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**Freef** · 31st May 2007, 20:55

The Last Gasp of 2006 was [yet] another trip to Stoney, which is convenient enough for most of my regular buddies to get to, and the irregular ones as well. Of the roll call of this years more-or-less willing victims Claire is currently in hibernation, Caroline is still living down the repeated locking her car keys in the boot, Steve was elsewhere, as was Barry, Ro decided that if I dragged her into the water this time of year she would kill me, and Terry and Karen stayed ‘dahn sarf’. YD occasionals Scuba Sue and Frankie Price weren’t available either, so the YD trip was made up of Leslie [Sexydivebuddy], hubby Mal, Tiggerbiker, Lee [Yipeediver] and Alex. Also there were Ian@1904 and his buddies, and late arrivals at the Scuba Diving Ball were Derek [Ratcliffe] and Spacehopper who was on an excursion from China. There was another diver present but as they are in Witness Protection from the Blonde Mafia they cannot be named.

After a drive up in the dark I set up the Dolphin with the aid of the rechargeable light I got from Screw-Fix a while ago, and it’s worth it’s weight in plastic and glass. Then there was enough time to harass one of the staff about the early closing time and the entry fee. We could only dive from 0700-1200, so I suggested that we should only pay £6 instead of £8. The lad I was talking to suggested that I speak to Margaret about that. I decided to shut up. All the checks completed I chatted to a few of the other early morning arrivals before the gates opened and we were let loose in the bottom car park. I managed to grab the place next to the bus stop entry for an easy walk down and checked the state of the tide. It looked like a spring as the water was nearly to the level of the bus stop, and was lapping over the ‘quayside’ under the pub.

Leslie was showing off her Submatix mCCR. They have now got CE approval for the CCR version, and it is pretty much the same as the SCR that I had a look at when I was at the dive show a couple of years ago. I thought that the nested counterlungs were a bit odd, and as I had already trained on the Dolphin I opted for that instead.

Ian@1904 arrived with his buddies and proceeded to try to tan himself with the rechargeable fluorescent light I was using. I think he has been diving with Derek too many times and some of the madness is rubbing off.

The plan was to split the group in two for the dives. Those that were pit qualified were to head off to the hydrobox to see if any gnomes had survived the arsehole element, and if so to safely transplant them to a place where they could run free and live the lives that gnomes should be able to without the fear of a couple of tossers who want to smash them up. Alex and I were paired up for the dive, although we were to dive in a group of four with Lee and ‘X’. Lee was to lead the way. His dive plan was to go to the ‘box via the road, circle it clockwise and then head off to the gnome garden. I was to be team photographer with my luddite 35mm MM2 and Alex was to plant another gnome from the remains of Leslies collection. A ‘meet at the bus stop’ time of 0800 was set, which allowed Alex and I to pre-breathe our respective scrubbers and ‘X’ to put on several dozen layers to keep out the cold.

At the appointed time we dropped in with all the grace of an invalid walrus. Alex and I did a bubble check on each other as Lee led off to the pit with ‘X’. The others had some seriously bright torches on, despite it being clear enough to see with no artificial light. We dropped past 18m and followed the road further down past the pan pipes and soon we were at 30m and heading off to the right and the hydrobox. The visibility was in excess of 10m, even without torches and we were on the box easily enough. I decided to circle anticlockwise to catch Lee and the rest as they came around, but after a quick look under the ‘box, Lee saw the wreckage of the gnomes previously planted and headed off to the garden. My pO2 was rather high in the pit, and the bypass was triggering a lot on the Dolphin, which later turned out to be caused by a slightly trapped counterlung.

I soon caught up with Alex and we followed the lights of the other pair into the distance. After a swim that seemed longer than it should and the appropriate change of depth we were at the garden and the others dropped gnomes as I took some pictures. The existing gnomes were still in place and after planting theirs Lee and ‘X’ began to head back. Alex and I had a little longer then set course for the bus. The Stanegarth was next where Alex had a rebreather buoyancy moment as he ran through some drills. We were well into deco at this point so we headed back along the chain towards the cliff.

