A couple of good wrecks and a few cock-up's. Day 2

Mark Chase · 9th June 2007, 16:05

Day2.

Up at 5 again and it is lashing down with rain and dark as hell. Fortunately the early morning divers are hard core and the traffic hadn’t been slowed too much by conditions and I made it to Little Hampton OK. Once there things looked much nicer but a monster cloud burst hit us soon after getting the kit on the boat.

Sea conditions were apparently going to be crap so the long range plan was canned again and we were going for the 65m banker wreck the Polandia. I can’t tell you much about her (we dont even know the name for sure) as we haven figured it all out yet but it’s a steam ship from around the turn of the century. Kit was lashed down tight and we sat in harbour for over an hour because it was only a 20mile run out.

Janos had joined us today and this was to be his deepest CCR dive. Graham hadn’t made it so it looked like Janos Dave and I would be diving as a three. Janos and Dave’s exposure to DIR was going to come in handy.

I decided to take the camera in with the strobe for the first time. It’s a large and ungainly set up and of course like a twit I had opted to lay the line today as well. Dave did it yesterday and Janos was about to do a deep dive with an unfamiliar teem so I wasn’t going to ask him to do it.

The rain stopped and we set off into the cruel and unforgiving sea to be faced with flat calm conditions?? This was unbelievable. The 4-5 forecast wasn’t even a 1. I have to say I was feeling pretty pissed off that we missed two golden opportunities to go exploring but sod it the Polandia and the Donegal are fine wrecks.

On rout we picked up a very tired passenger:

A very casual cruse out got us on site nice and early and again my lot were third in. We hit the bottom of the shot and conditions looked 5-6m so I tied off the line on what is a very ship shaped wreck and usually easily navigable. As soon as we were 5m from the shot the viz cleared to a good 10mand we found ourselves directly over the china room.

I had planned to go in search of a porthole for Janos and do the china on the return leg but having the shot so close to it I felt it likely that the others would have a go too on the way back and I wanted to take a pick before they started routing around in the silt for the good stuff.

Janos grabbed a large platter which we set aside for collection on the return leg and I tried to take pictures but the camera strobe was playing up so they didn’t come out. I think Dave tolerated our spidging but wasn’t really into it so we were soon heading away from the china and on to the lamp locker.

On rout we came across the biggest lobster I have ever seen. I reckon 12lb+ with its main cutting claw at least the length of the 21W salvo torch head it was trying to bite.

Sorry for crap pic but the flash wasn’t having any of it.

We carried on and Dave and Janos had a great time mooching over the wreckage. I was having a foul time trying to stop the camera getting tangled in the guide line and vowed never to lay line and take a camera again. Fortunately viz was excellent so I just cut the line and carried on by pilotage.

On the return leg we once again visited the China room and I tried to grab another platter to match Janos and I got a lovely little coffee cup as a memento. With 40mins showing we headed to the Shot and Dave was already on the ascent. I tried to quickly bag up the china but the tide was running hard and Janos and I were struggling with the small spidge bag so I gave up at min 44 and signalled Janos to ascend. I cut the waster and we headed up Janos carrying a very large platter and me with a goody bag full of china. This made things a tad awkward but I decided to leave sorting it out till the first stop. We hit the 42m stop and Janos gave me the feeling dodgy sign and requested a bubble check. I couldn’t find anything wrong with his unit but I took the platter off him and eventually squeezed it into the goody bag.

Just in time as the shortly after Janos was a flurry of activity and he’d bailed out to OC. We were face to face and I could see he was doing OK so I checked his loop to see if there were bubbles coming from the mouthpiece. It all looked OK and Janos looked amazingly calm and he had switched his Shearwater to OC OK so we carried on the ascent.

I unclipped the station at 32m and at last we were out of the drag of the tide and free to hang mid water. At 21 Jnaos switched to 50% no problem and I watched him check the Shearwater again. I turned my 50% on and made sure the reg was available for him if needs be then tried to figure out how to get rid of the china.

Dave was with us and playing a watching brief so I decided to drop off the line and fin away clear of the up line so I could bag up the china. I decided to use my mini C02 blob to lift it but this turned out to be a mistake twice over.

