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UKRS#03 Portland : 23rd and 24th October 1999 |
Just a little "tail end of season" dip for a few of
us, specifically for some newer divers to get some experience. Well, an
"experience" it certainly was -
(Pictures courtesy of Nigel Hewitt).
(From Jason P : Organiser)
I think I'd better get my account in first.
I arranged some RIB diving in and around Portland harbour for this weekend. We were planning to do the shallower sites around the harbour mainly because they're not so weather dependant. As this turns out, this was a good idea. Keith Lawrence started his attempt at winning the "Alasdair Allen kit award" by switching on his regs before the first dive, only to find one had blown its first stage. Out of the kindness of my heart I lent him mine and we set off.
The first dive was the Spaniard. One of my friends had dropped out at the last minute because of a cold, so unfortunately we had an odd number of people. I dived in a three with Keith L and Nick Eden. The wreck was very silty but we somehow managed to keep together and it was fairly uneventful. We didn't see a lot but there were a few fish about.
On the shore Keith L noticed that he had holes appearing in his neck seal, so he patched them up with some tape. For the second dive we were doing the Hood. The tide wasn't great and the current was into the harbour, so the plan was to come up on a DSMB. As Nigel and Adrian Hewitt didn't have one, I went in with them as a three. The viz was terrible. Probably less than one metre, and you had to haul yourself along the line because of the current at the beginning. I could see one person was following me but, because of the viz, I could see Nigel. As it turns out he had a reg problem and hadn't come off the shotline. After a couple of minutes, when the current wasn't so bad, I stopped and realised there were only 2 of us. So I decided to end the dive.
 "Suits you sir!" or "is that colour deliberate or have you been sick" Keith L in 'that' suit with assistance from Jason P. |
I swam away from the wreck to give us some room to put the delayed SMB up. I've just got a new reel and took various advice and bought one of those big McMahon ones. But I really can't get along with and find it a problem putting a bouy up with it with only one hand. This time I got the mouthpiece of my reg caught and got pulled up about a metre before I freed it. That drama over, we started to ascend. As we got towards the top of the wreck the current really picked up. I was only about 0.5 metre shallower than Adrian, but it was enough to shoot me over the top of the wreck and separate us. Fortunately we both surfaced and he was only a couple of metres away. In any better viz, we wouldn't have lost each other at all. Nigel was back on the boat having been retrieved by Keith. It appeared he'd had a regulator failure. Back on dry land, Keith completed his attempt at the AA award by tearing his neck seal. So off he went to hire one from Parrys.
That night we had a few drinks and dinner in a pub. Keith and Helen Coggins rather let the side down by drinking French wine. I haven't mentioned Cliff and Helen until this point, because they really had a totally uneventful weekend. They'll probably never come out with us again.
The next day, the weather was awful. It was windy and it was raining hard. But we decided we'd try to do the Countess of Erme. When we got there it wasn't too bad so we started to get in. My DSMB and reel fell apart getting them out of the kit bag. So I decided not to take it as we were only diving in the harbour. This turned out to be a big mistake. I was diving with Adrian. Nigel had stayed behind to try and get his reg fixed. The actual dive went quite well. The viz wasn't too bad though it was silty, so was easily stirred up. The only problem was that I couldn't find the shot. We almost found it, but I got disorientated in a silty patch and ended up going the wrong way. We were getting a bit low on gas, so I decided to make a free ascent from about midships. We were only at 7m and I didn't think boat traffic was going to be a problem. Hardly anyone else was out and we were close to the wall.
On the surface we came up not far from the boat. The sea had got rougher and you had to keep your reg in your mouth because of the waves crashing into the breakwater. I kept think that they'd see us in a minute because we really were quite close. But they didn't. The current was starting to pull us towards one of the harbour entrances. Adrian was having difficulty swimming against it, so I decided to sit tight. When I realised we were going to have a problem, I did try and tow him, but by then it was too late. The current was too strong to tow against, though I could make headway against it on my own. There really wasn't much we could do other than stick together and wait for someone to see us. We went right out of the harbour and fortunately there was a fishing boat coming in. With a lot of shouting and waving we attracted their attention and they radioed our boat. After what seemed like ages they picked us up. So no ride in the helicopter this time.
So I learned something today. You should have a DSMB on every dive even if it's a easy one in a harbour. Everyone should have at least one on every dive. For future UKRS dives, I think we'll make it a rule. I think I'll go back to my old Oceanic reel. Everyone slags them off, but I've never had a problem with it.
Jason
(From Nigel H)
The wrath of the gods...
Jason fixed up a good operator, good digs, good food but forgot the deal with the weather.
The first dive at Portland was quite good and the vis went up to 2 meters at times and most of us found the wreck. The second, on the Hood, was in a strong current and Nigel (me) had a stage 2 give up on him and after troubles with his octo bailed out with Keith (ta). The others discovered that in that current a DSMB line was horizontal. You could see the sea bulge as it passed over the wreck.