After we came across the anchor we began to head up the cliff, with Alex stopping at 15m for a 2 minute microbubble stop as indicated by his VR3. Stop done I switched to my OC deco mix and we slowly ascended the wall. Pausing again I indicated to Alex that he needed to move as there were some divers coming his way, but he got the hint when Mal backed into him as he escorted Leslie down the cliff on her Submatix, followed by Tiggerbiker.

When we were at 10m we were back on the road and ascended to the cockpit for out deco stop of five minutes. We both took the chance to practice our buoyancy and Alex did a flush to 100% O2 in his loop. I was starting to get a little chilled at this point, wearing my Xerotherms and Weezle Compact, so for the longer dives I will soon be looking at the Extreme over a layer of thermals and the lobster mitts over the 5mm five-finger ones that I currently use. We had a nice slow ascent to the step where I did the landing craft manoeuvre to get out.

Back at the cars we reunite with Lee and a very chilly ‘X’ whose drysuit was a bit wet. They had been out of the water for about ten minutes and dekitted while we struggled up with various rebreathers, stages, cameras and assorted junk. After a while Leslie and co returned and I confronted Mal with the phrase ‘Oi you, you kicked my buddy in the head’, but he didn’t seem overly threatened by my manly physique. Bragging was being done by one of the group that he needed a chainsaw to put enough notches in his bedpost until it was pointed out that there has to be more than one person in the bed when nocturnal jollies are being undertaken for it to count. I passed around the chocolate donuts, and most people passed them up, leaving more for me.

Coffee was drunk, tall takes were told and mickey was taken in equal measures. Alex impressed us all with his finest bone china tea set which made our battered tin mugs look battered and tinny. He also made himself a set of very posh sandwiches while the rest of us tucked into the junk food we had brought along. It was a rare occasion today and I didn’t visit the food hatch, although Lee was off there like a shot in case the young lady he chats up was in there again. I had to recharge the Dolphin’s cylinder and the sidemount for dive two, and once again the decanting whip came into its own.

Time began to knock on so I attempted to round up the group for dive two, planned in water time of 1100. At ten to some of the group were still faffing so Alex and I wandered down to the water. We gave them ten minutes, then another five before we decided that we should get in and get the skills practiced that Alex wanted to get a bit more familiar with.

The usual course of blockhouse and coach was followed to begin with, then it was off to the Stanegarth where I showed Alex the grille that is the marker for the swim to the Mini. Another group had asked me where the Mini was while w had our surface interval, and by the silt around the location it looks like they found it.

A quick circumnavigate of the car and we made our way back to the blunt end of the tug then on to the helicopter. No dive with a new buddy would have been complete without Jaws making an appearance, so after suitably distracting Alex he was waved in my buddies face. We saw two more divers whom I menaced with the 5” rubber shark before we began our ascent of the wall, stopping every 3m to allow Alex to check his buoyancy on simulated deco stops on the wall.

Back at 6m we fed the fish by stirring up the bottom for a while. Alex’s torch was bright enough to start poaching them while they swam, but rather than eat cooked perch it was time to decamp to the pub for a warm one. I had some scoff, and after a while ‘X’ decided to order some as well, but the place was closing as it wasn’t open in the evening, and the best they could do was cheesy chips.

A few of the old lags asked if Caroline had got her keys locked in the car again, but I didn’t know as she wasn’t with us. Lee was airing the thought that he might turn gay if men were ‘less trouble’ than women to get along with. The inevitable stony silence was relieved by my food arriving, which was soon demolished.

A nice days diving to round off the year, we all had a good giggle, gnomes were planted and currently unmolested and we all wandered off fed and watered. The vis was good at 10m in the pit and on dive on the whole of the Stanegarth could be seen from the stern, but the vis went down a bit on dive two. The water is still 8 degrees from surface to pit, and it won’t be long before it drops a bit more. I only managed 69 dives this year, all inland after spraining my ankle at the end of March. I’ve also managed to only get into five different sites, Stoney, Vobster, Guildy, Capernwray and Wastwater. July was completely dive free for a change, but hopefully 2007 will see me in the briny.

