25 Mar, 2007
First UK dive of 2007
After a couple of cancellations due to bad weather, I finally managed to get in the water yesterday. I booked a couple of dives with Dive Dorset using their online booking system, one for 12:00 and one for 4:00.
I haven't used my kit for 3 months, so I screwed it together and was pleasantly surprised to find out both regs were fine. They don't like not being used. However, I put them back in the garage and came back 3 hours later to find I'd not switched one of them off and it was hissing. What had happened was that it was resting on the purge button, and the freeflow was enough to freeze the reg. I brought it back indoors, let it warm up, and it was fine again. Fortunately the tanks were only half full anyway, so I hadn't wasted a fill.
I arrived stupidly early to find out that there was a problem. The walkway to their pontoon had come away on one corner, so there was only one attachment point and the skippers were trying to arrange to launch from the Sailing Academy down the road. They eventually sorted this out, but it meant that the 10 o'clock boat went at 11:30, so my first dive didn't go out until 1:30.
I was diving the Landing Craft. Going down the shot, the viz was 2m if I was charitable, and I was the first in. It good a bit worse as others joined me and I followed the line off to the Bombardon unit. The viz was a bit better here, though not good enough to find the line back, so I came up that shot instead and had a bit of a swim back to the boat. Still it warmed me up.
I've got a new hood since last winter and it made a difference. I didn't feel that cold. My hands were a bit chilly despite my 3 finger mitts, but not that bad. It was the first time I'd taken my new Cochran 3 trimix mix computer in the water. It seemed to work OK. The Taclite comes on when you tap it with something solid, in my case my torch handle. I'll have to wait until I do something a bit more than 35 mins at 17m before I can draw any real conclusions though. It was also my first dive with my spring straps on my fins, and they worked well too.
2nd dive was unsurprisingly cancelled as it was going to be almost dark before we could get in the water. So it had been a long drive for one dive, but it was good to get back in the water.
12 Mar, 2007
London Dive Show
Well it's March and I've still not been diving in the UK. I have managed 5 dives, but they were in South Africa, of which there will be more details later. I hadn't been to a dive show in ages, so I decided to go along to the London one last Sunday.
Now I've got rather a lot of kit. I don't need any kit. I just went for a look. And then spent lots of money. Cochran had a stand at the show. I've had a Cochran Commander computer for years. It has its faults, but it has never let me down. The batteries are user replaceable and cost about £2 each to replace. The straps don't last long, but you can always sort out something with bungee.
So when I saw the Cochran 3 mix trimix EMC20H dive computer for £549 against a RRP of £999, there was only one thing that was going to happen really. It's not the most feature laden trimix computer, but it does what I need and I'm hoping that simplicity will help with the reliability. I've dived with buddies on other trimix computers who have spent the drive back from the cenote still doing 1000 minutes of deco because the computer thought they were still at 6m, or who have been at 60m, had no problems for 25 mins until they start ascending when the computer switches itself off.
So here's hoping. It's certainly a bit liberal. I've cranked the conservatism up to 30% to get numbers I'm happy diving with.
The other purchase was some stainless steel straps for my fins. They have the advantage that they're unlikely to break and they don't have sticky out bits that catch lines. Not really an issue if you're reef diving, and unlikely to be a problem for most UK wreck divers, but a real pain for cave divers. If a line can wrap itself around something. It will. Twice.
I also went to a couple of talks. So now I want to go to PNG. I think it's a must next time I go to Aus. The fish life looked fantastic. And North Carolina looked interesting. A good combination of lots of sand tiger sharks, wrecks and warm water for much of the year. Not that I can afford to go diving now I've got my new computer.
Hopefully I'll get to try it out on Sunday. I ought to finally get in the water. The weather's certainly good enough at the moment, let's hope it lasts.