Imported post
4.30 A pigging M the alarm goes off, 4.40 AM I have a strange pain in my leg, ah it's Lizzy kicking the living daylights out of me the alarm is going off again. Crawl out of bed, stagger downstairs, drink coffee.
Thank god the car was packed last night. Guess what at 5.00 AM it is dark outside. The next thing I know I am in Brighton, the journey passed without me noticing it.
We're out out on Nauticat again, I like this boat, the guy who drives it (Steve) is a good bloke, he now knows me well enough to know you stick a cup of coffee in my hand and leave me alone until the kit is set up.
The journey to the Duke is about 2 hours, once again it is a flat calm, this has been an amazing year, we started off thinking we were lucky, now I know we are, it's October for heavens sake and still calm. It is a dark and over cast day, Mark remarks that it will be dark on the Duke, it is apparently renowned as a dark wreck. I have not had a dive for the better part of two weeks, I just don't care, it could be pitch black, I can't bleeding wait.
As is usual Mark and I have the longest dive plan, first in last out, this usually entails a hual down the shot at right angles to the wreck, but no, a nice an easy drop, only trouble was some guy with an RB had got into the middle, no fuss, but boy is he going down slowly.
Now, I got a little glass bowl off this wreck, it made an ideal ash tray, it unfortunatly got broken, so, we had a simple dive plan, hit shot, trun right, find ash tray, find crab / lobster for Mark go for bimble.
It is dark, but great fun, I had a cracking dive, all was accomplished bar the lobster, we did find a big-un, unfortunatly about half a yard from it was a Conger of equally impressive proportions, the Lobster lives, I nearly caught a tidler, but it errrrr, got away.
So, it's the end of the dive, got the old CD reel, unfurl the bag, three puffs and off, well no actually the reel jams, god bless it, I try all the tricks, but to no avail, I held on to it for about 5M but it had to go, so off it goes £120.00 worth of reel and bag which are now somewhere in the Channel, bloody great.
Send up second reel, turn to look at Mark. Mark looks less than happy, in fact Mark could not have looked less happy if the crab he had caught was inside his drysuit.
Do deco, get to 6M and Mark clips himself off on his bag. Well as we all know, this is not a good thing to do, at this point I realise he is not only unhappy but in a bit of trouble, the only reason to clip yourself off if is you think there is a chance you will pass out, I don't know about you but I would rather pass out at 6M and stay there than drop back down to 60M.
It turns out poor old Mark had got one of those diving headaches, you know the ones, it feels like somebody has just put your head in a car door and shut it very hard. The last straw was me having a fight with the reel, just enough stress to turn discomfort into agony. However, we have the cure, a Big Mac, next time Mark mentions he might have a bend, worry not, give him a Big Mac and he will be fine.
All in all a great dive on one of the best wrecks I know, if you intend to dive it, do it soon, it has become quite popular and people are beginging to strip all the goodies off her, there is still plenty down there, but for how much longer.
Take care,
Andrew
4.30 A pigging M the alarm goes off, 4.40 AM I have a strange pain in my leg, ah it's Lizzy kicking the living daylights out of me the alarm is going off again. Crawl out of bed, stagger downstairs, drink coffee.
Thank god the car was packed last night. Guess what at 5.00 AM it is dark outside. The next thing I know I am in Brighton, the journey passed without me noticing it.
We're out out on Nauticat again, I like this boat, the guy who drives it (Steve) is a good bloke, he now knows me well enough to know you stick a cup of coffee in my hand and leave me alone until the kit is set up.
The journey to the Duke is about 2 hours, once again it is a flat calm, this has been an amazing year, we started off thinking we were lucky, now I know we are, it's October for heavens sake and still calm. It is a dark and over cast day, Mark remarks that it will be dark on the Duke, it is apparently renowned as a dark wreck. I have not had a dive for the better part of two weeks, I just don't care, it could be pitch black, I can't bleeding wait.
As is usual Mark and I have the longest dive plan, first in last out, this usually entails a hual down the shot at right angles to the wreck, but no, a nice an easy drop, only trouble was some guy with an RB had got into the middle, no fuss, but boy is he going down slowly.
Now, I got a little glass bowl off this wreck, it made an ideal ash tray, it unfortunatly got broken, so, we had a simple dive plan, hit shot, trun right, find ash tray, find crab / lobster for Mark go for bimble.
It is dark, but great fun, I had a cracking dive, all was accomplished bar the lobster, we did find a big-un, unfortunatly about half a yard from it was a Conger of equally impressive proportions, the Lobster lives, I nearly caught a tidler, but it errrrr, got away.
So, it's the end of the dive, got the old CD reel, unfurl the bag, three puffs and off, well no actually the reel jams, god bless it, I try all the tricks, but to no avail, I held on to it for about 5M but it had to go, so off it goes £120.00 worth of reel and bag which are now somewhere in the Channel, bloody great.
Send up second reel, turn to look at Mark. Mark looks less than happy, in fact Mark could not have looked less happy if the crab he had caught was inside his drysuit.
Do deco, get to 6M and Mark clips himself off on his bag. Well as we all know, this is not a good thing to do, at this point I realise he is not only unhappy but in a bit of trouble, the only reason to clip yourself off if is you think there is a chance you will pass out, I don't know about you but I would rather pass out at 6M and stay there than drop back down to 60M.
It turns out poor old Mark had got one of those diving headaches, you know the ones, it feels like somebody has just put your head in a car door and shut it very hard. The last straw was me having a fight with the reel, just enough stress to turn discomfort into agony. However, we have the cure, a Big Mac, next time Mark mentions he might have a bend, worry not, give him a Big Mac and he will be fine.
All in all a great dive on one of the best wrecks I know, if you intend to dive it, do it soon, it has become quite popular and people are beginging to strip all the goodies off her, there is still plenty down there, but for how much longer.
Take care,
Andrew