N-ice time for a dive

I’ve been finding myself doing more and more dives lately, and the more I do, the more I want to do! If I were to continue writing about every dive as comprehensively as I’ve done so far, I’d probably have to miss out on a couple of dives in favour of updating this blog, and that, my friends, just isn’t going to happen. As much as I love capturing the fun and frolics of every outing, I’ve decided I’ll have to start being selective. Otherwise I’ll get repetitive strain injury from typing so much and you’ll get bored too easily.

Instead, I propose a brief (don’t look up the dictionary definition of that word after you've read this post) mention of each dive but will stick to the detailed ramblings for the most enjoyable and interesting underwater adventures. In the last ten days I’ve logged six dives. By my standards (and that of diving in the UK in a wetsuit in January) that’s pretty impressive!

Location: Waterfront – Type: Shore – Max Depth: 7.3m – Length: 36 mins – Surface: Icy

It started with a trip to the Waterfront off Plymouth Hoe one evening. That was the day it snowed. I’d woken up to a blanket of the white stuff, a few centimetres deep. At 7am I was playing in the snow in my garden (as was Scuba Smurf), and by 7pm I was under the sea.

Scuba Smurf going for an ice dive

 

I think the word ‘mad’ was bandied around a few times during the afternoon prior the leaving work, but it was 8c in the water; none of that -1c we had on the surface.

We had a decent dive. The vis wasn’t great and I took a while to settle in having not done a night dive for a while, but I enjoyed it, saw a few different creatures and had fun with my two buddies. It did however scupper my plans to dive Eastern Kings (a 30-40m reef off Devil’s Point) late the following evening for a friend’s 21^st birthday. Having not done the site before (we tried on Xmas Eve but the vis was so bad we called it) and still being a little wary of diving in the dark, I decided to leave that for another day as I didn’t want to ruin anyone’s fun by having to babysit me!

Location: James Eagan Layne – Type: Wreck – Max Depth: 21m – Length: 15 mins – Surface: Overcast

I joined a trip the following morning to the James Eagan Layne; a 7000 tonne US ‘liberty’ ship designed to carry large amounts of cargo, which was sunk off Whitsand Bay after being torpedoed by a German U-boat in 1945. I was with a new buddy today, someone I’d not dived with before, but she was comfortable with what she was doing so I was happy. Unfortunately the dive wasn’t to be. We descended to 20 metres, following the shot line onto the wreck, plummeting into darkness. It wasn’t that the vis was bad in the classic sense (there didn’t appear to be much sand/sediment in the water), it was literally just dark, which given that it was a bright day on the surface was a little too eerie for my liking.

We found a metal object sticking up next to where we’d landed which had a few sponges and the like on it so we left the shot in the hope that conditions would improve. Not a chance! We couldn’t find the shot line again (neither of us had torches as we’d not expected those conditions) so we had to put an SMB up to ascend. This had its positives. The last time I put an SMB up I had to let go as I didn’t have the lever to release the line down far enough so would have ended up rocketing to the surface. This time, with a little help from my buddy, I managed a successful deployment and we headed back to the boat, bypassing a safety stop at five metres along the way as the swell had increased and neither of us could hold our positions. It’s not recommended, but we hadn’t been down long enough and deep enough for it to be a worry and neither of us were planning on diving again that day. I was greeted with a high five on the boat from the skipper who had been diving with me during the previous failed SMB attempt; let’s hope I can do the same again next time!

Location: Eastern Kings…just visiting

The same day, I decided to pay a visit to Eastern Kings not long before midnight to see my friends’ surface and greet the birthday boy. As I’d had to pull out of the dive I wasn’t content with sitting at home wondering how they were getting on, so I positioned myself on the walkway next to the swimming pool at Devil’s Point, alongside a few others who I didn’t know but soon realised were there for the same group, and waited in freezing temperatures for the guys to surface. I have to say, despite not being in the water, I really enjoyed it. It was so peaceful sitting in the dark watching the sea glowing under the few lights around the area and it was great to find out what they’d seen on the dive. It was most definitely the first time I've indulged in chocolate cake in the early hours of the morning in that location! 



The birthday boy de-kitting 10 minutes before he hit the big 21

Location: Elk – Type: Wreck – Max Depth: 29.9m – Length: 20 mins – Surface: Clear

A few hours kip and with the birthday diving in full swing, I was back out on the boat to join the man himself (buddy y) and his girlfriend (buddy x) to visit the Elk; another wreck which resembled a fish bowl the last time I dived it. Buddy x had forewarned us she may have ear problems though had been fine the night before so we were hoping all would be well. Unfortunately she couldn’t clear on the way down so she had to wave goodbye and left myself and buddy y to continue on down which was disappointing, but onwards and downwards. Torch in hand (I’d learnt from the previous day’s experience, although the vis/light was far better), we arrived on the Elk at 30 metres to be greeted by an array of fish. It was great drifting over the top of them, though the current was playing havoc with my ability to stay still long enough to take a decent photo!

There's a fish there...honest!

 

All too soon we had to think about surfacing. Our computers were down to 10 minutes’ no-decompression time, which is generally the point you make your way up. We ascended casually and planted ourselves at five metres for the safety stop. Having not achieved much photographically speaking on the bottom, I set about capturing some stunning portraits of some lesser known species at that depth; well, I went with what was available!

Buddy Y and moi

The shot line on the way up

My computer had completed the three minutes, but I was still waiting for buddy y to clear. We waited and waited (all of a couple more minutes) and then he told me to carry on up. In retrospect, he agreed it might have helped to let me know that his computer had told him to do another safety stop at three metres (something to do with having done a couple of dives in the previous 24 hours and the computer settings being conservative) but he was concerned I was getting cold. I on the other hand, on hovering at the surface wondering what he was up to, was getting concerned myself. Having got a yell from the boat to ask if everything was okay (I should have signalled okay on surfacing rather than continue looking under water), I hovered for a bit longer and buddy y appeared, none the worse for wear and asking why I hadn’t got back on the boat! Next time I’ll just stay in the same place!

After a great weekend of diving, a stop off at the local pub and a quick check of the tide times threw up plans for the next day and what was to become the ‘most hilarious dive in history’. But that’s a story for another day.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this little gem…I found Nemo (almost)!

'I'm a real fish!'