Dive Data:

Dive 1
34.7 m
55 min

SI: 2 h 4 min

Dive 2
21.3 m
38 min
vO2= 1.22

31st May 2007, 20:55	#16 (permalink)
Freef Custom Title Disallowed! Current Rebreather/s: Dolphin Other Rebreather/s: Dolphin Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Land of the Freef, UK. Posts: 1,412	31st December "You’re only supposed to put a notch in the bedpost when there is someo The Last Gasp of 2006 was [yet] another trip to Stoney, which is convenient enough for most of my regular buddies to get to, and the irregular ones as well. Of the roll call of this years more-or-less willing victims Claire is currently in hibernation, Caroline is still living down the repeated locking her car keys in the boot, Steve was elsewhere, as was Barry, Ro decided that if I dragged her into the water this time of year she would kill me, and Terry and Karen stayed ‘dahn sarf’. YD occasionals Scuba Sue and Frankie Price weren’t available either, so the YD trip was made up of Leslie [Sexydivebuddy], hubby Mal, Tiggerbiker, Lee [Yipeediver] and Alex. Also there were Ian@1904 and his buddies, and late arrivals at the Scuba Diving Ball were Derek [Ratcliffe] and Spacehopper who was on an excursion from China. There was another diver present but as they are in Witness Protection from the Blonde Mafia they cannot be named. After a drive up in the dark I set up the Dolphin with the aid of the rechargeable light I got from Screw-Fix a while ago, and it’s worth it’s weight in plastic and glass. Then there was enough time to harass one of the staff about the early closing time and the entry fee. We could only dive from 0700-1200, so I suggested that we should only pay £6 instead of £8. The lad I was talking to suggested that I speak to Margaret about that. I decided to shut up. All the checks completed I chatted to a few of the other early morning arrivals before the gates opened and we were let loose in the bottom car park. I managed to grab the place next to the bus stop entry for an easy walk down and checked the state of the tide. It looked like a spring as the water was nearly to the level of the bus stop, and was lapping over the ‘quayside’ under the pub. Leslie was showing off her Submatix mCCR. They have now got CE approval for the CCR version, and it is pretty much the same as the SCR that I had a look at when I was at the dive show a couple of years ago. I thought that the nested counterlungs were a bit odd, and as I had already trained on the Dolphin I opted for that instead. Ian@1904 arrived with his buddies and proceeded to try to tan himself with the rechargeable fluorescent light I was using. I think he has been diving with Derek too many times and some of the madness is rubbing off. The plan was to split the group in two for the dives. Those that were pit qualified were to head off to the hydrobox to see if any gnomes had survived the arsehole element, and if so to safely transplant them to a place where they could run free and live the lives that gnomes should be able to without the fear of a couple of tossers who want to smash them up. Alex and I were paired up for the dive, although we were to dive in a group of four with Lee and ‘X’. Lee was to lead the way. His dive plan was to go to the ‘box via the road, circle it clockwise and then head off to the gnome garden. I was to be team photographer with my luddite 35mm MM2 and Alex was to plant another gnome from the remains of Leslies collection. A ‘meet at the bus stop’ time of 0800 was set, which allowed Alex and I to pre-breathe our respective scrubbers and ‘X’ to put on several dozen layers to keep out the cold. At the appointed time we dropped in with all the grace of an invalid walrus. Alex and I did a bubble check on each other as Lee led off to the pit with ‘X’. The others had some seriously bright torches on, despite it being clear enough to see with no artificial light. We dropped past 18m and followed the road further down past the pan pipes and soon we were at 30m and heading off to the right and the hydrobox. The visibility was in excess of 10m, even without torches and we were on the box easily enough. I decided to circle anticlockwise to catch Lee and the rest as they came around, but after a quick look under the ‘box, Lee saw the wreckage of the gnomes previously planted and headed off to the garden. My pO2 was rather high in the pit, and the bypass was triggering a lot on the Dolphin, which later turned out to be caused by a slightly trapped counterlung. I soon caught up with Alex and we followed the lights of the other pair into the distance. After a swim that seemed longer than it should and the appropriate change of depth we were at the garden and the others dropped gnomes as I took some pictures. The existing gnomes were still in place and after planting theirs Lee and ‘X’ began to head back. Alex and I had a little longer then set course for the bus. The Stanegarth was next where Alex had a rebreather buoyancy moment as he ran through some drills. We were well into deco at this point so we headed back along the chain towards the