10 replies to this topic

[shadragon]

OK, it is going to be a good weekend... I spoke with the wreck course instructor and I will be getting in three dives Saturday doing penetrations on the 336 foot HMCS Saguenay. 32 - 34% NITROX in my steels and tons of cameras.

Back late Sunday.

[scubagoddess]

Have a good time!

[pir8]

Well nothing quite so spectacular, but at least I'll be getting wet urrr staying dry at the quarry this weekend. Have a great time.

[shadragon]

Have a good time!

I did... What a weekend...

Quite busy the last few days. I had all my gear rinsed and put away when a newspaper reporter called me on Thursday night. She wanted to do an interview with me about me concerning diving. She also wanted to take pictures of my gear and asked if that was OK. We arranged to meet on Friday night so I unpacked everything and had it set up on the back deck to take advantage of the sunlight. She called to tell me she would be delayed until after sunset; So I had to take everything back inside and set it up there. She came over and took her pictures and we did our interview (Yes Wenchie, I made a subtle SD.com reference ). Then when she left I had to re-pack everything and got to bed later than I planned, around 9PM.

Was up at 3:30 and out the door by 4:00. A four hour drive to Halifax to get to the dive shop. Picked up and analyzed my tanks, then another hour drive to Lunenburg to catch the boat. There were 8 divers with one guy on a rebreather so there was lots of room. Was a relaxed set-up with lots of time on the trip out and we were staggered going into the water so the instructor could take us all through the ship a pair at a time. I set both my computers to 32% before the first dive and away we went. Viz was in the 25 - 30 foot range. Turbid water. The lowest temp I recorded was 47F, but not a problem in my dry suit.

I did three dives total. One orientation and two penetrations. We had 3-5' high chop on the surface and the boat was being tossed up and down in the waves. My scheduled dive buddy only made it through one dive before getting seasick and sat out the rest. That was unfortunate, but it also meant I went alone with the instructor. He took me through the ship to some really interesting places we probably would not have explored as a group. There were two colours down there: pitch black and dim dark green. We went under the edge of the helicopter flight deck which was embedded into the sea floor for about 60' in length. Surreal. An amazing experience and well worth the trip. You learn just how much work it is to coordinate lights, buoyancy, reel, air, buddy and situational awareness in an overhead environment simultaneously. I need to do a lot of work on my frog kick too.

The last dive had a moment of interest. My instructor had steel doubles and special gas as he was supervising several dive groups and needed to stay down beyond NDL. We came up together on the last dive and I started my 3 minute SS. I looked at my Cochrane and life was sweet - everything normal. Then I looked at my VEO and must have sucked back 200 psi in shock when I saw I was in the red for N2 and "DECO" flashing on the display. The instructor saw my eyes get ten times bigger and came over. By the time he arrived and looked at the VEO he gave me an OK with a confused look and I looked and saw it had cleared. I had set my Cochran to a conservative level and it was fine with all sorts of NDL time left. I had 1000 psi left at that point so I stayed at the SS an extra 7 minutes sucking down the 32% mix as a safety precaution. Then I came up with the instructor. Got to the surface and found the VEO had reset to air automatically after the last dive, even though I had turned that function off months ago. The date and time were screwed up (That or I have time travelled back to 01/01/2003) so it must have lost power at some point and cleared the settings as it has done several times in the past. Anyway, I passed the course so life is good. I would recommend it if you ever want to do ship exploration, even peripherally. Any good wrecks in the Bahamas, he asks with a grin...

Once up top it was hard to fight the waves to get back on board, but everyone pitched in. Then back to the dock, back to Halifax to drop off the tanks and another 4 hour drive home. Rinsed my gear quickly then went straight to bed around midnight. A 20 hour day of which 11 hours was spent on the road. I will probably take a bit of a snooze this afternoon too. Weekends are too short.

Well, I smell turkey so dinner is on the go. Time to make potatoes and gravy for a good feed.

[scubagoddess]

Congratulations on finishing up your wreck course. Sounds like a great time.

[divzac]

Thanks Simon!! Just the interesting read I needed this afternoon! WooHoo and congrats!!

[ScubaDrew]

Yeah, that's great about the diving, but tell us more about the turkey?!

Seriously, sounds like a great trip, good class, and I think that reporter just wanted some 1 on 1 time at night with you...

[shadragon]

Yeah, that's great about the diving, but tell us more about the turkey?!

Seriously, sounds like a great trip, good class, and I think that reporter just wanted some 1 on 1 time at night with you...

Well, it was an "in-depth" interview lasting quite some time if you know what I mean... ...and of course, by "in-depth" I mean professional and thorough. Wouldn't want you to get the wrong idea and think I was using some sort of crass double entendre or anything.

Succulent, juicy... Firm breasts you drool over... Mmmmmmmmmm... I had seconds...

[ScubaDrew]

Yeah, that's great about the diving, but tell us more about the turkey?!

Seriously, sounds like a great trip, good class, and I think that reporter just wanted some 1 on 1 time at night with you...

Well, it was an "in-depth" interview lasting quite some time if you know what I mean... ...and of course, by "in-depth" I mean professional and thorough. Wouldn't want you to get the wrong idea and think I was using some sort of crass double entendre or anything.

Succulent, juicy... Firm breasts you drool over... Mmmmmmmmmm... I had seconds...

touche' lol

[pir8]

You're making me hungry

[DiverBabs]

You're making me hungry

Hmmmm.... thought for a minute there you were going to say something else!!!