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**Freef** · 31st May 2007, 19:53

Off to Dosthill again, this time with Rob. The carpark was quite crowded, but as I had been diving the site in the winter before maybe it is during the diving season [for those who have a break that is]. We had to park on the access road practically in a hedge. The Dolphin was in use again, with the plan of more note taking to work out my vO2 and then to be able to tune my gas choice for a greater depth.

Trogged down to the signing in hut to find a 25% increase in entry fee-now it’s a fiver. I nearly fell over at this above inflation increase. Trogged back up the hill to find some muppet had parked 6” from my rear bumper-well done. As I am not a plank [you may disagree by the end of this report] I had left enough space in front of my car to roll forwards a bit and to get in the boot. So we kitted up and jumped in for a wander to the right hand side. From about 14m down the vis went from OK to almost sod all. I was having a bit of a to do with my buoyancy and spent a few minutes stirring up the bottom and kicking Rob. Then Rob showed me his computer, which was blank, nice! I unstrapped my Vytec and gave him that. Although Rob dives with a backup computer/watch it’s not as easy for him to reach as my divetimer is for me to consult. We carried on the dive, which just got grimmer and grimmer. I was all over the shop and looked like I had done seven dives, not seven hundred. We bumped into the van, which I got Rob to swim through after I had stirred up the silt inside by one careless hand placement. Of course I played the same trick on him as I had Martyn and banged on the outside, but funnily Rob wasn’t impressed either. I need to find a buddy who is as easily amused as I am.

Things went further downhill from there. We somehow managed to find the little speedboat thing, and I was looking to head to the East side of the lake and ascend when my head went funny. I switched to open circuit and got ready to bail, but OC didn’t improve anything, and it was just my disorientation at the low vis. I have a scarred cornea from when I was a kid and if I look at a blank wall or surface I can see the scars, and it was this causing me to feel odd. We then saw a couple of divers below us, so we followed them for a bit until I checked my compass-North-and thought about turning right to the wall and ascending. So we went right, but instead of the bottom getting shallower, it got deeper. OK thinks I, lets try a heading of 45 degrees. Got deeper again. I’m lost now, as the depth should be somewhat less. Right, pop the blob then, so I signal to Rob we are scrubbing, and I switch to open circuit to inflate the SMB from my exhaled breath, something I can easily do while holding a 10m hover. But not today. I drop 3m to the silt, stir it up and feel a right prat. At least the blob went up OK. When we surfaced we were not too far from shore, and heading in the right direction, but I was totally clueless as to where we were. I’m glad I wasn’t leading a whole group around and Rob was too cold to take the mickey.

On the surface Rob was looking at an early bath. He hasn’t been in since 31st Dec, when he had to abort as he was coming down with a cold and felt bad. Today he was freezing cold and feeling bad. I was OK, a water temp of 8 and a rebreather helps, as does diving all through the winter to harden up. I got chatting to a lady in the queue for the food while Rob got a handwarmer out of the car. She was not having fun either, but she was still on her Ocean Diver course and in a drysuit for the first time, and foreswearing British diving. I made her day by giving her some gloves from a garage forecourt to make getting the wet gloves on easier, and leaving. I’m not sure which one made her day though.

I had a quick consult of the tables and we then got ready for dive 2, which was to be shallower and to the East side. The vis was better, and we went a little deeper while I looked for another object or 2 to play with, but below about 17m everything went very silty. At one point I thought we had found the shallow plateau at the South end of the lake, but we hadn’t. We turned the dive at that point and headed back at 5m and we came across the exit earlier than I thought we would. I had to commando crawl out to avoid a stuffing by the staff [no SMB on ascent], and bumped into Paul’s leg.

I know I was diving with Rob, and I hadn’t traded him in for another buddy, Paul was someone I used to teach with at Dodgy Dereks [Northampton Sub Aqua] and I haven’t seen him in years. We caught up and hopefully will be diving in the future, as I have enjoyed a splash with him in the past. Except for the Benny out of Portland, but that’s another story involving portholes, a missing DSMB, and thinking the boat had lost us.

Not a too unsuccessful day in all, lots of data for my vO2 calcs, and survived the experience, which is good. Into double figures on my Dolph too!