I cracked the bottle which might have been adequate to send up the SMB but it didn’t lift the china. I was faced with having to use the air line mid water so I had a think about it and decided to have a go. In the end it went off OK and I was pleased to be free of the heavy goody bag. I went back over to Janos to resume my watching brief.

I checked his gas and there was no way he was going to finish deco on the 7ltr of 50%. Sure we had my Ali80 but I decided to send for the drop tank. I showed Janos the yellow bag and signalled the intent and I waited for the 9m stop before sending up the bag.

John came over and assessed the situation and signalled me to send up the bag now. So I went out into the blue again and sent it up. 10mins later a 10ltr of 70% was on its way. It felt a long time before we got the tank but apparently me sending up spidge on a SMB had confused the boat into thinking they had a drifting diver so this delayed things a tad.

In the end the tank appeared and I went over to drag it back to the station. I was surprised at it being only 70% I was expecting the tank of 100 but it would do the job so Janos switched and reprogrammed his Shearwater.

Mean time I had had a CNS warning on my unit. All my fafing around had resulted in me running a high PP02 on ascent and I had left it to drop by its self and ended up with 100CNS with a fair bit of deco left to do.

I dill flushed down to 0.8 and staid there for a while before slowly bringing it up to 1.6 for the final leg of deco.

Janos was now happily loaded with gas and resigned himself to the deco commitment buffered by the music on his MP3 player.

Oh and any one who thinks steel 10s don’t float. Check out the pick of the 10 with 70% in.

Deco done and back on the boat we were presented with the bill for the gas and a document to sign admitting to our muppetry. The hand writing wasn’t easy to read so I have no idea what I have counter signed but I believe it involves me being a twat for sending up spidge on a SMB.

I asked why we were sent the 70% instead of the tin of 100% and Don John turns round and said F#ck me Mark he’s only a guest, he doesn’t deserve the good stuff

I think to be honest they realised we weren’t on the 6m bar yet (they could have seen us if we were) so they felt we might need the gas breathable deeper than 6m

Janos spent a few mins analysing the totally flooded scrubber on his kiss and explaining that the unit had gurgled a bit but on the ascent he lost all ability to breathe out and started to taste a hint of sodalime so he bailed.

Then he spent the rest of the trip going on about how great the dive was.

This was Janos deepest ever dive and I have to say he was incredibly composed and competent throughout the little adventure. Many divers faced with two hours deco and bailing out would no doubt have been less calm and collected. I am now 100% convinced that in Janos case at least having both tanks left was in no way a hindrance to bailing out. He did it quickly and without undue fuss.

Well done M8 I think I was more scared than you were

ATB

Mark Chase

Mixaddict · 9th June 2007, 22:42

Mark,

Thanks for the trip report. Sounds like you had some exciting diving in more ways than one. I appreciate you taking the time to share.

Regards,
Randy

***schford*** · 10th June 2007, 00:20

Superb report as always mate! Have a blob

Gilles · 10th June 2007, 11:54

Very good report, worth the blob provided.

Would you (MarkChase) care to summarize the lessons learned?

Seems there might be something about avoiding sending potentiallly incorrect signals to the surface cover?? Other things?

jptaylor9 · 10th June 2007, 12:13

Quote: (Originally Posted by Gilles)

Seems there might be something about avoiding sending potentiallly incorrect signals to the surface cover?? Other things?

In a similiar vein, was diving, deco under bags (DSMB), skipper pulls shot when everyone up. A diver sent up some spidge using their spare DSMB then deco'ed on their main one. Skipper thought everyone was up, pulled shot & followed drifting bags.

When diver surfaced, got back on boat & said "where's my spidge...", skipper realised he'd left my buddy & me on the wreck!

He left spidge in water & cruised between it & wreck until he saw our DSMB (x2) come up.

Buddy & I were unaware of the drama on the surface until after the dive

JT

Mark Chase · 10th June 2007, 14:46

Quote: (Originally Posted by jptaylor9)

In a similiar vein, was diving, deco under bags (DSMB), skipper pulls shot when everyone up. A diver sent up some spidge using their spare DSMB then deco'ed on their main one. Skipper thought everyone was up, pulled shot & followed drifting bags.

