worst I have ever had on the Moll. I tried to get Andrew to lead so i could keep an eye on him (His first dive for quite some time) but he hates leading and tucked in behind me.

In no time at all we were inside the wreck.

I was checking up and noticed the ceiling of steel above us so i turned the dive and signaled the overhead to Andrew who called me a twat and let me again lead the way back to the shot.

I recognized a curved arm from one of the lifeboats and realized we were about mid ships. I moved out on to the gravel and turned right to try and keep away from the main wreckage and the overheads but I nearly lost the wreck for a moment. Then I noticed a large section of supa structure and headed for that collecting and bagging a large crab along the way.

With a steel wall to my right for reference we set off again rummaging in the two m viz but I began to notice the viz was improving. Shining the torch up I realized we were again inside the wreck.

I turned around so the steel wall was now on my left and we headed back out.

Except we didn't get out we just headed along in ever improving viz until in the end we had a good 4m of viz and a corridor that was getting ever smaller between the hull plates and the wooden decking of the wreck.

This was frustrating

A quick check on the computer found we had been down 25mins and we were on CCR so no drama but I felt it best to find a way out ASAP

Then I noticed a torch beam so I finned over to a hole in the hull plate and stuck my head out to see two divers on the outside. (I think it was Nigel) I considered trying to communicate to them we were a tad lost but decided the probability was they'd end up in hear two.

I wanked the steel plateing back and forth to see if in a push we could get out of the hole but it was too strong.

Fortunately we had had good trim through the wreck and the way behind was as clear as it could be. We headed back and I kept an eye out for holes in the wreck. Soon i noticed a hole below us but it was very black and didn't look promising. We dropped down and stuck our heads out but I still wasn't sure we were in open water as some areas of the inside of the Moll are pretty big.

Andyp had had enough and thumbed the dive so the moment of truth came when we sent up our SMBs. Luckily the line peeled rapidly from my reel and it was obvious we were good to go.

The ascent was a tad slow but it had been a while for Andrew and slow was a good thing. I left the bottom with 24mins showing for deco and by the time we got to 9m I had 25mins showing


Back on board and Andrew dekits and comes round and says "

"Thanks Mark"

"What was that??? Three times you got us inside the wreck? Oh and that last time was a peach"

Having proved to Andrew my wreck navigation skills haven't improved much in the two odd years since we last dived together I asked if he had got a bit nervous the last time we were lost and was that the reason he thumbed the dive.

Andrew said..

Don't be stupid were on CCR? I thumbed it coz I was bloody freezing

Sadly Janos had had a battery failure on his Shearwater which is why he canned the dive. I cant say he missed much but we got wet and had a laugh and for diving in March thats about all I expect.

Anyway the viz inside the wreck was much better

ATB

Mark

Not running a line in bad viz on a wreck is silly
Not doing it a 2nd time on same dive kinda careless
Not doing it a 3rd time real stupid

Guess you didnt learn a damn thing on your cave course on the importance of always running lines!

Sorry Mark but this is BS. When ever theres a RISK of being in an overhead you run a line - period. Bad vis on a wreck is a time when you are always at risk of running into an overhead.



trust me the 'im on a ccr hero' bs doesnt last long when you really get lost youll be writing your farewell note just as I did after only half an hour!

[Mark Chase]

Originally Posted by Drmike

Not running a line in bad viz on a wreck is silly
Not doing it a 2nd time on same dive kinda careless
Not doing it a 3rd time real stupid

Guess you didnt learn a damn thing on your cave course on the importance of always running lines!

Sorry Mark but this is BS. When ever theres a RISK of being in an overhead you run a line - period. Bad vis on a wreck is a time when you are always at risk of running into an overhead.

trust me the 'im on a ccr hero' bs doesnt last long when you really get lost youll be writing your farewell note just as I did after only half an hour!

Perhaps if you had dived the Moll 18 times Mike you'd have a diferent opinion.

The situation never got past mildly iritating.

Please ignore the flipancy of the story I was trying to be mildly amusing.


ATB

Mark

[Drmike]

Originally Posted by Mark Chase

Perhaps if you had dived the Moll 18 times Mike you'd have a diferent opinion.

well you having dived it 18 times didnt stop you from getting lost inside it 3 times so I dont see that is much of a defense. lol!

The situation never got past mildly iritating.

luckily for you.

Please ignore the flipancy of the story I was trying to be mildly amusing.

we clearly share a different sense of humour

[scuba steve irl]

i hate diving with no ref point . and in bad vis .

good stuff you got out .

mark 1 up on the lessons learnt board ,

[Fiona]

Originally Posted by mark chase

I wanked the steel plateing back and forth to see if in a push we could get out of the hole but it was too strong.

Interesting phrase Mark, or is it one of your dyslexic moments

[fatlaz]

Is that not a purely technical term? Used to work in a kit car factory and the phrase was often used either as an instruction for breaking metal away from metal or for getting say, a rod, into a hole or channel