 "Where is everybody?" (A : They've got more sense!) Adrian with the water OUTSIDE the dry suit. |
Next morning we
discovered we were the only boat going out but we went all the same. It was rough but
acceptable when they went in but worstened while they were down. Jason and Adrian,
assisted by the current, set off for France through the harbour mouth but they hailed a
passing fishing boat to radio back to the rib for a lift home. We canned dive four
unanimously. Adrian has not yet mastered dry suit theory. Hint: the water goes on the outside. All in all a memorable weekend. More details when I send the pictures to Jason and he tells what really happened. PS: we still have the neck strap. (don't ask) Whose was it? Please email me a postal address and I will snail mail it back.
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Nigel H
(From Keith L)
Well, seven UKRS'ers had turned up at Portland for a weekends diving, the sun was shining, the sea was calm, tides were on neaps and slack was perfectly timed for civilised start times. But then I woke up in the B&B with the rain still lashing down and remembered I had a car full of soggy dive kit, a just serviced regulator that had never been dived and a useless dry suit with a torn neck seal, but more about the kit later.
 We needed dry suits in the car park! Keith L kitting up with Cliff C about to do an in-water tow. |
Saturday had been fairly (??) uneventful but the conditions were pretty dire, the Spaniard mainly being identifiable as a ship wreck only when you banged into it, vis was an appalling 0 - 1.5m) and despite several minor separations (more "I can't see you" than separated, but then again there were times when I couldn't even see me) we managed to keep together.
The Hood (not) was a bit more interesting, I never reached it. Best was Helen's comment, something along the lines of "I'd never managed a good backwards roll underwater until that current took us over the wreck". Due to the conditions Jason had elected to go for a redundant system approach and taken two buddies in case one of them failed, in the event he was able to bail out quite safely on the remaining one.
Having seen my earlier regulator failure Nigel was determined to challenge for the AA Equipment Trophy [see UKRS#02] and drew level with me at the bottom of the Hood shot line with a second stage delivering a delicious mixture of 50/50 air/water. We got to the surface and Nigel switched to my reg, or rather Jason's on my set, which as it didn't have my usual 2m hose meant I was unable to retrieve his octopus, so we just cuddled up and drifted off, with Nick as chaperone, to be picked up. I regained my lead in the AA equipment contest by tearing my dry suit neck seal when we reached shore.
And then there was the Countess on Sunday. When we reached the site conditions were certainly acceptable, it is a sheltered site and we elected to dive. Me and Nick actually had a very enjoyable dive (I'd never dived it before!), all the way along the starboard side to the bow, up onto the deck and then in and out of the holds, another quick circuit of the stern after we regained the shot, then back up the shot to the boat.
 The calm before the storm - setting off for the Countess. |
Conditions had deteriorated severely during our 40 minute dive, when we got back to the surface it was certainly NOT divable and getting back into the RIB was "interesting" (Tony - I loathe RIB's even more after today). The wind was well up, probably a 5, the chop/swell was vicious and the spray made surface visibility poor. Despite us all looking nobody saw Jason and Adrian, after a suitable wait we were within minutes of reporting them missing when the radio call came in announcing Jason's challenge for the Mike F Trophy [see UKRS#01] with them harassing a passing fishing boat just outside of the harbour.
But joking aside, it was a serious moment, I learnt something as well. All year I've been carrying my dive flag bungied to my tanks, I've never needed it. I hadn't carried it all weekend, we were diving in the harbour and it was nice and sheltered and safe wasn't it. That could so easily have been me, apart from my DSMB I had no viable surface detection aid with me on that dive, I won't make that mistake again. [BTW - Nigel : The collar you borrowed for Adrian (yes, I can see why you need a collar and lead) was mine.]
Equipment : It was just one of those things, I don't know what more I could have done to prevent the failures. The regulator that failed had a small piece of metal swarf, probably from a hose thread, jammed into the HP seat, inter-stage pressure = cylinder pressure. I had re-rigged the regulators the previous weekend after Grenada, the whole set was then taken to the pool for bubble testing and try-out last Sunday, it worked fine. It failed when I pressurised it Saturday morning. My dry suit was last used early September. It had been cleaned inside and out, dried, the seals inspected and powdered and stored in it's bag.When I took it out Saturday the front of the neck seal had deteriorated to the point where it was tacky and small holes had appeared, it then split from top to bottom.
On a good note, some praise for excellent service from two dive shops.Portland Oceaneering took my faulty TX50 at around 10:45 Saturday and returned it to me fully serviced and fully working that afternoon! I know they will also visual/clean cylinders "while you wait" if they can and the prices for service like that are very reasonable. I walked into Parry's at about 17:00 on Saturday with a useless dry suit and bumped into Ismet (previously of this parish) and Nina of Weymouth Scuba Centre, I believe they will be taking over the running of Parry's within the next few weeks. They immediately hired me a very good quality Aquion Pro dry suit from their stock for me to use on Sunday. So, if you need gear hire in Portland - Parry's are worth a try.
Keith L