When diver surfaced, got back on boat & said "where's my spidge...", skipper realised he'd left my buddy & me on the wreck!

He left spidge in water & cruised between it & wreck until he saw our DSMB (x2) come up.

Buddy & I were unaware of the drama on the surface until after the dive

JT

Yes, I have to admit it was a stupid thing i did. I just didnt think through the ramafications of sending up a blob instead of a bag. I just didnt fancy sorting out a lift bag mid water and for two plates a cup and a gravy boat, a 25kg lift bag seemed overkill.

Apart form the delay caused by me the drop tank system worked OK. If we had needed the 100% as well one of the ascending divers could have asked for it to be sent down.

Also the deco station system worked well. The others kept an eye on Janos and I staid off the bar and slightly below him in case he droped away for any reasion. At the end of the deco when we were more relaxed we wer on the bar together and I had an entire Ali80 of 50% in reserve gassed up and ready to donate.

When I checked his 7ltr and found it only had 50 bar left i offered Janos the 50% reg on my 80 in a DIR fashon, to which he promptly told me to F-off

For those that dont know Janos spends a fair bit of time practicing with our good freind Clare who is a DIR instructor.

ATB

Mark

Ben Field · 10th June 2007, 20:57

Quality report Mark, glad to hear you all got out in one piece

Any idea why Janos was gurgling?

Gilles · 11th June 2007, 05:38

Quote: (Originally Posted by Mark Chase)

Yes, I have to admit it was a stupid thing i did.

That seems a bit harsh. Is there a masochistic

gene somewhere?

louisrankin · 11th June 2007, 17:29

Nice report as usual Mark, glad to hear Janos handled the situation extremely well he must have been listing to some very calming music.

Janos did you notice the ADV fire a lot on accent? I have flooded my unit once in the Red sea and the only symptom I noticed was the ADV kept firing because the loop volume was decreasing. In away I was glad I had a flood so hopefully now I will be able to recognise the symptoms if it happens again. I never managed to find the cause of the flood the only thing I could think of was not tightening up the scrubber draw nut.

Louis

CharlieT · 15th June 2007, 19:24

Good report, Mark

Your dives always adventurous, that's for sure

Too right, 1st time guests have to make do with the "cheap plonk"

One day we will dive together!

