Quote: (Originally Posted by caveseeker7)
Welcome to Rebreather World, Mike.
Great spirit, diving a CCR in Brazil. Must be a PITA not having local support.
Have a great trip and report back to us a bit on diving in Brazil.
Spent two days on a thirty foot fish collecting boat belonging to a mate. Blew 25 plus knots on Wednesday, which made getting the kit on a tad difficult. Laying the machine flat, then wedging my legs between the gunwhale and a hatch, then kind of feeding my arms through the straps seemed to work. Was nice in the water, we did two one hundred footers for an hour and a half, vis was a good sixty feet.
The divers on the boat, two brothers, were working on hookah. I have dived with these guys quite a few times over the last five years. Tough is the word that comes to mind to describe them. They use a single hose, around 3/8th of an inch ID, which drops to 1/4 inch after the tee joint, which gives them about thirty feet of hose each. None of this teflon coated stuff either, the clear reinforced stuff they use for compressors is what they use. Hose clamps? No, all joints are tied with fishing line.
Air is supplied from a twin cylinder 20 cubic foot compressor, belt driven off the main engine. Filtration,? well there is none, they usually use a rusty old LPG gas cylinder for a feeder tank but I see, after the recent refit, there is a fairly new looking compressor cylinder on deck. The owner made them a nice inline activated charcoal filter a few years back but they didn`t like it, reckoned it made the air taste bad. Non Toxic oil?, none of that.
I worked hookah for the best part of fifteen years and I am amazed these guys are able to breathe at all on this system!
The Boat works them `live` the skipper follows them about, while a decky feeds and pulls in the hose as necessary. After the first dive, both of them complained of sore throats, the compressor had just returned from a full rebuild and the machine oil must have been burning out.
Second dive, just one brother dived. We did another hour and a half and ''Lula'' stayed with me for the twenty minute deco, which impressed me. Normally they only spend five minutes at twenty feet, from whatever depth and for however long they may have been down.
Considering I had been using Eanx to the max in my Evolution for the dives... well as I say, tough! Augusto, the other brother, then went down alone for another hour or so. Then we steamed closer to the site for the next days diving and bobbed about like a cork the whole night.
Next day the sea had abated a little, we did five more dives in sixty to seventy feet, the first four or so looking for an area with fish for them to collect. Water was a bit grubbier, twenty feet or so vis. I clocked up five and three quarter hours on the seven dives. Did a bunch of routines and ran the scrubber until the temp stick gave a warning. The guys collected two hundred odd angelfish for the trip.
Will see if I can talk my wife into letting me take her new digital camera along next time and take a few snaps.
There are a group of spearfishermen working out of here, who hookah down to forty to fifty meters and then kind of snorkel down to as much as seventy meters to spear Cod. Have been trying to talk them into letting me ride along for some time. It`s the windy season now and they are working crayfish further up the coast. Maybe later this year?.
Cheers
Mike