First trip out this year, Alan, Alex, Simon, Julian and Paul set out for Vobster early Sunday morning to arrive at 0830 four dives took place, not all without incident! We were all done by 3pm and headed home for lashing of ginger beer and tuck!
1ST Dive – Alan – Surface Cover
Julian, Simon and Paul – at the bottom the shot Julian suffered a free flow, switched to his octopus and surfaced, Simon and I continued the dive exploring the tunnel, crushing works, and the aeroplane sections and returned to the slip – 20.7 metres max depth, 30 mins dive time, 5° water temperature, viz was 6-8 metres
2nd Dive – Paul – Surface Cover
Alan and Alex next, somebody forgot to do up his dry suit zip which doesn’t bode well for his ice diving career and got a good soaking but fortunately was able to climb out without too much loss of dignity.
3rd Dive – Simon – Surface Cover
Julian and Alex next, with a borrowed regulator which thank goodness worked well and complete a dive of 30 mins and max depth about 20 metres, if only Alex had remembered his memory card in his camera!
4th Dive – Alex – Surface Cover
Alan, in Alex’s dry suit and thinsulate, Simon and Paul in for the last dive of the day, down to 24.5 metres, around the usual circuit, on the return leg, Simon did the SO3 exercises satisfactorily, viz had diminished to 4-6 metres as other divers (Paul and Alex included!) had stirred it up. 35 minutes total dive time.
Despite the odd wee problem a good day was had by all, Julian spoke to some techies and found what need to be tweaked on his reg to stop it free flowing and we all understood the need for thorough buddy checks as we had got rusty over the winter (remember BAR as Julian said – see below)
B – Buoyancy
Test and demonstrate how each buoyancy device, such as a buoyancy compensator or dry suit is inflated or vented. It is important to test common failure modes, for example, that the device remains inflated when required and that the inflation stops when required.
A – Air
Test that each air source has its pillar valve open, has sufficient gas, is functioning and tastes good. If the indicating needle of the contents gauge vibrates when the diver inhales that may indicate the diving cylinder pillar valve is only partially open and will not provide enough gas at the higher ambient pressures at depth. An oily taste to the gas may indicate a contaminated gas fill.
R – Releases
Demonstrate how to operate the releases that can be used in an emergency to separate the diver from the weighting system, buoyancy compensator and SCUBA unit.
(PC)