Charlie

9th June 2007, 16:05	#1 (permalink)
Mark Chase RBW Member Current Rebreather/s: Classic Kiss Other Rebreather/s: Inspiration Classic Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Kent Posts: 2,863	A couple of good wrecks and a few cock-up's. Day 2 Day2. Up at 5 again and it is lashing down with rain and dark as hell. Fortunately the early morning divers are hard core and the traffic hadn’t been slowed too much by conditions and I made it to Little Hampton OK. Once there things looked much nicer but a monster cloud burst hit us soon after getting the kit on the boat. Sea conditions were apparently going to be crap so the long range plan was canned again and we were going for the 65m banker wreck the Polandia. I can’t tell you much about her (we dont even know the name for sure) as we haven figured it all out yet but it’s a steam ship from around the turn of the century. Kit was lashed down tight and we sat in harbour for over an hour because it was only a 20mile run out. Janos had joined us today and this was to be his deepest CCR dive. Graham hadn’t made it so it looked like Janos Dave and I would be diving as a three. Janos and Dave’s exposure to DIR was going to come in handy. I decided to take the camera in with the strobe for the first time. It’s a large and ungainly set up and of course like a twit I had opted to lay the line today as well. Dave did it yesterday and Janos was about to do a deep dive with an unfamiliar teem so I wasn’t going to ask him to do it. The rain stopped and we set off into the cruel and unforgiving sea to be faced with flat calm conditions?? This was unbelievable. The 4-5 forecast wasn’t even a 1. I have to say I was feeling pretty pissed off that we missed two golden opportunities to go exploring but sod it the Polandia and the Donegal are fine wrecks. On rout we picked up a very tired passenger: A very casual cruse out got us on site nice and early and again my lot were third in. We hit the bottom of the shot and conditions looked 5-6m so I tied off the line on what is a very ship shaped wreck and usually easily navigable. As soon as we were 5m from the shot the viz cleared to a good 10mand we found ourselves directly over the china room. I had planned to go in search of a porthole for Janos and do the china on the return leg but having the shot so close to it I felt it likely that the others would have a go too on the way back and I wanted to take a pick before they started routing around in the silt for the good stuff. Janos grabbed a large platter which we set aside for collection on the return leg and I tried to take pictures but the camera strobe was playing up so they didn’t come out. I think Dave tolerated our spidging but wasn’t really into it so we were soon heading away from the china and on to the lamp locker. On rout we came across the biggest lobster I have ever seen. I reckon 12lb+ with its main cutting claw at least the length of the 21W salvo torch head it was trying to bite. Sorry for crap pic but the flash wasn’t having any of it. We carried on and Dave and Janos had a great time mooching over the wreckage. I was having a foul time trying to stop the camera getting tangled in the guide line and vowed never to lay line and take a camera again. Fortunately viz was excellent so I just cut the line and carried on by pilotage. On the return leg we once again visited the China room and I tried to grab another platter to match Janos and I got a lovely little coffee cup as a memento. With 40mins showing we headed to the Shot and Dave was already on the ascent. I tried to quickly bag up the china but the tide was running hard and Janos and I were struggling with the small spidge bag so I gave up at min 44 and signalled Janos to ascend. I cut the waster and we headed up Janos carrying a very large platter and me with a goody bag full of china. This made things a tad awkward but I decided to leave sorting it out till the first stop. We hit the 42m stop and Janos gave me the feeling dodgy sign and requested a bubble check. I couldn’t find anything wrong with his unit but I took the platter off him and eventually squeezed it into the goody bag. Just in time as the shortly after Janos was a flurry of activity and he’d bailed out to OC. We were face to face and I could see he was doing OK so I checked his loop to see if there were bubbles coming from the mouthpiece. It all looked OK and Janos looked amazingly calm and he had switched his Shearwater to OC OK so we carried on the ascent. I unclipped the station at 32m and at last we were out of the drag of the tide and free to hang mid water. At 21 Jnaos switched to 50% no problem and I watched him check the Shearwater again. I turned my 50% on and made sure the reg was available for him if needs be then tried to figure out how to get rid of the china. Dave was with us and playing a watching brief so I decided to drop off the line and fin away clear of the up line so I could bag up the china. I decided to use my mini C02 blob to lift it but this turned out to be a mistake twice over. I cracked the bottle which might have been adequate to send up the SMB but it didn’t lift the china. I was faced with having to use the air line mid water so I had a think about it and decided to have a go. In the end it went off OK and I was pleased