Our Mod 3 week

The week started for Kieran and myself by meeting at the NDAC in Chepstow to do some practice drills, realising that we were probably rusty. So we did 2 dives doing various bail out scenarios, and open circuit ascents. All went well and so we headed off to our B&B in Plymouth, (The Boringdon Arms, at Turnchapel) where we met up with Jan. He was over here from the Danish Navy doing his open circuit trimix course. 

Monday morning we arrived at Deep Blue to meet up with Rich Stevenson. The original plan had been to dive the Medoc in 55 metres. However as Jan had not been able to dive on the weekend due to the bad weather condition we had to start shallower, this meant that the first dive would be on the Elk. 

For the whole week Kieran and I used 15/50 in the diluent and bail out cylinders, and 50% in the deco bail out. I was using an Inspiration Classic, while Kieran had the newer Vision electronics on his. 

The weather the previous week had been quite bad with high winds, in fact on the weekend that we travelled down virtually the whole of the South coast had been blown out. So it was quite a relief to get out on the Monday to find that everything was dead flat calm. These conditions were to prevail for the Tuesday and Wednesday also with hardly a ripple on the surface. On the Thursday there was a slight breeze but no more than a force 2. 

Day One 

The Elk, Run time 46 minutes, Max Depth 30.2 metres

The plan here was to swim around the wreck for 10 minutes or so then do 2 static open circuit bail outs. Then once Rich indicated that he was happy with this we had to swim around the wreck doing a minimum of 6 open circuit bail outs and then back onto the loop. 

Approximately 5 minutes before the end of the bottom time we had a signal to switch the set point down to 0.7 and then manually control the PO2 to 1.3. We continued this up to the 9 metre stop and then had the signal to switch the set point back to 1.3. 

At this point we came off the shot line and drifted and bagged off. I had a slight problem with my reel becoming tangled and lost a few metres before getting the bag away. 

At 6 metres we let go of the reel and did an open circuit bail out onto the 50% cylinder for 2 minutes, then back onto the loop to finish the dive. 

As this was a shallow dive we were able to do a second dive. This was just outside the breakwater on a 21 metres sandy bottom. The plan here was to so semi closed drills. A line was laid and we had to go up and down the line for 25 minutes. We plumbed our 50% gas into the loop and the plan was to purge the loop and fill with the 50% to get the PO2 as high as possible then see how long it would take to drop a given amount. Both Kieran and I found that it dropped 0.2 in 3 minutes. So up and down the line we went keeping the PO2 between 1.1 and 1.5. 

Following this we did an open circuit bail out on the bottom and then did a free ascent, as we didn’t have a shot line, doing stops at 15, 12 and 9 metres. At this point we bagged off then when we got to 6 metres we went back onto the loop to finish the dive. 

Day Two 

The Eastpoint, Run Time 92 minutes, Max Depth 63 metres, Viz 15-20 metres

The shot was right at the stern where there is a small anti aircraft gun, further forward a bigger gun. We headed towards the bows then back to the stern again, 5 minutes before the end of the dive we had a signal to switch down to low set point then used manual control of the PO2. We did this up to and including the first stop at 42 metres, then switched the set point back up to 1.3 for the loop to control automatically. 

At 21 metres we did and open circuit bail out onto the 50% gas for 2 minutes then back onto the loop again. At 15 metres we drifted off the shot line and then bagged off. At 6 metres Rich set up a yellow bag (which he had pre-arranged with the skipper) and we were supplied with a 7 litres of 100% O2 on a 6 metres line. We then had to take turns removing our own deco stage and clipping it onto the line, and taking the 100% and attaching it to ourselves. Then removing it again and putting it back onto the line and taking our own stage back. 

Day 3 

The Claverley, Run time 113 minutes, Max Depth 65 metres, Viz 10-12 metres

We used a lazy shot today and on the way down I tied the loop to the line while Kieran attached the lazy. The shot was put in midships so we went to the bows, around here and then back to the stern where there are several boxes of shells. Also saw a ships lantern but was quite badly damaged. We were supposed to do a solenoid jammed open drill but Rich aborted it in favour of a longer bottom time. 

We bailed out onto 50% at 21 metres, then back onto the loop and ascended to 15 metres where we drifted off and then bagged off. 

At 6 metres we did O2 flushes of the loop by bailing out to our 50% open circuit and injecting oxygen manually and doing overhead flushes via the mouthpiece. Then following this checking the handsets and back onto the loop and breathing it down several times to again flush with O2 to bring the PO2 up to 1.6. Then for the remainder of the dive maintaining the loop volume by manually injecting O2. 

Day 4 

The Barshaw, Run time 109 minutes, Max Depth 65 metres, Viz 10-12 metres

Same drill as yesterday as regards lazy shot with Kieran taking it in. The main shot was just forward of the boiler. The wreck is tilted to the starboard side while the bow is also tilted back onto itself. We headed off towards the bow, where there is a long gill net and on the way Rich found the helm, he is hoping to return shortly to recover it. At the bows Rich dropped his stages to get inside while Kieran and I stayed outside and then after a look around headed back towards the stern and dropped off to look at the prop and rudder where there is a net draped. From here it was time to start our drills. We bailed out onto our open circuit trimix at 30 minutes and started the ascent, we stayed on open circuit until we completed the first deco stop at which point we went back onto the loop. 

Ascending further and disconnecting the lazy shot we got to 21 metres where we did an open circuit bail out onto 50% and stayed on this for 2 minutes before going back on the loop. Then we left the shot and ascended to 15 metres where we bagged off to continue the ascent. At 6 metres we repeated yesterday’s drill of simulating an electronics failure by flushing bailing out to open circuit 50% and flushing the loop with oxygen, while venting the loop overhead via the mouthpiece several times before going back to the loop and then several more flushes to ensure we were breathing only O2. 

That was the end of the course. We planned to dive the Scylla and JEL on the following day as Rich was starting a Mod 1 course, unfortunately we were blown out so wandered around Plymouth for some time before heading off to Exmouth were we were planning to dive on the weekend. We were planning to do the Murree on the Saturday but this plan had already been changed due to high Easterly winds. But we remained hopeful that we would still get out, however on Saturday morning the skipper called me to say we couldn’t get out at all, so had another free day, this time to explore Exeter. 

Sunday was also looking doubtful but we shouldn’t have worried as the sea conditions were fantastic, just a tiny swell left from the previous day with no wind at all. So we set off for the “unknown” wreck that we did recently on Rob’s trip. Unfortunately the viz wasn’t as good as last time but still managed a 100 minute dive.