DIVE 1

24.3m 21 min vO2=1.15

SI 1h 15m

DIVE 2

17.7m 27 min vO2=0.90

31st May 2007, 19:53	#2 (permalink)
Freef Custom Title Disallowed! Current Rebreather/s: Dolphin Other Rebreather/s: Dolphin Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Land of the Freef, UK. Posts: 1,455	17th April How not to dive-a Masterclass. Off to Dosthill again, this time with Rob. The carpark was quite crowded, but as I had been diving the site in the winter before maybe it is during the diving season [for those who have a break that is]. We had to park on the access road practically in a hedge. The Dolphin was in use again, with the plan of more note taking to work out my vO2 and then to be able to tune my gas choice for a greater depth. Trogged down to the signing in hut to find a 25% increase in entry fee-now it’s a fiver. I nearly fell over at this above inflation increase. Trogged back up the hill to find some muppet had parked 6” from my rear bumper-well done. As I am not a plank [you may disagree by the end of this report] I had left enough space in front of my car to roll forwards a bit and to get in the boot. So we kitted up and jumped in for a wander to the right hand side. From about 14m down the vis went from OK to almost sod all. I was having a bit of a to do with my buoyancy and spent a few minutes stirring up the bottom and kicking Rob. Then Rob showed me his computer, which was blank, nice! I unstrapped my Vytec and gave him that. Although Rob dives with a backup computer/watch it’s not as easy for him to reach as my divetimer is for me to consult. We carried on the dive, which just got grimmer and grimmer. I was all over the shop and looked like I had done seven dives, not seven hundred. We bumped into the van, which I got Rob to swim through after I had stirred up the silt inside by one careless hand placement. Of course I played the same trick on him as I had Martyn and banged on the outside, but funnily Rob wasn’t impressed either. I need to find a buddy who is as easily amused as I am. Things went further downhill from there. We somehow managed to find the little speedboat thing, and I was looking to head to the East side of the lake and ascend when my head went funny. I switched to open circuit and got ready to bail, but OC didn’t improve anything, and it was just my disorientation at the low vis. I have a scarred cornea from when I was a kid and if I look at a blank wall or surface I can see the scars, and it was this causing me to feel odd. We then saw a couple of divers below us, so we followed them for a bit until I checked my compass-North-and thought about turning right to the wall and ascending. So we went right, but instead of the bottom getting shallower, it got deeper. OK thinks I, lets try a heading of 45 degrees. Got deeper again. I’m lost now, as the depth should be somewhat less. Right, pop the blob then, so I signal to Rob we are scrubbing, and I switch to open circuit to inflate the SMB from my exhaled breath, something I can easily do while holding a 10m hover. But not today. I drop 3m to the silt, stir it up and feel a right prat. At least the blob went up OK. When we surfaced we were not too far from shore, and heading in the right direction, but I was totally clueless as to where we were. I’m glad I wasn’t leading a whole group around and Rob was too cold to take the mickey. On the surface Rob was looking at an early bath. He hasn’t been in since 31st Dec, when he had to abort as he was coming down with a cold and felt bad. Today he was freezing cold and feeling bad. I was OK, a water temp of 8 and a rebreather helps, as does diving all through the winter to harden up. I got chatting to a lady in the queue for the food while Rob got a handwarmer out of the car. She was not having fun either, but she was still on her Ocean Diver course and in a drysuit for the first time, and foreswearing British diving. I made her day by giving her some gloves from a garage forecourt to make getting the wet gloves on easier, and leaving. I’m not sure which one made her day though. I had a quick consult of the tables and we then got ready for dive 2, which was to be shallower and to the East side. The vis was better, and we went a little deeper while I looked for another object or 2 to play with, but below about 17m everything went very silty. At one point I thought we had found the shallow plateau at the South end of the lake, but we hadn’t. We turned the dive at that point and headed back at 5m and we came across the exit earlier than I thought we would. I had to commando crawl out to avoid a stuffing by the staff [no SMB on ascent], and bumped into Paul’s leg. I know I was diving with Rob, and I hadn’t traded him in for another buddy, Paul was someone I used to teach with at Dodgy Dereks [Northampton Sub Aqua] and I haven’t seen him in years. We caught up and hopefully will be diving in the future, as I have enjoyed a splash with him in the past. Except for the Benny out of Portland, but that’s another story involving portholes, a missing DSMB, and thinking the boat had lost us. Not a too unsuccessful day in all, lots of data for my vO2 calcs, and survived the experience, which is good. Into double figures on my Dolph too! DIVE 1 24.3m 21 min vO2=1.15 SI 1h 15m DIVE 2 17.7m 27 min vO2=0.90 __________________ David. "I've got the whole cast of Fraggle Rock here; they're not happy..."
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