to be free of the heavy goody bag. I went back over to Janos to resume my watching brief. I checked his gas and there was no way he was going to finish deco on the 7ltr of 50%. Sure we had my Ali80 but I decided to send for the drop tank. I showed Janos the yellow bag and signalled the intent and I waited for the 9m stop before sending up the bag. John came over and assessed the situation and signalled me to send up the bag now. So I went out into the blue again and sent it up. 10mins later a 10ltr of 70% was on its way. It felt a long time before we got the tank but apparently me sending up spidge on a SMB had confused the boat into thinking they had a drifting diver so this delayed things a tad. In the end the tank appeared and I went over to drag it back to the station. I was surprised at it being only 70% I was expecting the tank of 100 but it would do the job so Janos switched and reprogrammed his Shearwater. Mean time I had had a CNS warning on my unit. All my fafing around had resulted in me running a high PP02 on ascent and I had left it to drop by its self and ended up with 100CNS with a fair bit of deco left to do. I dill flushed down to 0.8 and staid there for a while before slowly bringing it up to 1.6 for the final leg of deco. Janos was now happily loaded with gas and resigned himself to the deco commitment buffered by the music on his MP3 player. Oh and any one who thinks steel 10s don’t float. Check out the pick of the 10 with 70% in. Deco done and back on the boat we were presented with the bill for the gas and a document to sign admitting to our muppetry. The hand writing wasn’t easy to read so I have no idea what I have counter signed but I believe it involves me being a twat for sending up spidge on a SMB. I asked why we were sent the 70% instead of the tin of 100% and Don John turns round and said F#ck me Mark he’s only a guest, he doesn’t deserve the good stuff I think to be honest they realised we weren’t on the 6m bar yet (they could have seen us if we were) so they felt we might need the gas breathable deeper than 6m Janos spent a few mins analysing the totally flooded scrubber on his kiss and explaining that the unit had gurgled a bit but on the ascent he lost all ability to breathe out and started to taste a hint of sodalime so he bailed. Then he spent the rest of the trip going on about how great the dive was. This was Janos deepest ever dive and I have to say he was incredibly composed and competent throughout the little adventure. Many divers faced with two hours deco and bailing out would no doubt have been less calm and collected. I am now 100% convinced that in Janos case at least having both tanks left was in no way a hindrance to bailing out. He did it quickly and without undue fuss. Well done M8 I think I was more scared than you were ATB Mark Chase __________________ See my "Doing It Chasey" video where I'm locked into a padded room, naked, with two ball bearings and within an Hour, I manage to lose one and break the other!!! Kevin Juergensen 16/11/08 [/quote] Last edited by Mark Chase : 9th June 2007 at 16:10.
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9th June 2007, 22:42	#2 (permalink)
Mixaddict RBW Member Current Rebreather/s: Inspiration Vision Evolution Other CCR Other Rebreather/s: Inspiration Classic Other CCR Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Draper, Utah USA Posts: 523	Re: A couple of good wrecks and a few cock-up's. Day 2 Mark, Thanks for the trip report. Sounds like you had some exciting diving in more ways than one. I appreciate you taking the time to share. Regards, Randy __________________ Randy Thornton (MixAddict) Inspiration, Evolution, Hammerhead & Sentinel CCR Instructor
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10th June 2007, 00:20	#3 (permalink)
*schford* RBW Founder Current Rebreather/s: Megalodon Sport Kiss Other Rebreather/s: Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: UK Posts: 3,564	Re: A couple of good wrecks and a few cock-up's. Day 2 Superb report as always mate! Have a blob __________________ Bailout and Kit Management account for Murphy's Law The only bad question is one you did not ask and later wish you had. Use of RBW is subject to the Rebreather World Terms & Conditions of Use
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10th June 2007, 11:54	#4 (permalink)
Gilles Worship the feminine Current Rebreather/s: Megalodon Other Rebreather/s: Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Den Haag (Netherlands) Posts: 762	Re: A couple of good wrecks and a few cock-up's. Day 2 Very good report, worth the blob provided. Would you (MarkChase) care to summarize the lessons learned? Seems there might be something about avoiding sending potentiallly incorrect signals to the surface cover?? Other things? __________________ Gilles http://www.dirrebreather.com
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10th June 2007, 12:13	#5 (permalink)
