Diveratt

Hi Folks I posted a couple of treads with queries on traveling with a Disco on my first dive holiday trip with the unit, so I thought I’d give you all a bit of an update.

The trip was with Blue O2 in the Blue Melody doing the Northern Reefs & Wrecks itinerary over Christmas. Blue O2 have a good set up for pre ordering rebreather consumables and we had no issues with the O2 & Dil cylinders, 6 ltr bail out stages or scrubber cartridges, they even added a couple of boxes of scrubber just in case we had any issues, which was a good plan as Mike managed to drop one. The only down side is the cost of scrubber is a fair more expensive in Egypt than the UK which adds a bit to the cost of the dives.

Traveling out with Thomas Cook was fine and the 25kg of pre-booked excess luggage was more than enough for the Peli case & Disco. On advice from the forum I removed the O2 sensors and battery and carried those in my hand luggage packing the rest of the head unit in the Peli case. This seems to have worked and I had no issues with sensors or the head unit during the holiday.

O2 was supplied onboard from C size cylinders and a small Haskel pump for the top ups. This was not a problem with only two of us and the guide topped the O2 up every night. but it takes a bit of time so a boat full of rebreathers would cause a few late nights filling cylinders. Dil was not a problem as the two of us were on air top ups and we found the best way was to do a dil top off after each dive.

Setting up on the first night took a bit more time the OC divers as we had to rebuild the units, but we were both given end slots on the dive deck so there was a bit more room and it made kitting up a lot easier and a slightly shorter walk to the dive deck. Following that there were no big issues, new scrubber cartridges went in for the first dive every morning and lasted all day along with the O2 and the dil cylinder was topped up after each dive.

The diving was fairly normal reefs & wrecks stuff with the highlights being some deep wall drifts at Ras Mohammed, and Christmas day on the Thistlegorm with 2 dives spent rummaging around on the debris field for over an hour which would not have happened diving OC. Over the week the 2 Discos performed faultlessly on 4 dives a day and for the first time I really got to appreciate how true all the stories are of how close you can get to marine life with bubbles frightening them off.

Finally Just a big thanks to the guides and crew on the Blue Melody for a great weeks diving and another one To Mike & Michele of Divers Down in Babbacombe for organising the trip.

Jeppe_E

Great, will be going with BoT in April for the Northern and Brothers (with Blue Melody). What kind of scrubber duration did you have? 4 hours? I know that the sofno is quite expensive in egypt due to import regulations, in fact so expensive that it is cheaper to buy 20 extra kg on the flight and bring a keg of sofno.

I pay €100 for a keg in Sweden. BoT can supply a keg for €260. Just a PITA to haul that extra 20kg of luggage ;)

RedSeaDiver

Thanks for the report. How much were scrubber cartridges over there?

Jeppe_E

According to BoT pricelist 70 GBP for a case (2pcs). So that is quite expensive (although, not that expensive compared to loose sofno)

Nathan74

70gbp is fine we are paying $100 AUD for a box (2 cartriges)

Mike Ward

Nice report, thanks.

Which Peli did you use and did you tear the unit down for packing? I've used a Samsonite suitcase this year and basically stripped everything down. I got the 'breather plus all my other stuff (t-shirts, fins, stage kit and reg, etc, etc) into 23kg so no excess baggage but wasn't sure the Samsonite was really tough enough if some burly baggage handler sat on it!

I used loose lime in a Tecme scrubber, fresh fill each day (4 dives, 4 hours usually), and at the end of the week lime cost me just over £100, travelling with Scuba Travel (Tony Backhurst).

When we dived Thistlegorm I went in with a group of four OC divers and took them on a tour of the port loco, the stern, rudder and prop and then the starboard loco. I was intending to swim to the bow and up the anchor chain and spend some time on the deck before ascent but two of the OC guys were already running short of gas so we went up the side of the ship and across to the shot for them to surface. I signalled to the other pair that we'd carry on but they also decided to ascend. Useless bl**dy open circuit divers, just because they'd got more stops than gas was that any reason to leave me on my own?

My fault of course. It never even occurred to me to wonder if they'd gone into deco or had enough gas, I was fine

Diveratt

The cost of scrubber is a pain the cartridges were £35 each so even at £12/kg loose scrubber is a bit of a saving.

We were using prepacked catridges and had no bother with getting 4 dives just over an hour for each of the day dives and around 45 minutes on the night so it will have been around 4 hours duration in total.

I did manage to pick up a repackable scrubber in Egypt too and I'll post some details on that once I have used it a few more times.

Diveratt

Its a Peli 1610 the size is just about purfect and I can get them for free :D which is a bonus but its 9kg dry which is the down side.

The 'gorm was a lot of fun we were about 150m off the wreck on the debris field on both sides it just goes on forever. I have a feeling that my trip at the end of January diving OC is going to be as much fun but no Disco buddy on that trip do not much point in taking the unit.

Diveratt

& loose scrubber is £12 a KG

Jeppe_E

Question 1 to OC buddies: What is your SAC Rate (Hint to them to get that twinset)
Question 2 to OC buddies: You have Nitrox 32 in your tank, right?