cliff. After we came across the anchor we began to head up the cliff, with Alex stopping at 15m for a 2 minute microbubble stop as indicated by his VR3. Stop done I switched to my OC deco mix and we slowly ascended the wall. Pausing again I indicated to Alex that he needed to move as there were some divers coming his way, but he got the hint when Mal backed into him as he escorted Leslie down the cliff on her Submatix, followed by Tiggerbiker. When we were at 10m we were back on the road and ascended to the cockpit for out deco stop of five minutes. We both took the chance to practice our buoyancy and Alex did a flush to 100% O2 in his loop. I was starting to get a little chilled at this point, wearing my Xerotherms and Weezle Compact, so for the longer dives I will soon be looking at the Extreme over a layer of thermals and the lobster mitts over the 5mm five-finger ones that I currently use. We had a nice slow ascent to the step where I did the landing craft manoeuvre to get out. Back at the cars we reunite with Lee and a very chilly ‘X’ whose drysuit was a bit wet. They had been out of the water for about ten minutes and dekitted while we struggled up with various rebreathers, stages, cameras and assorted junk. After a while Leslie and co returned and I confronted Mal with the phrase ‘Oi you, you kicked my buddy in the head’, but he didn’t seem overly threatened by my manly physique. Bragging was being done by one of the group that he needed a chainsaw to put enough notches in his bedpost until it was pointed out that there has to be more than one person in the bed when nocturnal jollies are being undertaken for it to count. I passed around the chocolate donuts, and most people passed them up, leaving more for me. Coffee was drunk, tall takes were told and mickey was taken in equal measures. Alex impressed us all with his finest bone china tea set which made our battered tin mugs look battered and tinny. He also made himself a set of very posh sandwiches while the rest of us tucked into the junk food we had brought along. It was a rare occasion today and I didn’t visit the food hatch, although Lee was off there like a shot in case the young lady he chats up was in there again. I had to recharge the Dolphin’s cylinder and the sidemount for dive two, and once again the decanting whip came into its own. Time began to knock on so I attempted to round up the group for dive two, planned in water time of 1100. At ten to some of the group were still faffing so Alex and I wandered down to the water. We gave them ten minutes, then another five before we decided that we should get in and get the skills practiced that Alex wanted to get a bit more familiar with. The usual course of blockhouse and coach was followed to begin with, then it was off to the Stanegarth where I showed Alex the grille that is the marker for the swim to the Mini. Another group had asked me where the Mini was while w had our surface interval, and by the silt around the location it looks like they found it. A quick circumnavigate of the car and we made our way back to the blunt end of the tug then on to the helicopter. No dive with a new buddy would have been complete without Jaws making an appearance, so after suitably distracting Alex he was waved in my buddies face. We saw two more divers whom I menaced with the 5” rubber shark before we began our ascent of the wall, stopping every 3m to allow Alex to check his buoyancy on simulated deco stops on the wall. Back at 6m we fed the fish by stirring up the bottom for a while. Alex’s torch was bright enough to start poaching them while they swam, but rather than eat cooked perch it was time to decamp to the pub for a warm one. I had some scoff, and after a while ‘X’ decided to order some as well, but the place was closing as it wasn’t open in the evening, and the best they could do was cheesy chips. A few of the old lags asked if Caroline had got her keys locked in the car again, but I didn’t know as she wasn’t with us. Lee was airing the thought that he might turn gay if men were ‘less trouble’ than women to get along with. The inevitable stony silence was relieved by my food arriving, which was soon demolished. A nice days diving to round off the year, we all had a good giggle, gnomes were planted and currently unmolested and we all wandered off fed and watered. The vis was good at 10m in the pit and on dive on the whole of the Stanegarth could be seen from the stern, but the vis went down a bit on dive two. The water is still 8 degrees from surface to pit, and it won’t be long before it drops a bit more. I only managed 69 dives this year, all inland after spraining my ankle at the end of March. I’ve also managed to only get into five different sites, Stoney, Vobster, Guildy, Capernwray and Wastwater. July was completely dive free for a change, but hopefully 2007 will see me in the briny. Dive Data: Dive 1 34.7 m 55 min SI: 2 h 4 min Dive 2 21.3 m 38 min vO2= 1.22 __________________ David. Diving the mahogany rebreather.
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