jptaylor9 RBW Member Current Rebreather/s: Inspiration Vision Other Rebreather/s: Inspiration Classic Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: London, UK Posts: 316	Re: A couple of good wrecks and a few cock-up's. Day 2 Quote: (Originally Posted by Gilles) Seems there might be something about avoiding sending potentiallly incorrect signals to the surface cover?? Other things? In a similiar vein, was diving, deco under bags (DSMB), skipper pulls shot when everyone up. A diver sent up some spidge using their spare DSMB then deco'ed on their main one. Skipper thought everyone was up, pulled shot & followed drifting bags. When diver surfaced, got back on boat & said "where's my spidge...", skipper realised he'd left my buddy & me on the wreck! He left spidge in water & cruised between it & wreck until he saw our DSMB (x2) come up. Buddy & I were unaware of the drama on the surface until after the dive JT Last edited by jptaylor9 : 10th June 2007 at 14:11.
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10th June 2007, 14:46	#6 (permalink)
Mark Chase RBW Member Current Rebreather/s: Classic Kiss Other Rebreather/s: Inspiration Classic Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Kent Posts: 2,863	Re: A couple of good wrecks and a few cock-up's. Day 2 Quote: (Originally Posted by jptaylor9) In a similiar vein, was diving, deco under bags (DSMB), skipper pulls shot when everyone up. A diver sent up some spidge using their spare DSMB then deco'ed on their main one. Skipper thought everyone was up, pulled shot & followed drifting bags. When diver surfaced, got back on boat & said "where's my spidge...", skipper realised he'd left my buddy & me on the wreck! He left spidge in water & cruised between it & wreck until he saw our DSMB (x2) come up. Buddy & I were unaware of the drama on the surface until after the dive JT Yes, I have to admit it was a stupid thing i did. I just didnt think through the ramafications of sending up a blob instead of a bag. I just didnt fancy sorting out a lift bag mid water and for two plates a cup and a gravy boat, a 25kg lift bag seemed overkill. Apart form the delay caused by me the drop tank system worked OK. If we had needed the 100% as well one of the ascending divers could have asked for it to be sent down. Also the deco station system worked well. The others kept an eye on Janos and I staid off the bar and slightly below him in case he droped away for any reasion. At the end of the deco when we were more relaxed we wer on the bar together and I had an entire Ali80 of 50% in reserve gassed up and ready to donate. When I checked his 7ltr and found it only had 50 bar left i offered Janos the 50% reg on my 80 in a DIR fashon, to which he promptly told me to F-off For those that dont know Janos spends a fair bit of time practicing with our good freind Clare who is a DIR instructor. ATB Mark __________________ See my "Doing It Chasey" video where I'm locked into a padded room, naked, with two ball bearings and within an Hour, I manage to lose one and break the other!!! Kevin Juergensen 16/11/08 [/quote]
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10th June 2007, 20:57	#7 (permalink)
Ben Field CK+Shearwater Current Rebreather/s: Classic Kiss Other Rebreather/s: Sport Kiss Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: London, England Posts: 1,775	Re: A couple of good wrecks and a few cock-up's. Day 2 Quality report Mark, glad to hear you all got out in one piece Any idea why Janos was gurgling? __________________ Know your PPO2, Pre-breath, Use checklists, Validate cells at 6mtrs, Use pure O2 at or near surface, Use a BOV, Don't dive Solo, Change Slime and Cells as recommended by Manufacturer and RTFM! Beware Fridge Suck! www.hugsac.org.uk
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11th June 2007, 05:38	#8 (permalink)
Gilles Worship the feminine Current Rebreather/s: Megalodon Other Rebreather/s: Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Den Haag (Netherlands) Posts: 762	Re: A couple of good wrecks and a few cock-up's. Day 2 Quote: (Originally Posted by Mark Chase) Yes, I have to admit it was a stupid thing i did. That seems a bit harsh. Is there a masochistic gene somewhere? __________________ Gilles http://www.dirrebreather.com
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11th June 2007, 17:29	#9 (permalink)
louisrankin Póg mo thóin Current Rebreather/s: Megalodon Other Rebreather/s: Sport Kiss Classic Kiss Join Date: May 2005 Location: Cambridge Posts: 315	Re: A couple of good wrecks and a few cock-up's. Day 2 Nice report as usual Mark, glad to hear Janos handled the situation extremely well he must have been listing to some very calming music. Janos did you notice the ADV fire a lot on accent? I have flooded my unit once in the Red sea and the only symptom I noticed was the ADV kept firing because the loop volume was decreasing. In away I was glad I had a flood so hopefully now I will be able to recognise the symptoms if it happens again. I never managed to find the cause of the flood the only thing I could think of was not tightening up the scrubber draw nut. Louis
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15th June 2007, 19:24	#10 (permalink)
CharlieT Custom Title Allowed! Current Rebreather/s: Inspiration Vision Other Rebreather/s: Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: London Posts: 449	Re: A couple of good wrecks and a few cock-up's. Day 2 Good report, Mark Your dives always adventurous, that's for sure Too right, 1st time guests have to make do with the "cheap plonk" One day we will dive together! Charlie
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